Door alignment

[NEVERENOUGH]

I replaced the door hinge pins on my 82 yesterday and I can not for life of me get the doors to align. I am binding with the front fender and it seems like nothing I do is helping. The pins were the worst I have seen and I am not sure if maybe the hinges are tweaked. Any ideas or help is appreciated.

[Sodell]

Were they binding before hand? Is it binding on the bottom?

[NEVERENOUGH]

No they were not binding beforehand. They are binding in the middle of the door and fender. It looks like the previous owner had installed some washers between the door and hinge. I tried to remove those and see if it helped but still no luck. I am planning on messing with it a little more today.

[NEVERENOUGH]

Does anybody have any ideas. It does seem to be binding more towards the bottom of the door and fender thanks for the help.

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by NEVERENOUGH

Does anybody have any ideas. It does seem to be binding more towards the bottom of the door and fender thanks for the help.

Well...I've done about 3.5 million of these but I'm not sure I can explain it.

Set the door so that it fits in the A pillar/roof/cab back opening.

After that mess with the fender. Gap between the rear of the fender and the front of the door should be about 1/4".

The top of the fender attaches at the A pillar with one vertical bolt and one horizontal bolt inside the door.

The bottom of the fender attaches with one horizontal bolt shot outboard in the dogleg portion between the wheel opening and door.

Each of these areas can be shimmed to fit. If the shims have a small tab and are open at one end then they are probably original (not previous owner installed). Shim the up/down to match the feature line on the door; shim the in/out to clear the door as it swings.

BTW, we didn't actually fit the fenders at the bottom - we just took a bit wooden stick (like a 4x4 with padding on it) and stuck it in the opening and ERRRK bent it to fit.

One per minute, 8 hours per day, 285 days per year, for 8 years....

K

[dieseldawg142]

wow! thats impressive, almost 100 000 doors!
that would explain those splinters i picked up installing my fender flares!

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by dieseldawg142

wow! thats impressive, almost 100 000 doors!
that would explain those splinters i picked up installing my fender flares!

I should add: we would tape those shims together in a little "packet" and run that shim pack on every truck - whether it needed it or not.

After a half a day or so the foreman at the end of the line would call and say something gracious like: "SEYMORE!! YOU A-HOLE!! ARE YOU EVEN LOOKING AT THESE TRUCKS?!? EVERY F-IN ONE OF THEM IS RUNNING HIGH!! TAKE SOME SHIMS OUT BEFORE I COME UP THERE AND MAKE YOU WISH YOU HAD NEVER HIRED ON HERE!!"

So - we'd take a shim out of our little pack and run those until we got the next phone call. That would apply for the top rear vertical bolt, top rear horizontal bolt, and the bottom bolt (both left and right side). So basically there were six ways to mess up every truck (the front of the fender is constrained by the radiator support; there is no adjustment there).

K

[gramps77]

Originally Posted by Keith Seymore

I should add: we would tape those shims together in a little "packet" and run that shim pack on every truck - whether it needed it or not.

After a half a day or so the foreman at the end of the line would call and say something gracious like: "SEYMORE!! YOU A-HOLE!! ARE YOU EVEN LOOKING AT THESE TRUCKS?!? EVERY F-IN ONE OF THEM IS RUNNING HIGH!! TAKE SOME SHIMS OUT BEFORE I COME UP THERE AND MAKE YOU WISH YOU HAD NEVER HIRED ON HERE!!"

So - we'd take a shim out of our little pack and run those until we got the next phone call. That would apply for the top rear vertical bolt, top rear horizontal bolt, and the bottom bolt (both left and right side). So basically there were six ways to mess up every truck (the front of the fender is constrained by the radiator support; there is no adjustment there).

K

So if there is no adjustment at the radiator support, I have bigger problems than I thought. My NOS fender is WAY wide at the front and I had finally given up trying to get it to fit. Its still wide and looks silly if you look from the front. I figured out the door gap situation and did a little similar with some wood to bend it out

[LONGHAIR]

Originally Posted by Keith Seymore

we would tape those shims together in a little "packet" and run that shim pack on every truck - whether it needed it or not.

After a half a day or so the foreman at the end of the line would call and say something gracious like: "SEYMORE!! YOU A-HOLE!! ARE YOU EVEN LOOKING AT THESE TRUCKS?!? EVERY F-IN ONE OF THEM IS RUNNING HIGH!! TAKE SOME SHIMS OUT BEFORE I COME UP THERE AND MAKE YOU WISH YOU HAD NEVER HIRED ON HERE!!"

So - we'd take a shim out of our little pack and run those until we got the next phone call.

It's just too bad that I cannot express my true opinion about this.....but it would be against the rules. (A couple of them)

[Sodell]

Mine did the same thing, I had to put shims behind the bottom one it is twisted a bit. If its that bad I would replace the hinges.

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by NEVERENOUGH

Does anybody have any ideas. It does seem to be binding more towards the bottom of the door and fender thanks for the help.

So - based on this - you've got to go either forward with the bottom of the fender (to increase the fore/aft gap - you can loosen the bolt and pry forward with a thin piece of wood) or you've got to go outboard with the bottom of the fender (by shimming...or bending - your choice ).

K

[NEVERENOUGH]

Man thanks for all the info. I have been putting tile in the kitchen for the wife so I have only been on the truck a little here and there. Nothing I have done seems to work so I am going to order up a set of hinges. Looking at the hinges on the truck you can see that they are twisted pretty bad. Again your help is greatly appreciated thank you.