The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot Panels 'N Burbs AD panel barn door removal

Want to remove the barn doors for paint prepwork. Should doors be removed from hinges and hinges left in body. This method seemed to work well with the side doors. Or should should I just work on them on the truck and avoid any alignment problems later as these back doors look like they might take awhile to get ligned up again.

Thanks, Paul

There is almost no alignment adjustment for those 47-55 panel rear doors (in comparison to the side doors).

one way to deal with door alignment for removal is to lightly scribe a line on both sides of the hinge where it meets the door and meets the body - reinstall so those scribe marks line up and you're most of the way home

Bill

I drill a 1/8in. hole in two places on the hinge and take the door off & do the work.
Now you can put the doors back on & put 1/8 in. dill bits back in the holes and it is back where it was.

It took me a full week to install and line up the barn doors on my 49 sub. Squeeze and jos48chevy have a couple of good ideas. If I had to do it over again I would not have taken the doors off. They were a real pain to get lined up and to get equal gaps all around. I must have had them on and off a dozen times before I was happy with the fit.

Weeds

I hope there is some adjustment as the doors hang right now the doors open and close just fine. But the middle gap at the top is about an 1/8 of an inch, where on the bottom middle it is a 1/2 inch plus.

Looking a little closer I think I will try and remove doors with hinges attached from the body as door bolts are recessed and might be a pain to remove/replace.

The 1/8 drill reference is a great idea but these hinges are in the middle of a 2 inch +/- door body and if not drilled to the nuts would be counter productive.

Thanks, Paul

Just read Weeds post maybe best to leave them on.

Thats why I love this site plenty of "been
there done that advice"

Thanks Paul

My doors looked like they had been ground up to make Hash out of them. Fit poorly, looked even worse. The body man did the best he could but in the end he had to cut some on the bottom and actually welded a small strip to the edge of the door to make the gaps look decent. They ended up looking good but it took a lot of work. These get backed into docks, things slide back into the doors and its just a pain.... not to mention what other folks came up with to get them to close.

Sometimes I wish I had never seen this panel..... but now that there is some paint,and DOORS, on it I think I've changed my mind

Hang in there Weeds and Chipmunk. I took the rear doors off my panel twice,, each time was a sunnabich to get them back right,
but with enuf time,walking away,coming back in a different mood,
and lotsa cold beers handy,and friends helping,they ended up correct each time.

Leave the hinges on the barn doors when removing the doors from your panel truck or suburban. The only adjustment to these barn doors for alignment is by heating the hinge with a torch and bending it. But first, have several cold beers before attempting this procedure! Good luck!

One way I adjusted the door gaps was by taping thin washers to the hinge between the hinge and the body. This will bring the gap together in between the middle of the doors..Joe

Thanks for the tip, Zookeeper. I'll be trying it soon.

Most likely you'll only need to add one washer to the most inner bolt to kick the hinge & door inward a bit. I played around w/mine with to bolts loose trying to figure out the adjustment. Having the front two loose and the back one looser the door hinge kicked the doors in enough to close the gap up...joe

Fellow Burb-ites,
I had the same issue with my doors but I cheated and tack welded a washer on the jamb side of the hinge at the innermost hole to pull the top over or the bottom to aline the doors.The rubber covers the hinge hole and a 1/8" really made a difference.
If all else fails get a bigger hammer! Remember measure twice-cut once or get a new blade for your sawzall.