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I need some guidance on my truck I am working on. New to this whole thing so bear with me as I just wanna make sure I am doing this correctly. So I had to put on new hinges for my drivers door and I am just in the process of reassembling everything. I am having a hard time rotating the hinge bolts when the door is on to re align the door. So I heard some advice to take the front fender off to properly align the door. Is this a good way going about it? or do any of you have other tips for door alignment? I have a 1976 F150 and attached some pictures below. Also if I have to remove the front fender to do this properly could you guide me to as where all the bolts are? I found most of them but am needing to know how many and where are at the front of the fender near the grill if there are any.
Any help is appreciated and feel free to ask questions.
IMO you start down a slippery slope when you start taking more parts off to align a door. If you just have to take a fender off...
Take out the plastic inner fender well liner out, if you have one, also take the side marker lens cover. Then look up in there. You will see 5 or 6? bolt heads that hold the outer grill shell to the fender. The reason you take the side marker lens out is to be able to reach the very top one. With an extension and a swivel you can go in thru the opening in the fender. Also 1 at the bottom of the fender and I remember 1 in the door hinge area.
Here is a FTE members advice on the door adjustment. https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...l#post19341755
BEFORE you remove the striker, sharpie mark around it and put a alignment stripe on it. You will see why later.
Remember that the body "dent" is an alignment point and usually BOTH the fender and the cab are gap set points. With the fender off you loose one set point. Also remember that the cowl is fixed and then that gap has to be worked by moving the fender only. Hopefully nothing changes.
SHARPIE mark the fender placement BEFORE you remove any bolts.
There are a row of bolts along the front of the fender and one on the bottom besides the obvious ones on top. a long extension makes it easy on the ones behind the headlight. .
Taking the fender off isn't a big job and it does make it easier, but you can adjust the door with a flex head ratchet and a flex ratchet wrench if you have them. it's just a little harder.
Like on any car adjust from the back of the door and work forward , this is always the starting point. once you're satisfied with this gap adjust your fender . at some point you'll have to " split the difference " because if everything fits perfect at every gap and flush line you found the one in 10 million production vehicle. on a dent side I'd estimate about a 3/16" gap on the door is the goal, 1/4 " at the most.
You could mark alignment points on story sticks before you remove the fender. Maybe take a reference photo with the sticks. That way you have something to align with when the fender is off.
Thanks for all the advice! I didnt take the fender off and got in there with a mixture of tools. The door is a little off but this is where im at as of right now.
Looks like it may need to be forward a bit but I've seen worse. hopefully you adjusted it with the striker removed I should have mentioned that, in any even if you haven't adjusted it already you may need to.
Looks like it may need to be forward a bit but I've seen worse. hopefully you adjusted it with the striker removed I should have mentioned that, in any even if you haven't adjusted it already you may need to.
I didnt take the striker out... it locks into place nice when I close it. But due to my lack of knowledge could you tell me why thats important and should I adjust the striker with the door how it is? I know the door isnt perfect but for now I am going to leave it
the reason is you want the door to hang all on it's own, if the striker is in place it will alter the true adjustment. all the striker should do is adjust how far the door closes and latch it there.
I don't know whether it works or not, but I seem to remember that LMC sells a door hinge alignment tool. I've often wondered if it does the job. Good luck.
