I have been trying to align my door on my 55 f100. I have tried adjusting at the door bolts. And that didnt help. I have tried to loosen the bolts at the hinge where it bolts to the cab. I have a 1/8 inch gap in the front between the door and the cab. But on the back of door handle side its a 1/4 gap. Also i cant get door at the top where it meets the roof to adjust. I can see light coming thru where the door dosnt line up.

Do I need new hinge brackets? Is there a way to test them. Or am I doing something wrong. I probably am doing something wrong and dont know it. But admitting it and asking for help is the first step.

Jerry

 

Altering door alignment on old Ford trucks (as I've found to be the case on both my '50 F1 and '41 pickup projects) is typically a trial and error process that involves pushing / pulling the door and bending hinges to obtain the desired fit. Look in a shop manual for your truck and you'll probably see a picture of a technician closing a door against a piece of wood or a mallet to make adjustments. Although there are other factors that can effect door alignment (worn out hinge barrels, cab shims, etc.), you can usually make needed adjustments with a bend of the hinge. Placing a block of wood in between the hinge halves (door and pillar) and closing the door will cause adjustments as follows: bend the bottom hinge like this to raise the rear of the door; the top hinge to lower the rear of the door; both hinges (at same time) to move the door back. To move the door forward you usually need to take the pillar hinge off and flatten it to reduce the gap between the halves. Some use a flat piece of sheet stock as a shim under the pillar hinge instead of bending the hinge (which takes some serious muscle to do). Someone with more specific experience with your '55 doors may offer better advice. That's just been what I've personally experienced and also heard from many others with similar challenges. Go slow and make small adjustments -- you should be fine. Hope this helps.

 

In the assembly plants the old way of adjusting doors was large rubber hammers and long, oak 2x4s that went through the truck (with the seats out) and out the opposite door where they were used against the bottom of the door to bend the A pillar at the hinges. You might want to try being a bit more sophisticated and use some thin washers under the upper or lower hinges to move the back of the door up or down. Put them under the top hinge to move it down and under the bottom hinge to move the back up when closed.

If the top of the door in the rear is away from the body you will need to loosen the top hinge and just slightly loosen the bottom hinge (so it acts like a pivot) then move the top hinge inboard horizontally. If it is in all the way just reverse the loosening procedure so the top hinge is the pivot and move the bottom hinge outboard slightly.

FYI - I assume that your hinges are moving when loosened. When I took the doors off my late 1950, St. Paul produced F-2 I found that the hinges had one small tack weld at the top that held them in place after the doors were adjusted.

Hope this helps,

 

Thanks for all the advice. I was looking at mid fifties catalog under weather stripping and found I put on my weather stripping backwards. I dont think this impedes the door alignment that much. So now I have to do this over again.But my door still dosnt fill the top near the roof.And I have to adjust door more towards the door handle side.
It almost seems like the door bracket between the cab and door needs washers under bracket to move it up and back. Almost like pivoting the door. Will let you know how this works out.

Jerry

 

What does the body line of the bottom of the door look like in relation to the bottom of the cab? Do they line up OK or are you saying the whole door is lower than the cab? If the whole door needs to come up, try putting a floor jack with a block of wood under the door, loosen both sides of both hinges, raise the door with the jack, then re-tighten the hinges. If the hinges are otherwise good, then I'd try to adjust the cab-to-frame mounts (loosen then re-tighten in a different sequence) to see if that makes a difference (on the older trucks this can make a huge difference). It's also possible that you've had a replacement door that just doesn't fit the opening well. An old body man's trick (when all else fails) is to 'edge weld' 3/16" round stock to the door edge making adjustments as necessary to achieve the desired contour and door-to-cab gap (usually about 1/8"). It sounds strange, but I've seen this done to a very nice effect. Again, that's a last resort type fix.

 

the top of the door is off by 1/4 inch and the bottom of the dosnt meet up by same amount. will try floor jack trick.

jerry