The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot Panels 'N Burbs 53 panel rear door lock and hinges

My rear doors don't fit quite right. they need to be 1/4" closer together. there does not seem to be any adjustment. any suggestions? also i need a new lock. i talked to jim carter and the door lock they have is fo the front doors??? any idea where i can find a new one. i have the old one but no key.

"i have the old one but no key."

A good old time locksmith will have you fixed up in a hurry and for short money as well. Cheaper than a repop POS lock will cost you. (plus shipping)

Did you have door checks on these? my passenger side hinges were out a little and the door was too far right. i adjusted the hinge curl with a little heat to move it back to center. that said these were not the original hinges (to this panel)and as everybody will tell you, the were not precision fabricated vehicles so one template to another may not fit. I traced a template from one truck and it did not come close to matching on the other
good luck
tom

I had a pro look at my 54 rear doors .he cut and rewelded two of the hinges and the doors are perfect. Perfect meaning as good as you can hope to get on these trucks. If you are going to install new hinge pins do that first.I drilled and used bushings and new standerd GM hinge pins.Not that big of a deal once you get at it. Hope this might help.

A lot of panel owners have issues with the rear door hardware. My hinges are not great but OK. My door handle needs attention because of the ) it makes on the door skin. Not sure how to adjust the hinge aside from heat or brute force (yikes)

I have a Task Force Burb so my experience may not help but I tried to get a good fit on my doors after doing some extensive repairs. see pics
I attempted the brute force method of moving a hinge and got nowhere with it. So I turned on the torch and moved one the hinges. I did it with the hinge off the truck. It worked okay but be careful where you bend as the door can move in two dimensions when you change the location of the hinge pin. You can move the door away from the body toward the other door and also move it so it stands proud of the body at the same time. That is, if our hinges are similar in design.

Because I cut the large access holes in the doors I was able to shim one of them by placing washers between the hinge and the door. You can't move it far that way but it works when tweaking the fit. I haven't gotten the fixed door latches installed (had to buy some) yet so I may need to do more tweaking before taking credit for being done. Once I am sure of the fit I'll tack weld the washers to hold them in place.