The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop 1950 door fit issues

[img]https://www.stovebolt.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/ubb/download/Number/46158/filename/1950 chev door.jpg[/img]

I have been struggling with this door for a while getting it aligned properly. This door is not original to the truck nor are the hinges. I did rebuild the hinges. I also put in new rocker panel, and outer cowl and inner brace. The door shuts fine. But the door is flush to the body panel at the rear, but on the leading edge of the door it outward 1/8 to 1/4 inch from the cowl panel..At the top of the door I am not sure whsat is going on as it in about 1/4 inch on the right side and top and about 1/2 inward on the left side

My plan was to bend the long arm of the top and bottom hinge about 1/4 inch down right at the apex of the bend. But before I did that I thought I would see if there is something else I might try. Any thoughts?

If there's no room left on the bolt holes to move the hinges inward (don't go too far as the door is supposed to be a little proud of the cowl so it doesn't rub when opened), you could enlarge the holes a bit. If that doesn't work, you might try prying the hinge bar outward a bit, which should move the hinge point (forward of the pillar) inward.
Hope you can get it figured out. Fitting doors can be a giant pain.

Thanks Kevin again for weighing in. There is no more room left on the bolt holes and I have already tried enlarging them. I will give the hinges a try next and hopefully get it right so I can finally move on to more sheet metal work, thats nicer to me. Yes doors are a pain.

Yep. I hate adjusting doors almost as much as I hate adjusting front clips, cutting and welding mal-fitting replacement inner-to-outer cowl panels, and cleaning out a half a gallon of Stop Leak out of the bottom of a block, and making a hydraulic lifter to stop clacking, and setting up a torque ball seal, and installing and adjusting an electric windshield wiper motor.
But I sure do like driving them, and all of the horn honks, waves, and thumbs up. First place in car shows is cool too.

Our approach to panel alignment is KISS. Will use door for example. First door is set in hole with ZERO attached to it; no hinges, latches, latch, striker, dovetails, etc. If the door fits the hole correctly then the above parts are added one at a time. If the alignment goes bad then you know EXACTLY what is causing it. Sometimes the hinge holes have to be drilled (or milled) way oversize to obtain fit. When this happens the bolts are run through thick (1/4") washers that are tightened very tight with door in correct position and then washers welded to hinge when all is correct.

Carl your point is well taken. I guess thats why it it is a passion for these old trucks that keeps us going.


Evan thats a great idea of fitting just a bare door to see where things are at and then add in other items one at a time.

Update: Here is the door in without any hinges. What is happening as you can see in picture 4 door is aligned on the left and top and bottom but on the right it sticks out from the cowl by a 1/2 inch see pictires 1,2 and 3. So the question is now A: is the door bent on the right and if so how I do I straighten it. B) is the cab door frame bent and if so how can this be remedied?

It my be a hair-brained idea to determine if door itself is bent (bowed out).

Cardboard are something similar and place it in the gap between the driver's side door and cowl post.
Label the top and bottom for orientation.
Using an ink pin, mark the cardboard with pen held against the door.
Cut out the contour.
Flip and compare the contour with the passenger door.

To my eye, the door looks to be less damaged than the body. Hard to unscramble the egg but obviously one of the two is out of whack and the image you've posted makes me think the body got pushed in above the vent fins. That would coincidentally be about where the top most part of your hinge is. Just my 2 cents worth. Good luck.

How is the fit at the top forward? It's possible that the door is tweaked at the top. It looks like the door is just as proud at the belt line as just above the louvers. I would think that there would be evidence of damage at the dash inside if the body was pushed in there. The body is pretty solid in that area and damage would be evident. But it's also possible that the body is pushed in as Jon G mentioned.
Sight along the window channel in the front of the door and see if it's aligned fairly well with the top of the door. If there's a tweak there you may have to pull the top of the door out a bit which would let it go further inboard at the hinge location.

The top does seem a little tweaked especially where a marked it in the attached picture left side. I think I also need to bend out from the inside slightly over the vent marked too with green tape.

What is the best way to take the slight bend out on top left!

After I get things a little straighter I will try one hinge at a time and rebend ever so slightly

When the doors were put back on my 1954 3100 truck after replacing the floors and kick panels they had to use a porta power to get the door to shut properly.

It may not seem like it, but it may be easier to straighten the body than the doors. At least I've found it to be so. I've even done that with a couple of long pieces of firewood, a piece of 4 x 4 lumber and a come-along. You just need to make a setup where you have the body isolated at 2 points so you can pull hard in the middle of that isolation frame.

As for the doors, I would remove the driver's side door, lay it on the floor and set the passenger door up next to it. Compare the two carefully. The design of the doors (particularly the window area with the channels, etc) usually means the doors will not be out of whack unless somebody did something to them in the past or one door was damaged (which often means the hinge mounting area also could have been damaged. The body on the other hand...even a 1/4" deflection of the hinge mount can cause a notable alignment problem. Just me, but I would not try to bend the doors to compensate for body problems. That is a slippery slope. If a door ever gets damaged or rusted out and you need to replace it...you have to create the same sort of oddball door to ever work there. Good luck!

I have used an eight foot long 2x4 as a pry bar to bend the top of a door in. It needed to be moved in about 3/8".
I did this with the door on the cab. It was a '52 which recently came back from a $15,000.00 paint job. Had to rig a way to protect the paint.
Worked out well.