Door adjustment

[waterlife]

My passenger door (72 conv.) stick out a bit. The lower corner by quarter is about 1/4" out. Top line up nice and door open and closes fine, just annoying to look at

 

[kcmash]

My passenger door (72 conv.) stick out a bit. The lower corner by quarter is about 1/4" out. Top line up nice and door open and closes fine, just annoying to look at

Part of the adjustment is to "twist" the door.  If the front end is aligned properly with the front fender, then a twisting adjustment to the door may help you.  The bodyman that did my car showed me how that works.

Good Luck!

kcmash

 

[Bentworker]

Someone who actually knows what they are talking about regarding panel alignment should reply.

I don't know squat about panel alignment, but my guess is if the door is aligned correctly with the rear quarter panel I wouldn't touch the hinges.  If it isn't aligned correctly with the quarter panel I would loosen the door side hinge fasteners and mess with it until till it lines up.  Then the fit with the front fender will probably be crummy and hopefully you can move the wheel well end of the fender in to match the door, and or move the door in or out.  

On a serious note I would cover all edges with several layers of masking tape to reduce the risk of chipping your paint.  

Hopefully my suggestions are bad enough that someone who actually knows what they are doing with panel alignment will step in.

Peter

 

[donkost]

I am not suggesting to do this now by any means, but when these cars were manufactured they used a special sort of pry bar to bend various body-related items into alignment. GM did the same thing, they probably all did. They had X number of minutes per car to get the panels more or less into alignment. Anyone who saw these cars new or a couple of years old knows that this process was hit or miss. Maybe there were worse decades, but the 70's were not a great time for overall build quality. Orange-peel paint, rattling and leaking interiors, you name it. Heck my dad had a new '93 Bonneville where the dealer body shop adjusted one of the doors that way right in front of him.

 

[Mister 4x4]

The good thing is that if you use the door hinges to align the rear of the door to match up to the quarter panel (probably loosen the bottom up slightly and carefully adjust), then you can adjust the bottom of the fender slightly to match the front of the door without messing with the hood gap (since it will likely cause the fender/door alignment to change). 

Also, if by adjusting the 'tilt' of the door causes the door to stick out or pull inward (at the door/quarter panel junction), you can adjust the striker inward/outward slightly to compensate.

It'll take a lot of trial-and-error to get it right.  Don't take too big of swings at it and you should be fine, but you most likely won't get it perfect the first try.

Before you start, make some alignment marks with a dry-erase marker or grease pencil on the hinges and their mounting surface so you can put it back to where it is now if you can't get it right (then remove the markings once you're done).

I'm no expert at this, but that's what worked for me.

 

[waterlife]

the fender side lines up good as does the top corner by the quarter, its only the bottom corner by the quarter tha sticks out a bit

 

[Don C]

I'm guessing that someone closed the door hard when there was something blocking it on the sill. Due to the length of these doors it doesn't take much to tweak them. A 2x4 block and a couple of times swinging doors closed was a favorite body shop alignment technique back in the day.

 

[piper62j]

In my shop, the door was always aligned to the quarter panel first.. It is the one stationary part of the body that cannot be adjusted.. Moving forward, the next adjustment we made was to the "A" pillar to insure the window glass would mate with the pillar and roof rail weatherstrip.. Lastly, (after all that) the front door edge alignment to the rear of the fender was done. Keep in mind that the fender has many adjustment points that the door does not.

I've seen door tweaking performed at the GM plant in Framingham Massachusetts back in the 80's. As the car came to the body alignment portion of the finished product, a lineman actually used a rubber mallot to move the door outward at the bottom hinge.. ( couldn't believe my eyes).. Those GM doors had the infamous welded on hinges and there was no other way to tweak the door after assembly..

 

[Jeff73Mach1]

Agree with above, always start at the rear quarter panel and get that as close to perfect as possible and then work your way forward. When I cleaned up the adjustment on mine I was lucky and it mostly came out well, but my hood bow is a bit too extreme and no amount of shimming of the fenders will quite compensate for it. Looks like I need that GM panel adjuster LOL

 

[Carolina_Mountain_Mustangs]

I have spent weeks in Ford assembly plants. The only place that has to be set with the hinge is the gap at the bottom of the door, getting straight line gap at the door surface even to rocker and gap to quarter panel and setting the front top to a position that gives you room to move the fender some. You have to watch the gap between hood and fender also. Once you get the lower edge to rocker gap and door to quarter gap set you twist the door to come flush to the quarter. They use rubber hammers, pry bars and bars between the door latch and post on the door jam. They do put blocks in to twist the door as stated before. Trunk is the same way you have to bend the hinges to align properly. Hoods have to be bent to change the arch. Shims under the fender can only do so much.

The guys on the line had less than 2 minutes to adjust a door so not perfect.

If you want a nightmare to align try a 70's Nova with the welded hinges. You have to add to the door edge as much as 1/4 in to clean up the gaps. These cars were cheap and not meant to last. Now they depend on vanity to sell new cars got to stay ahead of the Jones's.

I have video of the 1950 and they actually had air benders that bent the trunk to match the quarter.

Some of the gussets you see in the side of the hood are places to allow the hood to bend easier.

When we do rebuilds we do not have the fixtures to do the rough alignment. Always if you are doing a rebuild always drill a 1/8" hole through the hinge and the A post and door. Replace the hinge bushings. pins and align with a pin in the drilled hole when you mount the door so it will be close.

Never think you can align a door by the latch and hinge.