Hanging and adjusting front doors

[willo]

Hi guys,
I'm putting my front doors back on and am cursing the RH one.  The doors and the hinges are all mix and match from many different vehicles.  Nothing came from the original vehicle which makes it all fun to fit together with the right gaps. 

There is no movement in the hinge bushes that i can feel but I am struggling to get the right clearences on the RH one.
I'm beginning to wonder if the RH lower hinge (not the body as it all looks fine)  has had a hit at sometime in it's life and it is slightly bent.  It looks a bit like a question mark (?) so I am wondering if the round bit in the question mark may be a bit smaller than normal (if that makes sense to you)   The problem is that I can't get the bottom back far and up enough

My question is around how hard are these to get right?  What sort of 'solutions' do all of you use to get your clearances right on these &*%$#@ doors?

Cheers

Neil

[Banksx2]

Neil,

You could be on the money with a bent hinge - my RH side had too much slop so I changed it out for one from a donor van - no problems. Have you tried adjusting the striker plate?

Cheers,

Garry

[LS120]

i take the catch off from the cab opening to get the door square then put it back & adjust it to close ok.

 

[BusyKiwi]

The doors can be a right b!t@h to get right, some days they go straight on and line up prefect, other days they look like your hanging a left door on the right.

a phone book is good for adjusting the doors, so is small changes on the bolts, adjust one bolt at a time, check fit, adjust a bolt, check fit .... go inside and watch a relaxing movie, come back adjust one bolt, check fit, adjust one bolt, check fit ...

[willo]

Neil,

You could be on the money with a bent hinge - my RH side had too much slop so I changed it out for one from a donor van - no problems. Have you tried adjusting the striker plate?

Cheers,

Garry

Hi guys,
Thanks for the feedback and letting me know that I'm not the only one with these headaches.  I know the old door was not filed, ground or anything as i still have it in the shed.  (Well the top half of it anyway coz the bottom 12" of the doors was rusted away).
The bottom of the door (AKA bottom hinge) is too far forward and I can't get any more adjustment to get it back and still the door is too low for the lowest adjustment on the door catch.
Like I said previously, i can't feel any slop in the hinge bushes but this is just a total pain in the ...
I reckon it is a hinge thing and not a door thing so I might just go and watch a movie and relaaax a bit before I spit the dummy and do something to the door that I'll regret.

(Wot, me impatient )

Cheers

Neil

[LS120]

how far out is it?? try puting a washer or two under the bottom hinge. see if that lifts it up..

[cfjeff]

one other thing to note is make sure you do up the 3rd bolt on each hinge (the one in the a pillar) mine were a long way out and no matter how I tried couldn't get it to sit right, didn't think the inside bolt would make any difference to the adjustment but it does. hope this helps

Cheers Jeff

[MaTTe]

The doors are a pain, as CFJeff said the centre bolt on the hinge is the key to getting them right(or as close to as humanly possible)
But I had to slot the bolt holes in the doors themselves, even tho they had been slotted previously to my rebuild..

Just take your time, and as Busy said, dont let it get to you, take a break and come back to it

[eddy]

Fitting front doors ? no sweat, I use a tried and trusted method ........ be gentle at first then as no doubt when its not going together too well .... make it happen!!! .... get that sledge hammer out of the garage and smash the frigging thing into place, belt it as hard as you possibly can, swear curse out loud and use lots of provanities ... walk away have a lovely nice quite cuppa then when rested hit that friigin mother of a door over and over and over agin ....  when its finally where you want it start thinking about the panel repairs 

[jimmyfreak]

i hate hanging doors, the hardest part is working on them by yourself, had to do one on my panelvan once as the hinges rusted out.. made a plate and stuck it in but adjusting a door on your own is a pain in the arse...damn gravity...i ended up getting a wheelie bin laying it down and sticking it under the door so that i could adjust the bolts by hand with a ratchet spanner... wheelie bin sounds weird but that way whenever i needed the door to go slightly up or down id just give the bin a little kick...cause they get wider and wider to the top and the wheels on one side make it easier to move without sliding away...

no one was willing to stand there and hold the door for ages while i said up a bit no no down a bit to the left....takes forever either way... and yes takes many may fine tuning attempts...