alignment of driver door ....51 pickup ??

[ACII]

Hy together...

after many years i tried to fix the alignment of my driver side door...

The door actually is sitting really good ...the gap sizes are very nice.

I just do have a real problem on the bottom ....the door does not line up to the gap....

See more details on the pics..... so hope u can help me out !!!!

Thanks a lot
Achim

[dwcsr]

This should be helpful

[chev3600]

Great article, thanks for the link!

[MARTINSR]

OR, how does it fit at the front? Could the front be moved in at the top? This would bring out the bottom rear.

Brian

[dwcsr]

OR read the document first then comment

[MARTINSR]

Originally Posted by dwcsr

OR read the document first then comment

Can you please explain what "document" do you refer to? The link you have provided? That does't answer the question I have asked about the posters truck does it?

Is the door out at the top in the front?

Brian

[mr48chev]

The document in post 2 that I saved for reference.

I think that if you study that pfd a bit you can figure out how to fix that problem ACII

At least you aren't fighting a cab that has been tweeked out of shape due to an accident.

[ACII]

thanks for all the hints !!!!
the door aligns in the front pretty well, but i need to double check if the door is out at the top...
unfortunately i am just come back to my garage in two weeks :-(

meanwhile i can study the posted document :-)

I dont think that the truck was involved in a bigger accident so far ...i cannot recognize any repair work on the cab.....but who knows :-)

i keep u updated

THanks a lot
Achim

[MARTINSR]

That document does give you a good way to move the door out as these trucks have very little movement. But one place that is often overlooked is to move it out like they did on later cars and trucks. For some reason on the AD they didn't put a bolt in the back of the hinge. I don't know when they started or stopped this but I was working on a '55 Chevy car and found that they had bolts down deep in the hinges. That's odd, the AD has holes back there but no bolts!

Autobody commonsense 101 tells us that moving the hinge PIN is what moves the door (or hood or trunk) the most. So if we were to move that PIN out an 1/8" it's going to move the door out an 1/8" too, pretty cool.

Now these trucks don't have much hinge movement so bending the hinge as in that document posted may still of course be needed, but I have found moving the hinge around usually makes it happen.

So there is where you can do it. In this photo you can see a bolt (marked in blue) at the back (front? ) of the hinge. Your truck won't have this bolt, but it will have the hole, and it will have the hole in the bracket that holds the hinge! Why they didn't put a bolt there is beyond me. I simply stuck a bolt through the holes, it was that easy. Now, come to think of it, I had the inner panel out! OH CRAP, you may need to find a way to get that nut in there. I plan on welding a piece of metal with a threaded hole in there (a "fixed" nut) but as I sit here I forget if there is a way to access that without removing that inner panel. Which of course is often removed on these trucks for rust repair as mine was. But anyway, look into how you could do it. The red dot is the hinge pin. The yellow arrow is where you can move the hinge pin in or out when you move the hinge down inside of that pocket in or out moving the door in or out.



Here is the same hinge looking up from inside the cowl side.



Maybe try this before bending the hinge, I use that as a last resort.

Brian

[MARTINSR]

Originally Posted by ACII

thanks for all the hints !!!!
the door aligns in the front pretty well, but i need to double check if the door is out at the top...
unfortunately i am just come back to my garage in two weeks :-(

meanwhile i can study the posted document :-)

I dont think that the truck was involved in a bigger accident so far ...i cannot recognize any repair work on the cab.....but who knows :-)

i keep u updated

THanks a lot
Achim

That's the thing, you need to look at the rest of the door. Because if your door is in at the top front, you can't adjust it in more to bring that lower out..out. That's why I asked the question where yours is.

Often it's a "dance" when aligning panels. Some times you can't get it all perfect, sometimes you have to even mess up a perfect fit on one area of the part to get another area that is fitting horrible "good enough."

The dance is more like a line dance at a country night club more than the perfection of the Rockettes.

Not this.



But this....if you have ever line-danced you know what I mean.



No don't get me wrong, you can make it perfect (or near perfect, there is NO SUCH THING as perfect), but that Rockette dancer kinda fit has to be done before the body and paint. I personally am slicing my body to make nice door gaps.



But you are a little late for that. This is why trial fitting everything before paint is SOOOOOOO important.

