The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Door adjustment on AD.. at wits end

I have a door adjustment problem on my 53 3100 that I cannot seem to fix. The top of the drivers side door and the leading edge of the door at the cowl fit fine, but the door sticks out about 3/8" from the cab about where the door handle is and sticks a full 1/2" at the bottom of the door. This is with the latch plate removed.
The hinges have been rebuilt and are in good shape. The weatherstrip has been installed and fits correctly. I've followed all of the door adjustment instructions in the manual, but to no avail. I searched the archives and saw a couple of things that may be worth trying, but I'm not sure exactly how to accomplish either of these "adjustments". One suggestion is the 2x4 in the door jamb method. If anyone has done this could you explain to me exactly where the 2x4 should be placed in order to try to get the bottom of the door pulled in toward the cab?
Another suggestion was to remove the hinges and do the adustment to the hinges themselves, but no one has said exactly how to acomplish this bending. Apply heat, or just use a BFH??.
I would really apprecitate any help on this problem, my drivers side door fit is just horrible.

Thanks,
Wayne C.
1953 5 window 3100.

[img]http://members.cox.net/wcraig5/53door.jpg[/img]

Here is something to try. Remove the striker again and loosen the door hinge to pillar bolts and then close the door. I have a feeling the hinges are inward too far. See if that will work for you.

Hey, Wayne

What kind of rubber did you install? I had to do my door rubber 3 times before I got it right ... it was Chevy Duty that (finally) sold me the right rubber.
See This

It looks to me like your door is sitting out to far, even at the top-side! Mine sits in deeper than that.

I can imagine your frustration ... I hope youi solve this.

PS - If you bought your rubber from LMC truck, start over and get the rubber that Chevy Duty sells -- it's only $15 for the whole kit!

My 52 is the same way....the door is all lined-up and shuts flush w/o the seals. I've tryed every adjustment except bending the hinges... I installed door rubber from "The Truck Shop" (2nd set) and have to slam the doors...and they still stick out like yours in the photo. I even took the striker plates off and ground the mounting holes so they would fit closer in....
I'm gonna try what Alan has done...hopefully Chevy Duty still stocks the same seals.

Alan,
I originally got the LMC rubber :mad: , but didn't install it because it just looked wrong. I ordered the rubber from Chevy Duty and installed it, so I'm pretty sure that the weatherstrip is not the problem.

Russntussn -- Chevy Duty's rubber is still the same ... they tried different companies over the years and finally settled on this one, which has proven to be the best. I just bought and installed mine two months ago.

Wayne -- If you can return that rubber to LMC you should. If you got Chevy Duty's rubber, then THAT'S not the problem, for sure. I can't imagine what's happening ... wish I could actually SEE what's going on.

Update. It does appear that a large part of the problem is the bottom of the door is sitting too far in. I removed the door and tried grinding the holes in the cowl side spring bolt holes so that I could bring the door out some. This helped a little and I improved the situation at the bottom of the door by about 1/4", but that is still leaving about a 1/4" sticking out, and I still have to slam the door real hard.

My experience was that grinding wasn't the solution. And I prefer the Steele Rubber weatherstrip. Buy the whole kit - it's cheaper than the weatherstrip alone. Bending the hinge (and opposite of what intuition dictates) is the answer. You have to remove the hinge to bring it in. Bend your hinge(s) to bring the leading edge in and the whole door moves in. If you over-correct, then the block of wood can be used to sneak it out. My doors were lining up fine with the stock latch. I finally fixed all my closing issues by going to Bear Claws. On a do over, I'd look for a latch that uses the loop like newer cars, rather than the post of the standard Bear Claw. I've torn the seat out of two pairs of britches on that post. Perils of a big butt? http://www.chuckthetruck.homestead.com/page20.html

It is a bear, I filed sloted holes in hinge to jam part of hinge, opened sloted hinge to door holes, twisted door, 2x4 at bottom with a floor jack, etc. This is all done with out seal installed, I did before painting. Still had a lot of fitting after paint & remount. I finally replaced Chevy duty with Steeles rubber kit and had them sub 70-0219-73 for standard door weatherstrip in kit works great. Zeke

Zeke - Is this the Steele door rubber that you used?? If so, this blows my mind, as everything that I've seen, says not.

[img]http://members.cox.net/wcraig5/53weatherstrip2.gif[/img]

ChucktheTruck - Exactly how did you manage to bend the hinges? I've tried, but without much luck. Also would you say that this pic shows the direction that I should bend the hinge to fix my particular misfit??

[img]http://members.cox.net/wcraig5/53hinge1.jpg[/img]

Thanks,
Wayne C.

Wayne, Right joint to bend, but I think you want to go the other direction. I bent it the way you indicate first and it made the fit worse. I suppose I should have said "Bring whole door in (out)". I know it seems wrong, but that's what I discovered through trial and error as a rank amateur. I've still not found any professional advice specific to this task.

The hinges have to come out of the vehicle. Since I had rebuilt the hinges and just used e-rings on the pin, I was able to completely disassemble them, easing the bending job. I used a bench vise and a long piece of c-channel bolted to the door attach points at first, then skipped the c-channel and just used a sledgehammer to bend it.
If you overbend it, then you use the block of wood in the hinge while everything is assembled to tweak it back out.
If it's painted, make sure to tape all the edges of door and jam and be very careful when checking fit/interference.
That wstrip profile looks like it would bunch up on the hinge post and make fit problems worse.

[img]http://www.alanhorvath.com/54chevy/chevypics/door_rubber_comp.jpg[/img]

Wayne...let us know how this goes. I got my door seals from Chevy Duty. They ARE a bit softer and compress better than the ones I have on there now from "The Truck Shop", so we'll see.

Yep ! That's the one I used, doors close perfect and sound good when closing. Could not get doors to close with chevy duty rubber with out heavy slaming. Zeke