Proper Door Alignment Method

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Dec 24, 2012 | 09:53 AM

NBC-Steve

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Fleet Mechanic

Joined: Jan 2010

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From: San Carlos, CA

Proper Door Alignment Method

I'm trying to align my doors so they will have nice straight lines and even with the rest of the body of my truck. I have tried to adjust the hinges where they are bolted to the door. I would loosen the bolts and slide the door in or out on the hinge, tighten and check the alignment. At times I would almost bind the door with the front panel.

Are these things just a PIA or is there a proper procedure to align the doors?

Dec 24, 2012 | 10:55 AM

mark a.

Lead Driver

Joined: Mar 2004

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They are just a major pia. If your not real good at panel alignment it's going to be cheeper & easier to just take it to a good body shop to have them align it, that way you don't have to pay them to fix the paint as well after you get completely fed up. If I bother doing them myself I always just remove the fenders and tape the doorway completely off. In the end it makes it so much easier without the fenders on.

Dec 24, 2012 | 12:28 PM

teds74ford

Logistics Pro

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I start at the back of the door, adjusting the striker and then go from there. You get binding when the two hinges aren't in alignment with each other. I usually only do one bolt per hinge until I am all aligned and then tighten everything down.

Dec 24, 2012 | 01:28 PM

HIO Silver

Fleet Owner

Joined: Dec 2009

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From: NorCal

Panels are aligned from back to front and before painting... it's easier with the fenders off and with two sets of hands... one pair to hold and one pair to eyeball and tighten. The builder's trick is to set the gaps and then use a 1/8-inch drill bit and then drill through all the mounting points. After paint, the drill bit is used as an indexing pin. Since it's all painted, apply masking tape to all leading and trailing edges.

IIRC, the door hinges are adjustable two ways.. hinge to the door and hinge to the cab. Fenders are vertically aligned to the doors and then loosely to the core support. The hood top gap sets with cab (forward & back) and then fender width along with the grill shell.

You'll go bonkers(

) setting the gaps 100%... unlike today's vehicles, it's not like these rigs were built with precise tolerances.

Dec 24, 2012 | 03:14 PM

teds74ford

Logistics Pro

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Quote:

Originally Posted by HIO Silver

You'll go bonkers(

) setting the gaps 100%... unlike today's vehicles, it's not like these rigs were built with precise tolerances.

Trust me, these fords feel like they are laser perfect compared to my old dodge

Dec 24, 2012 | 10:05 PM

F-250 WARHORSE

Cargo Master

Joined: Nov 2009

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From: starship enterprise

I think these trucks were ready to go to the moon compared to dodge, I never was so frustrated as trying to keep my dodge in decent shape. I finally found the solution though, a new home. Those doors aren't much fun, I have done a few of them and I think you almost have to have 2 sets of hands. It sure helps. As I remember if the door has to go up or down it is the mounts in the hinge to door, door to cab mounts rotate the door in the opening, It is tough, in 30+ years a lot of stuff changes, the reveal might not ever be perfect without changing doors or something. I folded the door on my dads 83 f250 clear up against the fender with a case tractor and a big marker, but we put a new door on and dad aligned it himself. It looked perfect when closed, perfectly even reveal all the way around. When you opened it it would bind up on the fender. A body man looked at in and said that the pillar that holds the door on was sprung, closed up perfect but when open the pillar moved enough to let the door drag on the fender, no easy fix, it was the farm truck at that point though, luckily for me it wasn't dad's new turbo diesel f250. Sometimes things aren't exactly what they seem, sometimes they are.

Dec 25, 2012 | 01:39 AM

VocaTexas

Posting Guru

Joined: Feb 2009

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I know what you mean, Steve. I'm trying to put my Crew back together from painting and installing all new rubber, and it's a royal pain trying to get the door aligned. Two I'm pretty happy with, one is fair, the last one is absolutely driving me nuts!