Brian

[MARTINSR]

I think I am going to get these nuts to put on the inside so they will move.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/4-pcs-5-16-1...-/131408497014




Brian

[MARTINSR]

One thing I see is at least in looking at the bottom, the door looks too high. While I was eating lunch I thought about this and it hit me, OFTEN when a curved panel like that is "in" it's because it's too high or two low. So think about that, look at your body lines at the top. Often it's that country western night club and you have to have a little less than perfect fit somewhere to get a "decent" fit somewhere else where you had a horrible fit.


Brian

[ACII]

Hello Brian....

to be honest i have never got such a great and funny feedback....
I am still laughing :-)

As already mentioned i just come back to my garage in almost 2 weeks :-(
So i have to patiened to check ur hints ....

But one question upfront..... why is it not possible to install a rivet nut ??? Also i need to see the brackets / hinge in reality cuz i dont really understand how the bolt gonna have an impact on the hinge pin

thanks
achim

[MARTINSR]

Originally Posted by ACII

Hello Brian....

to be honest i have never got such a great and funny feedback....
I am still laughing :-)

As already mentioned i just come back to my garage in almost 2 weeks :-(
So i have to patiened to check ur hints ....

But one question upfront..... why is it not possible to install a rivet nut ??? Also i need to see the brackets / hinge in reality cuz i dont really understand how the bolt gonna have an impact on the hinge pin

thanks
achim

A RIV-NUT may work, I hadn't thought of that. But the only ones I have seen are aluminum and I just don't give a whole lot to using an aluminum nut on a door hinge. On mine it's not a big deal as the inner panel is out and I can weld the caged nut in there. On yours, the rive nut maybe the only way to go or if you could somehow go in through the hinge pocket with a magnet or something to hold the nut on the other other side to get a bolt in. I have done that with a nut welded to a rod before with something like this, that may work? I don't know, I don't have it in front of me right now.

Be sure to buy a ticket for the show, I'm here all week.

Brian

[Russell Ashley]

I can't offer any more advice than what has already been offered, but from the pics it looks like you have a very sweet truck. Post a better pic of it when you have time, we'd love to see it.

[ACII]

one more pic :-)

[MARTINSR]

It does look like one sweet truck for sure.

Brian

[Haasman]

The doors on my '51 all fit quite well (I know lucky) before I started disassembly to restore it. I found the suggestion somewhere that drilling small 1/8" holes through the hinges at the body and doors would help when putting it back together.

So far, it was a great idea. The 1/8" holes are hardly noticeable.

Haasman

[my56chevytruck]

that's a great looking ride and the doors don't align? only the owner would know for sure. again, very cool. Any possibility of using shims on the lower hinge to bring the door out at the bottom only?? Just a thought.

[MARTINSR]

Originally Posted by my56chevytruck

that's a great looking ride and the doors don't align? only the owner would know for sure. again, very cool. Any possibility of using shims on the lower hinge to bring the door out at the bottom only?? Just a thought.

You can't shim the door out being the hinge slides into the door in a very tight area.

This is a photo I grabbed off the net. The bottom is the same, and it slides into a very tight area so it can't be moved.

Brian

[Haasman]

Brian is so right. No access really at all. The "nuts" for the door bolts often get either fused to the door bolts or they break out of their cages. When this happend to me I thought "now what!?"

A friend suggested drilling out the broken bolt, remove the old nut and its cage and install some nutserts. They saved the day. Work great and one would never know they were there unless the door hinge arm was removed.



They work by compressing into the hole, the back of the nutsert moving towards the sheet metal thus pinching itself tight, like a rivert.

Easy to do and when done your have a new bolt nut.

http://www.clipsandfasteners.com/Nut...e_p/a10273.htm

[MARTINSR]

Are those aluminum?

Brian

[sevt_chevelle]

Brian, I gonna ask. With the 3 original bolts in place what does that bolt marked in blue do?

[MARTINSR]

Originally Posted by sevt_chevelle

Brian, I gonna ask. With the 3 original bolts in place what does that bolt marked in blue do?

You can rock the front of the hinge in and out. Tighten that bolt then the others. We are talking a little bit here, but it works very well, it moves the door about equally so it works pretty well.

Like I said, the later cars used this bolt.

Brian