zride91

Has anyone dealt with adjusting their door alignment on their car?

I had referred to the GM service manual, and it indicates that door alignment is not possible, only striker bolt alignment and window alignment. The striker alignment in the book indicates the door should be properly aligned before adjusting the striker though...

My doors are off quite a bit, driver side hangs low (where it rubs the rocker ground effects) and it sticks out from the body line on the lower part of the door, but is pretty close to being flush at the top of the door. Passenger side is the same but by not nearly as much.

I had replaced the lower body side hinge and the upper pin kits (they were all pretty worn and sloppy), but it did not help any.

Is this fixable (even if by a collision shop), or am I stuck?

Thanks.

Joe Tag

iTrader: (4)

I'd be looking at hinge pins and bushings before even attempting adjustment. Sounds like wore bushings to me.

edit; Scratch that, just saw you replaced them. Adjustment is possible, but there isn't much of it on the top hinge. I had to make the one hole that isn't oversize bigger to get my adjustment right, but my doors came off another car. This is much easier with the fenders off.

zride91

Thanks Joe, so just to make sure I understand, all the adjustment would be on the body side by enlarging the bolt holes on the upper and lower hinge straps if needed, right? I'm not sure if that'll help me though, as the bottom of my doors need to be brought in more some how, not just up and down.

Do people put spacers in between the door hinges and the body maybe?? It would seem if I could put a spacer/shim behind the upper hinge (on body side), that would help, then I could bring the striker in some.

Joe Tag

iTrader: (4)

I had to make a shim for one of my doors for the same reason. There is a method of bending the hinge, but I wanted no part of doing that. And yes, out on the top would bring the bottom in.
All of the holes on the hinges ( and body side on the ones that come through from the inside) are oversize but the one in the middle hole on top. I had to slightly enlarge it to get the gap at the rear to jamb right. Gap should be 3/16 to 1/4". Any tighter and you run the risk of contact between door and fender. Ask me how I know

rusty vango

one of the BIGGEST pains in the a$$ as far as getting the body right on our cars.good luck and post up how you overcame GMs short sightedness.

zride91

Thank you very much Joe!

3rdGenHitman

ok here is what u do. buy the new pins and bushings, because yes thats technically the only way to align the doors. if it is still off tho go to a local body shop and ask them for a door alignment puller/adjuster. it kinda doesnt have a name, but its a long bar with a hook on one side and handle on the other with a square striker that slides on the bar. the striker hooks to the door latch and the hook goes on the striker, then u can use leverage to pull up on the door and align it. its an old school tool, but the only one i kno to use. my dad is a 35 year body tech, and im a year out of auto body college, and thats all i have ever used. good luck man.

rusty vango

it sounds as if you are suggesting bending the door/hinges. BENDING them!?

3rdGenHitman

Would u like to kno how many things body men "bend"? Lol. It's actually how u fix it. N u don't bend it severely at all.

rusty vango

oh I have done this, I usually do this as a last resort though. typically its done to a car that is not quite "square". tweaked in some fashion. it just surprizes me that its considered a acceptable practice, even today.

Joe Tag

iTrader: (4)

When you bend a door from the striker area to raise it, the first thing to give will be the weakest metal, the door body itself. Doing that is no better than just putting a jack under the door with a block of wood. These doors are very heavy and will sag back to the same place in no time. The method of bending the hinge I spoke of was putting a block of wood in the hinge and closing the door on it to flex it out. These are just easy ways out of doing the job right.

rusty vango

maybe, still makes me cringe though.

Joe Tag

iTrader: (4)

At no point did I condone doing it. As with everything else it is all about saving time and money.

SolarGoldRaptor

And what if the door is properly aligned up, down, top and bottom, but when closed, it's about 3mm inwards compared to the edge of the door jamb. It makes the door hard to close with the new weatherstripping, and they're rubbing on each other.
There's no side adjustement possible of the door striker like on 2nd gens. The only way I can think of is to remove a bit of metal on the door striker hole...
Has anybody done this ?

The door is from an '89, the bushings are not worn and it's not sagging at all. The original 1984 door was badly rusted and sagging.

Joe Tag

iTrader: (4)

The plastic coating on the latch often wears out and falls off. Also the latch pin wears and will be a smaller diameter where the latch pawl contacts. If that is all intact, I see no harm in doing what you propose.

zride91

Raptor, the GM service manual does indicate this can be done for adjustment. I did this a little to help the door close easier until I could get more time to try the shim in the upper hinge or send it off to the body shop. Note that it doesn't take a lot of enlarging to make a big difference here.

lonsal

iTrader: (2)

I sell a tool to accomplish the alignment of the door. It is used along with a 1/2" breaker bar which everyone should own already. This tool i smuch easier to store than the long version I bought years ago from MAC Tools. I've attached a link to the tool. I agree with a previous post that it is important to repair thei hinges first.

http://www.top-downsolutions.com/too...alignment-tool

Lon Salgren