The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Doors door alignment, 1953 3100

I have both of my doors hanging on my truck, with the bolts started in. I have not yet made any effort to adjust them. I have read the door adjustment section of the shop manual. I've watched all of the youtube videos I could find, and I've searched this site for old threads. So, I have a general idea on adjustment. All of my rubber is new, just installed. Even after all of this research, I'm still a little puzzled on where to start. It looks like my vertical gaps at front and back are pretty close and can be adjusted OK. The part that that has me baffled is that the lower half of the rear vertical part both doors is sticking out way outside of the cab. It seems to me that neither the pillar portion or door portion of the adjustments are going to have enough effect on it to bring it in. I'm not ready to think about bending hinges yet, and hoping that I won't have to. I guess that Im looking for a little more specific directions than are in the manual. Any suggestions, hints, or tips on where to start will be appreciated.

The horizontal adjustment laterally to the cab (doors sticking out from the cab) can only be adjusted by:
1. adjusting the position of the hinges where they bolt to the cab. Maybe move the lower hinge inward, the upper hinge outward or both. But you have to be careful not to get the door beyond flush with the cowl so it doesn't hit the cowl when opening. Moving the upper hinge outward while maintaining the position of the lower hinge will move the lower rear corner of the door in.
2. Bend the hinges. Not something easy to do or be taken lightly.

Also, it's possible that the door itself is tweaked. That might be dealt with by the old "slam the door on a 2x4" method, but you need to be careful about doing that too, as you can easily go too far.

Sometimes you just have to live with what you can get. Are the doors original to the truck? I recall that you've had to replace cowl parts and other stuff, and if the dimensions aren't held to original, then you may be stuck with what you have.

Good luck

The doors are not original to the cab, so that could be part of the problem. I was under the impression that the pillar side of the hinge wouldn't give much horizontal movement. It makes sense that, if it will move horizontally, then it should help. I also wonder if a little filing or grinding on the pillar hinge plate could increase the horizontal movement? Youre right that I had to replace the cowl metal on the driver side. I think that I was able to re use the cowl on the right side.

In my opinion, the very first thing that needs to be done, is to align the belt line. Then you can see what needs to go in or out. Mind you, the factory allowed for the door to be proud of the body at the front. That can be adjusted out of there but might require some work.