47-55.1 55 years ago I was given this USAF 54 3100

[vintovka]

Will likely wire radio direct along with alarm soon. Am building courage to bend top half of door in 1/2" .

[VWNate1]

Sounds good to me .

I hate bending the doors, ideally it's done before the respray .

Unless it whistles really loudly or blasts you with cold air I'd live with it .

[dsraven]

I have seen some fellas who simply install some weatherstripping tape on the body where the door stuff has a gap.

[vintovka]

Originally Posted by dsraven

I have seen some fellas who simply install some weather stripping tape on the body where the door stuff has a gap.

Yes doing that right now to close the gosh awful gap and maybe reduce the wind noise and rain entry. Using standard door weather striping on BOTH sides on top and thinner "stick em" foam type on middle front. I swear the door is bent at top but will leave the door bending for next paint job (prolly not in my lifetime). Have been having to slam door for a over a half century so used to it. hopefully my ancient arms won't fail me. . May add i bought some cheep double sided tape to reattach used weatherstrip as my 3m glue is a pita. Its 1/2" with red pull off cover. Seems better than 3m glue too and looks same as what originally came on it when new. Will drive in am an report back.

Fwiw i milled the elongated adjustment slots longer in the door striker a bit to give me more room. Seems to work.

[vintovka]

Gave up on door. Been slamming it for 56+ years and just used to it. Unless someone steps up who can bend the brand new hinges and possibly the door this old man is done for this lifetime. It does closes and latch with extreme adjustment so there's that. This was a replacement for the original and regret it.

The extra weather strip on the cab opening has quieted the wind noise considerably. Added the foil covered insulation to under the door panel with double sticky and it helps even more. Needed to really push hard on the inside door and window handles to overcome the added thickness when installing them. The cardboard washers under the handles let them move freely and are a must. Even so i wonder why anyone spends big bucks on a sound system they can only hear clearly parked with engine off.

Will see how they leak or don't next wash. Next effort will be to see why my aftermarket rear window slider leaks so much. I paid installers extra to use correct seal but think the $ went into their dope fund, The slider is nice when its hot.

[VWNate1]

I'm guessing the original door was rusted out ? .

The main thing is if it remains closed ~ my '49 got N.O.S. latches and strikers after I made a hard left turn and the passenger door flew open unloading all the crap I carry on the front seat .

Yes, it had seat belts and my Sweet used them but thinking or her or other precious cargo flying our the door made me do this .

It looks pretty nice to my eyes .

[vintovka]

Original door had a big old dent. Should have had it pounded out but had current door handy. This the other major mistake besides using a cheech and chong "restoration shop". The latter Of course, after much insistence, assured me they could fix all the body work before the fecal paint job. The only upside is that it all happened before the mass devaluation of the dollar.

[VWNate1]

Understood, been there and done that .

For serious good door repair one removes the exterior skin for hammer and dolly works then sorts out the hinges and other fitment issues, once that's all done and the door opens, closes and latches okay you tack on the outer door skin as close to the belt line matching as you can then open it and slowly finish it .

As I've said so many times : when new most of the Advance Design trucks were sold long before they were made and GM refused to run a third shift so Ford was beating them in light truck sales, GM's answer was to crank up the line as fast as it'd go and shove them out the door with appalling build quality .

The old Hot Rodder in my old shop spent over a year fighting with his cab, the passenger side door (it almost always seems to be the passenger side) on his '49 3100 series was simply awful, mostly the cab's jog work was done so poorly that no amount of pulling, stretching, bending, cutting and welding would give him a decent closing door much less one that wasn't at least 1/4" off along the belt line .

There is a company called (IIRC) "Trique" that makes modern day door latch kits for your '54, they're safer too .