The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop door alignment

I'm finishing bodywork on my doors and just put them on to align the hinges. My problem is, the doors don't fit very well. It doesn't have to be perfect, but both doors sag low on the latch side. It drops down about 1/4" on the bottom. Could this be because the cab isn't bolted to the frame, and the cab is actually high in the back (which would fix the door problems once bolted down)?

First open the door all the way and grab the door at the outer bottom edge with you left hand and up at the belt line with your right hand. Then lightly push up and down on the door to see if their is play in the hinge pins.....if their is rebuild the hinges before going on.

If theirs no play then loosen the hinge to door bolts and close the door on the striker. If the door belt line doesn't line up with the cab belt line then open the door and adjust the striker until it does and close the door. When both belt lines line up you can tighten the door to hinge bolts.

The door hinges were rebuilt with new pins (oversized) and there isn't any play in them. The latches aren't currently on the truck, but it should align where the latch is though without sagging.

There wasn't any welding done to the doors, but a lot of bodywork. The bottom of the door where it curves down sticks out about 1/4" or maybe 1/2" and this part of the door wasn't changed I don't think. (bodywork was done in the flat areas of the door)

Loosen the hinge to jam bolts and you can get the door to line up with the back of the cab. Make sure the striker is removed.

But those just adjust up and down, the placement of the door vertically is ok, unless there is a way to move it some way to take the back bottom corner in...hmm its hard, its like it can't be fixed by being adjusted, thats why i thought maybe it'll straighten out when the cab is bolted down.

If I understand you, the bottom of the door on the latch side sticks out more than you like? If so ,bend the door.I did that on my 51.Used wood blocking up high, and slowly bent the high side using hands and arms. a little at a time and take your time.I actually was able to make up a half inch. years later it still looks fine

OK, ready for the flames here!! In my 56 **** truck manual,it has a big section with pix on bending, fitting do0rs in cab. Believe it or not it was also the way we fixed them at the truck plant till the 99's came out. It involves using nylon or wooden pces or even a rubber hammer in the hinges, or at top and bottom or center of door and slamming/pushing the door closed to pinch the wood or hmmer in it and supposedly bend the whole door to fit. Where you place the block or hammer changes where it bends at. Maybe a library near you would have the **** books or body repair books to show this method. I agree that having the cab mounted in final place would be better. Maybe this is a "later" repair when you get that far.

Just went thru the door alignment thingy on my 54. After i replaced the hinge pins the doors still sagged. It took a 3 step process first i put the latches on ,left them loose and played with the adjustments didnt help. step2 loosened door mounts and played with the up and down movement didnt help 3rd and this worked, left the door hinges loose, door latch and striker loose, then loosened the for adjustment bars top and bottom all 3 bolts on each. if you use patience and not a big hammer they will realign by adjusting here and there. it took me a day for each door now they fit so well i hate to put the weather striping on cause i think it going to mess up my alignment, lol hope this helps you some also

Alan's right about the weatherstrip. I re-hung my doors and got the alignment dead on. Stuck the weatherstrip on (BTW the hinge side looks like lots of room for installing w-strip until you get adhesive on it) and the bottom of the door stuck out a full inch. Put my C-clamp visegrips between the drain hole in the door and the rocker and clamped the door shut when I wasn't working on it. After 2 weeks the gasket took a set and the one inch dropped to a 1/4", which is a lot easier to tweak.

Don't even think of fitting the doors with the cab off the frame! I made that mistake once, never again! The cab should be mounted with the new bushings and all, then fit the doors. Remove them, paint and then you KNOW they will go right on.

Ok, I aligned the cab side of the hinge and am going to paint the door jambs tomorrow. It's in the correct spot, so I'll be able to adjust the door side for the sagging problem once it is mounted to the frame. thanks for all your help.