Thread: adjusting doors

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the doors on my '51 chevy are out of adjustment, they are all too far out at the rear, and also the front drivers door closes very hard into the regular latch, it clicks right into the safty latch with little effort but, it dosn't latch compleatly without really slamming it. how do I fix/ adjust the doors?

The front doors are really hard to align with the fenders on and I've always found that it was a 2 people job. If the rear doors are aligned properly you should be able to loosen the striker bolt and move it outward some.

Matt , the hinge adjustments on the cowl move forward and backward , and up and down .
The hinge area on the doors make for tilt in out , up & down .
It can be real tricky adjusting doors for sure , if your doors are out of alignment you will never have square front end sheet metal ( FYI ) .
The latch in the rear jamb area can be moved in and out like was mentioned .
They ( snap-on , craftsman , Mac , ect...) make a special door hinge bolt tool that is like a big S with boxed in on both sides , usually 1/2" and
9/16 's"
This will help in not having to remove the fenders , but if they are off it makes a world of difference in the alignment process
Hope this sheds some light ,
SprayTech

thanks for the help guys. is there anything I can do to fix the hard shutting drivers door?

the 1949 to 52 have the worst hing setup .i know them well you may find over the years thing move a round and now you can not get it where you would like it or it was not to hot from gm to get the door up or down would be on the cowl in or out is on the door like said but there may take an block of wood to spring the door . to get the door to shut you want to get it to fit with out the latch on the chevy it as a ball that rides up the latch to cach the door shut so if not set up they will shut hard. i played with my old chevy ones and found some better stuff not all whip out this help but the old chevy door have there own sound and they do not shut like any thing new or old working in the for over 20 years body shop on any thing like them. the hood is so much fun i have friends that will hide from me when it time to get the hood spring back on

Another thought Matt , open the door and grab the bottom at the back and lift up and down , and if there is some play , the hinge pins are wore out and this leads to slop , and hard to adjust out . May need new hinges or if they make a pin and bushing kit to rebuild them .

Originally Posted by SprayTech

Another thought Matt , open the door and grab the bottom at the back and lift up and down , and if there is some play , the hinge pins are wore out and this leads to slop , and hard to adjust out . May need new hinges or if they make a pin and bushing kit to rebuild them .

that would be the first thing

I'll check the doors for slop, I don't think there is any but there could be, I never checked.

I just checked my doors, there all tight as they were new, no movement in any of them.