I have a serious problem with the driver's side door on my 49 F-1. It sags so bad that the door latch doesn't even line up, much less close. I've removed the hinges and tried adjusting them but it still isn't even close. I also have a much bigger gap at the bottom front of the door than at the top front and it's still sagging too much to close. Any ideas?

 

Can we assume the hinge post in the cab is solid and in one piece, not rusty, loose, etc.? The door and hinges do not flop around, even if everything is tight?

 

I am having this problem too. I grabbed the door and lifted to see if it was the hinges but it seems the whole cab shifts a little. Maybe the area near the kick panle has weakend over time? I'm interested to see where thread turns up too.

 

I noticed some movement in the bottom hinge when I lifted up on the door before I removed it from the cab but the hinge seems to be okay altough I'm looking for a replacement just in case it's tweeked. I'm wondering if that side has been damaged in the past.

 

Sounds like the cab is tweaked.
If the back of the door is low the front gap should be larger at the top.

What conditon are the cab mounts in?
It could be the cab mounts letting the cab settle.
Are there any rust problems in the cab floor at the door post or rockers?
Has there been any structural repair done on the cab?

 

The lower hinge pocket in the cab corner seems to be a popular area for rust to settle in, and to have the spot welds making up that area structurally, come apart. Your hinge is likely fine. You'll want to take a closer look in and around the hinge pocket inside the cowl side area. I'll bet you'll see that's your problem. The door will never adjust if the hinge pillar isn't solid.

 

Vern, look at the other door and compare the gaps all around the edge. Which gaps are different. Is it possible that the whole door moved down when you had the hinges off? If so, the gap at the top edge of the door will be much wider....can you show us some pics?

 

The doors opened and shut fine before I started on the truck so it may be something I've done. The rear of the cab was sitting on the frame because the rear cab mounts were bad so I replaced the rear cab mounts which raised the rear of the cab up about an inch. I also put new rubber under the front cab mounts. The gap at the top and the bottom front of the door is too wide. The passenger side door is also sagging but I can close it. Did I screw something up?

 

I think Wayne is on the right track on this. My doors sagged also. The lower hinge is very prone to rust and the mounting screws go into caged nuts on the inside which also get stripped easily. My solution was two things. One was from the shop manual which shows door adjustments using a large rubber mallet between the door and the door jam. It says to slam the door against the mallet with your hand on the top of the door to bring it closer to the cab and with your hand against the bottom of the door the bring the bottom in. It works believe or not. Make sure you roll down the windows first. The other thing I did was loosen all the hinge screws and open the door just far enough to get to the screws. Them use a jack with a block of wood under the door (not the bottom edge but just inside that where the inner door panel is flat) then slowly jack up the door untill you get rid of the sag. Quickly tighten the screws before it can sag again. If that doesn't hold, it's either a rusted pillar as Wayne said or the caged nuts maybe stripped. It worked for me. Hope that helps. Dean

 

Does anyone think that I could have tweeked the cab door openings when I jacked up the cab to replace the rear cab mounts or the rubber under the front mounts? Would it do any good to lower the cab back down to where it was? :Confused:

 

It's highly unlikely you did any damage to the cab simply by raising it up and replacing the mounts and cushions. If it did, you have worse problems than your doors not fitting right. Without seeing what you have, and exactly what the problems are, it's hard to say what exactly will fix the issue. You can try loosing the mount bolts and shimming underneath if you think that would help, but I would do that as a last resort. It shouldn't be necessary. I would first look into why your doors have movement at the hinge areas, because I believe you will find whatever is wrong there will be the root of all your evil.