The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Doors 1950 passenger door gap

I have tried bending top hinge, enlarging hinge slot holes but I can not get the gap closed to 1/8 inch gap especially where front of food meets cowl panel at bottom of window. Everything is held in with metal screws until I sort out. Any suggestions

Rick

The spec for the front edge of the door is 1/8 to 3/16 inches. Yours doesn't look that bad. As long as the front and rear gaps are about the same, I'd probably call it good.

What is the shape of your hinges?
You might want to rebuild them if they are worn/loose.
That could help with the gap and will assuredly help later on when adjusting your door latch to achieve a positive catch.
Search this site for hinge rebuilding. A lot of expert advice.

The belt line on the back of the door looks like it could go up a bit which would help in front, and it looks like the gap on the back of the door is much tighter than the gap at the front. Can you slide the door forward and raise the back a bit?

I'd have to agree with Phil after a second look at your pictures (had to squint a bit though ) on the worn hinges. Usually the passenger door doesn't get as much wear, but after 70+ years, who knows. I'm in the process of rebuilding mine including brass bushings and oversize pins.

Thanks to everyone for their feedback. I do have the rebuild kit for the hinges so I will try that. Although I dont notice much play in them. The belt line will come up if a hold it up slightly and I was assuming when I put in the door latch that would help. I wish I could move the door forward but I am at the limit on the top hinge with the extra opening of slots I put in. I did not do anything to the lower hinge in the way of extending the slots and maybe that holds the top one from going all the way forward? And like the other comment maybe if I cant get it any better leave as is. It closes perfectly right now but for sure the rear door gap is tight and the front loose.

When it comes to building an A-D cab, one must take the position that one starts with a door and builds the cab to fit it.
I see a lot of spot welds in the outer cowl. Are they all welded up already? It would be really cool if they weren't. It would make it easier to move the cowl forward to give you more room for the door to fit.
Absolutely rebuild the hinges whether they need it or not. They do need it.
After you have rebuilt the hinges, remount the door. Leave the strikers on the work bench. They will only hamper the door alignment process. The latch is not supposed to play any part of aligning the door to the cab. The bottom of the latch is not supposed to contact the striker (only the safety catch contacts the striker upon closing of the door).
Bottom line is, you cannot properly adjust the door to the opening with the striker in place.

Nothing has been welded up what you may be seeing is the propane torch burn marks as I used it to remove the solder joint. So I will start with the hinge rebuilt and go from there . If I move the cowl forward it won’t help because the door won’t move any further forward and not because it is hitting anything

Since you stated the '51 doors fit fine, it sounds like your problem is with the '50 doors and not the existing hinges or the latches. I would recommend trying to fit the '50 door in the door opening without the hinges or latches installed and place wood wedges 1/8" - 3/16" thickness all around the door, including the window opening to see if the '50 door actually fits. You can support the door with a floor jack while you fit it. If the door does not fit properly without the hinges/latches, it most certainly will not fit with them, without major metal working. Good luck!

Did you do any other panel replacement in that area that may have moved the hinge mounts?

A lot of good ideas filtering in!
Some thoughts..
1.0 You might want to do a layout of each door to find the "smoking gun"
Take same measurements such as along the door belt line, door hinge fixing points on each door etc... to establish what is not the same to eliminate the cab as the issue.

2.0 Before I performed door fitment and then welded the cowl panels I placed the cab back onto the frame in the constrained condition at the 4 fixing points.
That is a robust cart you have but is the cab sitting properly flat on the cart?

3.0 That door hinge pillar does sit forward at a slight angle to the bottom door sill. Might want to check that angle with a protractor on the drivers side then compare to the passenger side. Might have moved when original cowl panel was removed.

I will try fitting the door without the hinges and latches. And yes I did replace the rocker panel and the cab mount and inner toe panel and started the floor board.

If you didn't maintain the original dimension when you replaced the rocker panel, you may have indeed gotten the hinge pillar out of place.
The Factory Assembly Manual Section 1, Sheet 1.07 shows points 14 and 31 at the door opening. The dimensions for those points are on Section 1 Sheet 63.02. Point 14 is 13.77 inches to the rear of the front of the dash (firewall) and Point 31 is 49.52 inches to the rear, making the opening 35-3/4 inches. I would check that also.

Thanks Kevin it is entirely possible thats what happen. It is starting to look like I need to take everything apart and measure measure measure

You said everything was still just held in with sheet metal screws. That's a good thing, because cutting out welds would be a lot of work.
Let me know if you need more measurements. If you don't have a FAM, I'd suggest you get one.

I agree with Kevin that you really need the FAM (Factory Assembly Manual). There’s one on eBay for 28 dollars with free shipping, Item number 274614022944 or available from most vendors. It’s titled “1947-1954 Factory Assembly Manual”. You won’t regret it!

I do have the FAM but to be honest was completly lost when looking at sect 1 sheet 63.02 (part number 3707901) Things like o line and the one with a c and a line through it are like greek. But thanks Kevin for narrowing it down for me as to what to measure. So to understand you are taking the 49.52 - 13.77 to come up with the 35.75 inches which actually is pillar to pillar for the door opening top and bottom?

Correct.

The datum ( zero or "0" line) of those measurements is the front of the dashboard horizontally and some other reference (top of frame? - don't have it in front of me right now) vertically, but subtracting one from the other gives you the distance between them. Getting a good reference from the front of the dashboard is a little iffy, especially down lower on the body where the toe panel cuts back from the plane of the dashboard.
BTW, the symbols like 0 with a slash and others ARE Greek.
c with a line stands for centerline.

It is a good thing you didn't weld up everything yet. You will be able to move the hinge pillar forward 1/8" or whatever you need. I had to do this on the first basket case truck I worked on.

I moved the A pillar forward about 1/4 of an inch at the bottom as I cut the bottom to put rocker panel in.and never touched the top of the A pillar. I ,made sure on a protracter it read 90 degrees on A pillar. Then removed all the metal screws holding the outer cowl panel in place and removed outer cowl panel and reshaped the metal at the top where the cowl panel slides up into. Re attached outer cowl panel with fewer screws. I also have rebuilt one of the four ihinges but did re-install the door with the rebuilt top hinge. And finally progress. It is looking very close to 1/8 gap all around. So this weekend I hope to rebuild the rest of the hinges.

I did notice on the rebuilt hinge with the over sized pin and new bushings and rebuilt/drilled spring holes I could not manually open and close the hinge, but installed it on the door opens and closes no problem. I think I may have something slightly out but I am going to leave as is.

Cool! Progress is a good thing.

Some factory details on cab/door adjustments from 1948.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/advance-design_parts_co/albums/72157641244124604

Winning!
(That's what I always holler whenever I get a door to fit.)