The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Help! These Doors are Killing Me

I've got a 57 TF 3100 and I'm having an awful time with the door alignment.

The doors have alway been very very tight and difficult to close. I started on my trek to fix this by aligning the body lines (it got worse). In fact, I had to move the striker out just to get them to close. This had the doors sticking out about a 1/4" and they were still difficult to close and open.

I continued to adjust the doors and found that things relaxed a bit as I moved the bottom of the door out and the door closer to the rear of the truck. The front rubber seemed to be binding at the 'dog leg'. I read a few posts here that talked about some of the rubber being too tick so I bought the recommended rubber and replaced one door. The new rubber was identical to the old. This didn't fix anything so I went back to the adjustments.

Like I said, the only success I was having was when I moved the doors toward the rear. Unfortunately, I ran out of adjustment before the problem was fixed. I decided to put shims behind the hinges on the door jam and that seemed to work until I tightened the bolt at the bottom hinge in the wheel well. That seemed to flex the jam and pulled the door into the fender (of course taking paint off the edge - special!)

Before I screw this up any more, I thought I'd check in with you guys/gals to see what your suggestions might be. Thanks for you help.

Jerry

I feel yer pain Jerry, the single reason I decided to buy red was the doors fit well, first TF I've had that did! if I was closer I'd come by and help

take pictures, someone might see something you're missing ... detail shots from different angles, door open and shut ... from the ones you have on cardomain, it looks to me like the pass door is a pretty tight fit, like opening too small ...

Bill

Jerry:
I also have 57 TF. I rebuilt the passenger door, hinges and all the components on the bottom of the door frame (hinge pocket, tread, floor pan, cab supports, inner pockets and outer sheetmetal. When it came time to locate the door, I encountered all the problems everyone talks about. This is a frustrating job. I took the door off & on about four times. However, I did find that the trick of duct taping bits of flat wood paint stirrers around the periphery of the door frame helped to initially locate the door fairly close (at least a good start point). Also, on my truck I found that the structure where the door hinges bolted to (hinge pockets & frame) were rotten, bent or malformed. It may be worth taking a close look at that. The fact that when you tightened the hinges and some un-intended movement occurred, may be a sign of some deterioration in the door frame. Good luck, this a frustrating job even when everything is sound. You might try searching some posts on this site. I remember I got a lot of good advice from them regarding hanging the doors.

This was an 18,000 mile truck when I bought it and the sheet metal is in great shape. I have wondered if the fenders had been taken off and were now to far back but I don't think so. I really think this truck is pretty unmolested. I'll try to get some detailed pictures posted and I'll check other posts. Thanks.