Thread: Door alignment

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On my 75 firebird both doors don't close tightly enough to engage the seals. The forward door gaps look good, but the back gaps are out about a quarter inch. I moved the striker bolts as far in as they will go.

Should I lengthen the adjustment slot, or is there something else to try?

double check the hinges, the pins and bushings may be worn out. if they are in good shape then you should be able to get the latch to connect. There was one car we did that I was actually going the wrong way! I moved the stud inward when what it really needed was to be brought closer to the outer skin of the door. That way it could make the second "latch" and could move the door onto the seal. Try it.. see if you can hear 2 clicks of the latch. Worth a shot.

I'm not sure how to get them old 2nd gens to seal up. When I was a teenager, if you had a Trans Am or Camaro, especially with t-tops you knew better than to take it into an automatic car wash. If you did you better have a lot of towels. My 77 is no different. I put all new seals in it thinking that it would be better, and it may actually be worse. Now the only way too close the windows fully, is to close the door with a window all the way up. If the door is closed and try to roll the window up there's always a quarter inch gap. Maybe there's a way to fix it, but I don't know how.

This may sound silly but have you tyres closing the doors with the windows down? I recently changed the seals on my 93 GMC and until about a week ago I couldn't close the doors with windows up. It takes awhile to flatten them out

One thing that seems to make a difference on these 2nd gens is the brand of seals. Metros are too thick on the door seals. Precision are too narrow, but Fairchilds seems to be the best. Have you checked to see if there is a stack of shims in between the door hinge and cowl? It sounds like to me you either have some smashed/worn door seals or someone has shimmed the door out trying to get better alignment with the fender/quarter.

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Seals are new.

I'll try windows down, I like doing the easy stuff first.

I never noticed firebirds doing a double click on the door striker, but moving the striker out is also easy, so I'll try that too.

Try closing the latch by hand, easy to do.
With the door open, you can push the latch to the closed position, move it slowly and you can hear it click into each position.
If it doesn't click twice, check the passenger side. It started being required back in the 60's I think, doors needing 2 lock positions. If you do feel or hear the 2 clicks in the latch then try closing the door against the striker and see if it clicks twice that way. If it does click twice and you still have play, then you know the striker needs to move in, if it only clicks once, then the striker needs to move out so that the latch mechanism can set the second latch setting.

That was my experience maybe it will work for you.