The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Door adjustment

So the door has a hidden twist to it. The door is flush at the top in relation to the latch post. At the bottom of the door it is 1/4” in toward the interior of the cab. All of my gaps around door are good. The hinge post and the door are flush. When I move the hinges to connect the 1/4” gap at the bottom the top moves outward. Maybe someone else has had to make the door flush with the latch post with this type of problem and will chime in. Thanks Jim

87GN - can you post more pictures of the entire door / edge?

Picture's 1-4 look at the gap and the last 4 represent looking down the panel for a flush fit between the door and the hinge and latch post. The last two are one of the B pillar fit and the second is of the bottom of the door and latch post which does not fit flush.

How much body work has been done to the side cowl, hinge pillar, and the cab corner by you or by a previous owner? There might not be a "twist" in the door. The "twist" may well be in the hole where door is supposed to fit in.

Is the door original to the truck? It looks like you (or someone has changed the margin of the door with some welding. That may have affected the door "flatness." Did you replace floor panels or otherwise work on the cab?

I had similar issues with my driver's door after I replaced the lower cowl piece, rocker, floor and rear cab corner. I think I may have gotten the cab tweaked a bit, but the passenger door fits well. I settled for "good enough on the fit, with decent gaps, but the door not being flush along the whole rear edge, and being a bit to proud along the front lower edge (if does need to be slightly proud at the hinge pillar so it clears the cowl when opening.) I will say that getting good door fit is one of the toughest parts of cab work. It's made even tougher if the doors aren't original to the truck.

I see now why you used the word twist. Hopefully someone with more knowledge than I will chime in.

Hi 87gn
Someone showed me a useful body shop trick once upon a time
To move how much a door is in our out in a corner
Block the part of the door that is too far in with a chunk of wood
And using only your hands and body weight
Heave the high or proud part of the door inwards
This is not a slamming motion
The door is closed gently and firmly onto the block of wood
And then on the high part of the door just give a decent static shove
Then check fit
Repeat as necessary
This is the normal way to tweak a door fit and I’ve had great success on many doors
The gaps are the difficult part and you should get all the gaps good first
This shoving with blocks is the final step
This method works well to tighten the top of modern car doors in a pinch too, reduces wind noise if the door was knocked out because of accidental closure on objects.
-s

When I sprung a door on my first car we used the Yellow Pages.

Be careful with 2ManyTrucks suggestions. The hinge pocket area on AD trucks isn't that strong, and can be bent fairly easily. Don't ask how i know that.

Yes the whole cab is fairly malleable on these old trucks
A rough road seems to change all the dimensions a tiny bit with every drive.

Example: even tho you think these old trucks are tough as nails
Do not Jack them up by the bumpers
This will twist and move the bumper every time
The factory jack is meant to go under the axle only

Do your door and body massaging gently
Don’t try to make it move the whole way in one shot
Baby steps
-s

As said above “Baby Steps “ is key to a successful adjustment. Good luck.

Thanks to all who spoke to this door adventure of mine. I stopped trying to force the door into submission. I have not damaged any thing in all of the trying. I will show some pictures of my solution later this week.

87GN 52 Carl is probably right about the door hole,most of the drivers door holes are a little to small so you don't have room to adjust. Door wants to hit the top of the hole,your lucky if doors will latch up with a moderate slam. Why do you think so many windows are cracked ??

Where the bottom of the door aligns with the latch post was uneven. After varying fruitless attempts to force the door into the shape it needed to be in when closed I began thinking from a different perspective. What if I move the pillar post. The only way to move the pillar post was to remove some material at the bottom of the post. Exactly where the cut was made would be a the point where the skin of the cab comes around from back and up to the door. At that point the skin makes a 90 degree inward turn. It is in the return that I removed the material. Once the material was removed I would move the skin into position. Tacked the skin of the post and stitched weld and ground till smooth.

Waiting with baited breath for you to tell us what that angle is.

Good solution. It's just metal and can be changed.

I fixed my door by removing my hearing aids. Now I can't hear the rattle.