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I'm working on my '46 1/2 ton Panel and I got the inside of the doors painted the other day. Well I went to mount them back on the truck and found that the pass. door upper front corner is hitting the drip rail. Is there anyway to adjust the door so I can lower it a little??

Thanks

Yes. If you can get your hands on a manual for a 46 GMC 1/2 ton there is a section in there on adjusting the doors. It involves putting a wood block at one of the hinges and closing the door on it. In effect you are tweeking the hinge to get the door back where it should be.

If you can't find a GMC manual let me know and I can send you xeroxes of the pages I have. Sorry I can't scan them I'm kind of digitially challenged that way.

Good Luck
George

I don't know if this helps but in my case, both of my doors were sagging. I tried the 2X4 method and I didn't have any luck. So I did this method: I removed the doors and pulled the hinge pins. I took the part of the hinge that goes into the piller and put it into the vise for "cave man" adjustment. On the top hinge, I put the flat part into the vise and I hit the round part with a BF hammer in such a way that I bent the round part in the foward direction (put a spare bolt in the round part so you don't flatten it). On the lower hinge I did the same thing but bent the round part in the aft direction. When I put it all back together it actually lifted the bottom rear corner up and tilted the top front corner foward. Which is exactly what I needed. It took a couple of tries on each door, but now they both shut perfectly.....and I mean perfectly.

Do you have any pictures of this procedure? I'm havin a heck of a time visualizing it.

David the question I have is was the door hitting the drip rail before? Or is there some adjustment that you have not done to put the door back to were it was? Hinges don't bend when you paint them

Ok, bare with me, these hinges are a "model A" style folding hinge like on the front door of your house right? If that is the case, there is no adjustment to do as what you need it to do. Thus, you have to bend the hinge as George said.

Now, the ONLY way the door could be pushed forward like this is if the door has been "sprung". That is where the door was opened TOO FAR bending the hinges forward right? Well, to repair it you need to bend the hinge back. You want to determine is it straight forward where the gap at the front is too small all the way up, or is it forward more at the top or at the bottom. If it is even, than bend each hinge a little, if it is more at the top, then bend that hinge alone, or at least first to see where you are.

To bend the hinge you put a something in the hinge as you close the door to "stop" the hinge from folding and allowing the door to close. A 2x4 wooden block is usually the best choice. Be careful not to put it on the sheet metal where it will get bent. Right where the hinge bolts on is usually the best spot.

If you put this block of wood there as you close the door it will get "pinched" and held by the block. You then apply some presure to continue "closing" the door on the block and with enough presure you will bend the hinge and or mounting just in the opposite way it was bent when the door was "sprung".

Do a little bit, then remove the block and check fit, then do a little bit more. If you go to far, just "spring" the door open too far to return back to where you were.

Now, if your door has some sort of "check strap" that limits the door from opening too far. This check strap "may" have been there and the door still opened too far just because it was overpowered and bent or it scretched if it was a belt or cloth strap as some older cars had. If you look at this strap you can sometimes see evidence of damage do to the door being sprung.

If you need to "re-spring" the door because you went too far back you may want to remove the strap so you can do so without adding more damage.

In my case, I had downward sagging doors. The problem is that the door and the jam is sheetmetal. The hinge is 1/4" thick, so if you try adjusting with a 2x4 in the jam the only thing that happens is you put a 2x4 shape dent in the jam or the door. Instead, I took hinge apart put the part of the hinge that goes into the pillar and adjusted it in the vise (with a BFH). The direction of the adjustment is as shown in the picture below. That lifted the bottom rear (of the door) up and tilted the top front (of the door) foward. And no damage to the door or pillar.
[img]http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-9/378428/Truck1.JPG[/img]