The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Doors Bowing Door

I understand the hinge adjustments of the door. I have one problem child. I can’t figure out the adjustment of the most used/abused door, the left side. The door closes but with too much of a slam. I have the other door working fine.

A previous thread says to make sure the door belt line aligns with the cab belt line. That I don’t have. Seems in order to do that I must elongate the height holes to the cowl. Not sure though if that is the answer.

Also I have a “belly” in the middle if the door in the front and back. So the tolerance between the cowl and cab back are way off.
I’m not too sure what should be next. I hate to elongate the hinge holes too much. But it seems the only way to level the belt lines.

My only other thoughts would be bent hinge arms as there was a dent in the cowl from an over extended door. I did replace a section of the floor but never changed the opening measurements.

Am I on the right track with the hinge holes????

Unless your door needs to be "twisted" in the opening. How is the front belt line?


As for belly, your door looks good, looks like the over extended cowl repair wasn't pulled out all the way.

Can you post pictures of that problem door? If you didn't have the door opening braced when you did the repair work, the opening may be distorted.
If the door opening isn't distorted, then you can increase the height of the rear of the door by moving the bottom of the door back on the lower hinge (the bolts on the door itself.) That will increase the gap at the front lower section. If the belt line doesn't match up at the front, then your only option is to move the door up or down on both hinges (the bolts on the hinge pillar.)

The OP “47PUJim”, posted pictures under another post. Here is a link. https://www.stovebolt.com/ubbthread...42/boeing-door-pictures.html#Post1436142

The beltline at the rear definitely needs to be raised. I’d like to see a picture of the whole door so you can see the gaps, the front beltline and another showing the rear of the door taken by standing at the rear fender.

I posted more pictures. The cowl damage (dent ) really wasn’t deep. Certainly wasn’t as deep as the door gap shows. While I did replace some of the floor, the rocker panel was never disturbed so the door dimension openings shouldn’t have changed. I was careful about that.

The PO did some things that might be coming back to bite me.

Going to work on getting the belt lines to align.

Thanks for your suggestions.

My 2 pennies.

It's hard to make a door bow out and not have a ripple in the metal that the eye wouldn't see.
Also the door edge (the skin) is not far from the door frame which supports the edge.
Any movement out on the edge would leave a wrinkle and maybe crack the paint.
I took the posted picture and tilted the image 5 degrees then cropped it.
Enlarged to 150% of original. Added a thin red straight line.
The cowl is almost flat at the red line which may indicate a cowl problem.

I think it's common knowledge that when the old hinges rust up, forcing the door to open can bend the cowl in.
Later on, if a dent occurred, it may be hard to tell where the problem lies.

There is another thing which happens when a cowl is creased in. The leading edge of the hinge pillar gets twisted inwards while the trailing edge is forced forward. If this is not corrected, the door won't match the cowl, and there will be difficulty in adjusting the door to the door opening.
This can be addressed somewhat by notching the bolt holes in the hinges where they bolt to the hinge pillar.

This is almost hard to believe but I've seen it done by a body man.
A piece of wood in the door jam and push in on the door to force hinge pillar back in place.
I don't have the skill to do this myself without causing other damage.
This was done back in the days when the AD was used as a truck.
The cowl appearance, beltline and gaps at the door edge didn't matter as much.
As long as the door shuts good and didn't pop open by itself.

I've heard of that 2x4 method before. My dad said it was done on the '54 Chevy Station Wagon we had when i was a kid.
But if the replacement cowl was welded in with the door pillar tweaked, it would be hard to stretch that enough to work. It might kink the inner cowl panel instead.

I have personally done the 2X4 repair a couple of times back in the late ‘60s early ‘70s. I’m not a body man and never would claim to be but I was strapped for cash and I needed the door to close properly. I worked remarkably well.

Jim, have you inspected the hinges? If they're badly worn, that would explain the door being too low. If you can lift the door without loosening the bolts, then that would indicate worn hinges.

Another telltale sign the cowl has issues, the fresh air door doesn't sit in the opening properly. It would be interesting to see how the hood fits at that section as well.

Where exactly are you placing the 2x4 and which issue will it correct? I have a door with the lower third of the rear edge protruding above the door sill. The top of the door is fine, but the bottom of the door doesn’t sit perfectly flush

Top of the door for repositioning the bottom of the door. Much harder to do. Window down. Again, don’t be overly aggressive.