The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop No door gap

52 AD driver door adjusts and works ok with gap in front, but interference on back edge. Original door and cab. Door fit was like that when I got it.
Could I try spreading the door opening with a jack and 2x4s? (what could possibly go wrong?

I wouldn't try jacking on the door opening. You'll never know where it will "give", and that would probably tweak something that you didn't want.

Is the truck original or a prior restoration? If the latter, someone didn't do the door fitting job right if body panels were replaced.
You probably don't want to mess with the paint, but the proper way to fit the door would be to grind some off the rear edge and re-weld the edge.

Thanks. It is not a prior restoration.No paint to worry about.
Could the cab be distorted from rust and stress? Door was a tight fit when I got it. I have since replaced the inner cowl but kept original floor, outer cowl and A pillar.
If it is the cab's fault, was hoping to avoid shaving and re-welding the door edge!
Could someone please measure their driver door opening to compare?
Mine measures 33 9/16" at the outside lower edge of the beltline

Since these doors are slightly wedge-shaped, lowering the door in the opening will buy you some end gap.
Is your beltine of the door perfectly aligned with the beltline of the cab front and back?

Thanks. Lowering and tilting forward gets the best results, but the rear gap is still less than 1/16, and it touches in places.
With the door beltline aligned to the beltline in front, the door beltline is low relative to the cab in back.
There is a large gap above the door and some extra gap between the A pillar and window frame.
Would renovating the hinges eliminate sag and improve things?

My suspicion is that the cab may have been tweaked front to back on drivers side. My measurement of the drivers door opening across the beltline is 1/8" smaller than on the passenger side. Hence the temptation to try to spread ever so slightly with a jack

The factory assembly manual gives the dimension of the door opening at the front bottom of the beltline as 14.44 from the front of the dash, and the rear of the beltline at 48.53, so the door opening would be 34.09" +/- .02" from beltline to beltline.

Rebuilding the hinges would definitely help.

Possibly the door itself is tweaked on the upper part, since you have an extra gap between A-pillar and window frame. I think that would be more likely than the whole cab being tweaked. Is the spot where the door hits the rear of the opening nearer the top or the bottom of the door?

Good Idea to check the assembly manual.
I remeasured from points 19 to 27 (48.53-15.25=33.28 in manual), and it comes up about 1/8" short.
The extra gap on front and top of window frame doesn't seem to be distortion in the door itself, as that wouldn't make the door wider below.
Maybe the cab opening was compressed front to back and pushed upward slightly.
Or maybe this is just factory variability
I got the door to just clear, but can barely slip a piece of paper in the rear gap. The gap is tightest just below the latch area
Will rebuild the hinges, and see if that helps. Not much sag evident, but the door is stripped so pretty light.

You might be able to get another 1/16" back with a jack and some good supports, although there's some potential to really screw things up.
The allowable factory variations is +/- 0.02" for a combination of 0.04" if both variations narrow the door opening. That's getting close to 1/16".

Back when I was a kid, our station wagon got t-boned when my mom was driving and the passenger side got messed up. When my dad picked it up from the body shop, he noticed the door fit was not quite right. The shop guy stuck a piece of wood in the hinge and slammed the door, and it was then good. I wouldn't recommend that method, though.

I've seen this happen when a wreck (hit on one side in front) deforms the cab just enough so the door won't work anymore. Fixing it ain't always fun.

If you try to spread the hinge pillar and the latch pillar with 2 x 4s and a jack, you can do this, but honestly speaking the risk of failure gets exponentially higher the more you need to move things. Having to move these apart by 1/8" is a lot more than it might sound like, but it can be done. Before you try this, please remove the windshield. The first thing to start moving (every single time) will be the pillar that connects your cowl to your roof--and that forms the plane for your windshield. The pinchweld must remain correctly aligned and on the same plane, or you'll have trouble and it will flex right where it connects to the roof. Even if you don't break the weld connecting the pillar to the roof, I've seen people crack windshields just by moving/flexing the pillar. You can use a very flat piece of plywood cut to match the good windshield opening to know when the size/angle is right and then reinstall the windshield. Sorry...I don't know of an easier way to fix this. Even if you have access to very sophisticated straightening equipment, you still have to remove the windshield to straighten this area.

Good luck!

Read the Shop Manual for a starting point before you try to adjust the door opening. http://chevy.oldcarmanualproject.com/shop/1948_51truck/51ctsm0101.htm
By making sure the cab is mounted to the frame correctly, you then can start making door opening adjustments.

wurlitzer 46 After about 30 of these trucks I find that all the drivers door holes are kinda tight. The passenger is better,wish we could switch em. My 51 6400 is a pretty good fit on both,I almost suspect it is a push-button cab maybe a replacement after a crash !

I'm an absolute nut on body gaps so have developed a procedure that works well. First is remove EVERYTHING from the door, hood, trunk lid, whatever, and see if it will center in the hole. If it does then adjustment needs done which may require slotting, twisting, heating/bending, etc. If it (the door) doesn't fit then material needs added to fill the gap or ground off the edges for clearance. If ground one will have to run a bead to join the three layers of metal back together. Example of a 37 Chevy coupe with a 39 Buick deck lid.

1937 Chevy Business Coupe braced well before panels replaced:
[img]https://i.postimg.cc/94tGV9qk/Jay-s-37-019.jpg[/img]

All gaps are EXACTLY one paint stir stick wide:
[img]https://i.postimg.cc/PpHnpgJx/Jay-s-37-chevy-007.jpg[/img]

Body molding lines and gaps must be EXACT:
[img]https://i.postimg.cc/8stgcnSp/Jay-s-37-chevy-002.jpg[/img]