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Door Adjustment


Joe Flanagan

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I need to adjust my drivers door outward so that its contour matches that of the car. It is centered in the opening just fine, but the leading edge of the door is recessed farther in than the rear edge of the fender. As it is, I can't open the door without it hitting the fender. I understand from the manual that in a case like this, you loosen the hinge screws and move the door outward. They say that there is minimal room for adjustment at these screws but an adjustment can be made. Going to try it probably this weekend. Has anyone ever done this? I will be boogering up the paint on my hinges when I do this, but I'm already resigned to a repaint anyway.

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Joe..there are two schools of thought on this adjustment by way of enlongating the hinge holes themselves or enlongating the door pillar slots which require removal of the door hinge itself..little too involved..in the past and guess if I ran across this tomorrow I would as I have in the past by making the adjustments at the door itself by inserting shims... lots less trouble..one man job and less chance of paint damage in the process..the shims are made of aluminum and the holes are slotted so that they slide in with only loosening of the hinge bolts...as you will work with one hinge loose at any given time..makes it a one man job...this works if your hinge is when close is an L shape with the flat against the inner door panel..if the hinge is staight line when closed..adjustment will be best served by enlongation of the door hing slots..bare in mind that the capture box for the nut plate may interfere here also..often you can remove the nutplate and trim a bit off the edges to allow a bit more float room..

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Don, I was wondering where that was going until the end, then I just started cracking up. Somehow I can't imagine all those people in my yard. I can think of a few who would serve as excellent fulcrum points, though.

Harold, thanks for that link. I actually saw that the other day and noticed the 49 on the cover. Those Imperial pamphlets are the greatest.

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Today I messed with this again and still haven't gotten it but I realized I was going to have to follow Tim's suggestion and widen the slots on the hinge side of the door. Removed the door, set it on its edge, got out the jigsaw and took a sixteenth out of each slot. Turns out I need about another sixteenth and some shims that will hold the door out and this should work. I hope.

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this is an added bit of work..but if my memory serves me correct you did an extensive amount of A and B post repair and entire inner outer rocker assembly on this car...and I think you also did this with the doors off the car..it is good that you got it back this close after all that..

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Tim, the really weird thing is that before I painted, I assembled all the body parts to check for fit and they were perfect. I didn't have this problem then, so something changed when I reassembled after paint.

I welded steel braces in the door openings and supported the roof before I did any cutting on the rockers. Seems to have worked.

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Joe have you tried to shim the fenser to the door?? Easier to do sometimes than bulling the heavy door around, Or rather than undoing what you have done, try to make up the rest inthe fender adjustment.

Center the door in the opening, adjust it to meet the upper opening and the B pillar then try to messafe the fender.

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that is strange..question.at the top rear of the fender, cowl bolt..have you checked the fit here..if you are compressing this too much without proper spacers..it will bow the fender out..

Tim,

You might have something there. I was looking at the manual last night and I saw that the upper rear corner of the fender should be flush with the cowl. Mine are not. They're pulled all the way in. Also, I am using no spacers at the top fender-to-cowl bolt. I don't remember if there were any there to begin with. Seems I did it the same way before paint and everything worked out, but I'll look into this and see if it makes a difference.

I'll take pics and post them this afternoon. Supposed to get some snow here tomorrow with a high in the 30s, so I better get at it.

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Greg,

The door needs to come out or the fender needs to go in for the two to be flush. The fender is currently bottomed out and in as far as it's going to go. Only way is for the door to come out further. I'm centering the door in the opening first. That part's perfect.

Edited by Joe Flanagan
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Spent part of the day messing with the door. Here's a picture of the uneven door/fender surfaces. Door needs to come out 1/8".

DoorCorrection044.jpg

First thing I did was to cut some material out of the hinge slots in the door to give it some room to move outward:

DoorCorrection047.jpg

Then I fabricated six shims out of 1/8" stock. Thanks to Tim Adams and Old Guy 48 for this idea.

DoorCorrection048.jpg

Put the door in and slipped the shims between the hinge straps and the door to bump it out:

DoorCorrection049.jpg

It worked perfectly:

DoorCorrection050.jpg

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This is great Joe, very nicely done. This technique will come in very handy for when I get to this point. I am less afraid now than when I started my project, about making things work. There are so many little nuances and gaps where things seem to change as we work on these cars.....its like they're alive.

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That's the truth. I don't know what was going on with this particular door, but I'd probably had it on and off again at least half a dozen times in the past and never had this problem.

Your own job is such a major reclamation project it can only teach you a lot and give you confidence. Drive you crazy, too, but for some of us it's a shorter trip than for others. This is another case of the forum saving my hide. I don't know that I would have thought of this fix if it hadn't been for the fellas.

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  • 9 years later...

Was looking at adjusting the front edge of my 41 coupe door out to meet the body contour. I figured the hinge had to have some adjustment in it but I couldn't budge the screws so far and figured I would confirm the pocket hinge is supposed to adjust before I break something. Sure enough PatS  posted a pretty good link to a guide on door adjustments and the late Don Coatney also provided a great link on door adjustment as well that made me laugh.  Reposting both below

On 3/27/2011 at 4:06 PM, PatS.... said:

Not sure if you have seen this or not:

http://www.imperialclub.com/Repair/Lit/Master/025/cover.htm

35 page booklet from Mopar called "Body Fitting Facts"

 

On 3/24/2011 at 4:56 PM, Don Coatney said:

Joe;

Billy Austin just sent me this short film clip on door adjustment. It's a great example of the body wedge fulcrum method. The language the mechanics use is a bit raunchy but there technique is effective.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3p58wHX4e0g

 

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