The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Fender removal

No responses to my post about door installation & alignment. Since that posting I've tried everything I can think of short of...

I think I have to remove that side's fender. That will allow me to move it forward, and to remove the upper hinge to enlarge the holes. Unless I'm missing something the upper hinge's rear bolt/nut requires access from the back side, and that requires fender removal.

Can I get that fender off without removing the inner fender? Because if that's required it means removing the hinge and spring, and that means removing the hood.
Ugh.

Has anyone removed just the fender, with none of the other stuff? Or should I just plan on a major dismantle?

Try just loosening the fender and slide it forward.
Set the doors to the cab opening and cowl.
Set the fenders to the door.
Set the hood to cowl.
Adjust fenders to hood.

This is a repop door and the upper hinge holes don't line up properly. I'm going to have to enlarge the so they extend further back and down. At least that's my conclusion at this point. I set the door in the cab opening and the upper hinge bolts won't line up.

And removing that hinge requires access to the back side of its opening, right?

(Note: the passenger side door, an original, went in just fine using the method you describe)

Don't know about your 59 but the AD 47-54, you can take the hinge out of the pocket with out any problem other than the bolts being tight and kind of heard pulling the hinge out of the door itself.
Maybe someone with a 59 will chime in.

Have you checked the Online Manuals to see how it says to do it?

I've got the factory manual and it's as clear in this case as is typical for that wonderful book.

I started removing that rear hinge bolt expecting a captive nut on the backside, but that's not the setup. Now it turns but won't come out or go back in.

The Cab side Top hinge Top bolt is a Cage.
The Cab side Bottom hinge Back bolt is a Nut and large washer accessed from the fender well.
If it's loose you'd see that symptom.

Got those two. I accessed the bottom bolt by removing the kick panel.
It's the bolt in the back of the hinge cavity that I expected to be captive and isn't.

the top hinge back bolt or the bottom back? I believe the top one is caged and the bottom one has the washer and nut Inside the wheel well. or..... are to speaking of the DOOR hinge cavity not the CAB hinge cavity?

Sorry for the confusion.
The upper hinges on my '59 mount to the cab with three bolts - two on the face and one at the center back of the cavity, reached only with a fairly long extension on the socket wrench. The upper bolt has a captive nut and the lower bolt has a nut that can be accessed with the kick panel removed. That bolt back in the cavity has, I'm assuming, a nut that can only be reached with the fender off. At least I can't see a way to get to it otherwise.

Take off the front tire or turn the wheel so you can stick your head inside the fender well next to the tire and look for it from there. It's about the same elevation as the bottom fender mounting bolt as I recall.

OK, just an update for the next doofus working this problem.
I took off the front fender and started over with the door. With the fender off I could see the upper hinge center bolt, the one way in the back, is supposed to be captive. Someone bent the tabs back away from the nut so it spun freely.

In order to get the fender off I had to free it from that front fascia piece that goes behind the grill. I loosened that fascia piece and will shim it forward ~1/8" so I can move the fender forward that same distance. Hopefully that will create the clearance I need between the fender's rear edge and the door's front edge.

BTW, this aftermarket door does NOT have the correct curve to the area below the window. The top of the door is snug to the cab but the bottom sits out too far. I'll go back to it tomorrow a.m. when temps are back below 100, but I don't think there's any more adjustment in the lower hinge.

Keep working with it. You'd be surprised how much in and out you can get by cocking the hinge a little one way or another.
As I remember around 4AM is about the right time to do anything down in the Valley this time of year, so you can be done by 8 of 9 and in the pool...
Gonna repair that cage while you can get at it?

$am, he would have to put a sweater on to do it then.

Yes, the nut's cage is repaired.
I will mess with that lower hinge more tomorrow morning. I'm going to need a U-joint for my socket to reach the back center bolt on the lower hinge, though.

We're moving to Oregon later this fall. I'm done with these summer temps.