Thread: Door problems

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Mornin' I need some help again, or always! How should I line up the doors on my car. I have attached a couple of pictures showing what I am up against. The lower hinge cannot be removed from the door. Tried to get one out of an old door. Welded in. The pins seem to be tight. One picture shows how the belt line (???) does not line up. What should I do?

Thanks for your help.

Door gaps on old project cars are one of the most miserable things to deal with, and get "perfect". I have at times, when the gap was too large, welded a coat hanger wire to the door edge to fill the gap. I have taken my angle grinder with a 36 grit disc and ground away door edges---and if you grind thru the doorskin 'wrap around' then get out the mig and weld it back up. I have actually put a "port-a-power" into the door frames and "spread" them a bit to make a bit of gap when there wasn't one!!! Sometimes you can jam a peice of wooden plank into the door gap on the hinge side and force the door enough to bend the hinge a bit, but God help you if you bend it too much or the wrong way!!! One thing for certain, if you don't address it before the shiny paint goes on, then its not going to be addressed at all.--Brian

its hard to tell from the pictures, is the door gap the same all the way from the roof to the rocker panel. i can see its different along the roof line, but cant see the vertical gap, my hinge is attached exactly like yours and i had to cut the hinge to body bolts to remove the doors,

From what I can tell I'd do like Brian said. Take a pc.of wood 1x2 and sey it in the bottom hinge. then attempt to close the door. That should open the gap at the bottom and close it at the top. GO EASY its harder to go back.

Your going to have to get the hinge bolts loose one way or another.We have also used filler rod to get the gaps looking good. But that alignment is off way to much to try and push it around.
Tim

While it may seem like a hassel or that you are doing alot of work to move the door where it needs to be...........This IS the time to do it {like Brian said}and that the gap may have never been correct to start with........

Door looks dropped from the top hinge. Or is it low all the way across the top the same. You may have to drill them and get them off to tweak em with some heat. Make some adjustment at attaching point on pillar to raise .

The door i just got has this issue and im using the same hinge's from old door it was fine. I guess with the Model A they did it at assembly. I will take bottom hinge and bend it a bit to push bottom back and close gap and raise belt line up.

Brian right all for some hydraulic tweaking also .

The old 2x4in the lower hinge works great,but sometimes crushes in the hinge area on the door side. Your's appears to be rusty,so watch out,it may cave in on you Hank

How about body shims, to raise the door/firewall straight up?

Pat

Guess I don't know where the body shims would go. The firewall is welded to the body and the lower door hinge is welder, bolted, stuck, jammed, greatly attached to the body.
I did take some advice and used a 2x4. Put it on a slant from the car floor to the shop floor. Rared back and slammed the door into it quite a number of times. Broke the 2x4. Raised it about half way. Man this is getting to me.
Between this and trying to figure out how to get the trunk lid to fit the opening is, well let's just say i'm almost bald..
I don't know how you guys do it...

Thanks fro the help.

But the 2x4 in the bottom hinge and close door slowly (not all the way ) each time you do this it should push the door up on the left top. Somthing must have been wrong long ago for them to have welded in the hinge. I guess the right way would be to burn it out and fix it right but it dosen't sound as though you have the equiptment for this. Which realy makes your hair come out

Just a thought have you thought of taking it to a shop and seeing what they would charge???

Just went thru the same problem with my '48 cdan and looking at the pics
looks like you have the same car. The bottom hinge is not welded to the
body, or mine wasn't. The top hinge is. I had to put shims between the
hinge and body on the bottom to make it line up.. Hope this helps. If I
can help let me know, just got mine on the road.

you can try to cross push this with a port- power you would push on the A post and the bottom of the back of the bottom of the door sill this will move the door belt line up but will move the door line so you may have to cut them to get a good air gap or fill up by adding welding filler rod not any filler bondo or glass it may chip off . some of this stuff just was only so good new.i did some 30A pickup doors that i had over 20+hours a door
not see if you can go strait up but if you could that may work making them better you get were you need and make sure you have good pin s in the door hinges with no slop you could go up on the cowl or drop the back of the car by working on the bushings by cutting them . the 2 by 4 is trying to do the same thing move the cowl if you use the 2by4 at the back of the door and sill or use the 2by4 and a floor jack at the back of the door by lifting with the jack as like cross pushing but your are moving the A post to with the port-power .like i said but you have more power with the port-power . you do not spring the hinge .to spring the hing can be done with a old rubber sand bock or small pine block and set in the hinge and slowy pushing on the dooor this will pull the door gap back and open it at the front of the door to the cowl if you do both. if you just do top top hinge it will drop the door down and bottom hing up .it may need more than one thing it may need a bit of every thing welding sprining the hings and i have move the hinges with heat pulling the door to the cowl. or take the hinges of the door and set the door up with a block of wood and hammer hit were the hing bolt to the door moving it back when you do this you want to set the edge on wood or some thing not to hurt the door when hitting the hinge mount with a hammer and when you get the belt line and then rework the are gaps . before you start working on the door take the door lach off so it will not pull down on the door so you can see were you need to go

Is the gap the same from hinge to hinge?(not along window) Is the latch side gap the same at top and bottom? It looks like it to me. Is the only gap mis-match along the top and bottom of the door, and rear of belt line? It looks that way to me. Or is it just me? If it is that way, then it's Not a hinge problem.

Pat