So I will.be painting this truck in the spring.

1989 f150 regular cab.

I want to do a two-tone. Cream in the middle and the factory marron the rest. Not going crazy with door jambs etc. My question is the doors. Neither of them are aligned well and if I paint the cream I am afraid you'll see the misalignment. Do I need to shim the hinges? What do I need to do to fix this?

 

If yours has removable hinge pins, you might want to check them and the bushings for wear and replace them first. Wear on the pins gets magnified over the width of the door, so even a few thousandths will be exaggerated at the seams. A set of pin and bushings for one door is about 20 bucks. If you are like me, cheap frugal, you might be able to get a temporary fix by rotating the pins and bushings 90* from their current positions. Doing so might expose a fresh, unworn surfaces and close up the gaps.

A tip for the job if you are replacing them by yourself: use a jack at the rear of the door to reduce the load on the hinges. Also, pull only one pin at a time so the hinges stay pretty much aligned.

I had a 74 Nova whose pins were so worn the door sagged enough that it rested on the rear end of the sill plate and wore through some of the aluminum.

 

Yes check the pins & bushings first and replace as needed.
I had my truck all apart as part of my rebuild.
Because you cant change the door opening you aligned the door to the cab opening to get an even gap and the body lines even at the rear of the door / cab.
So the door is even at the top / back / bottom you can now move the fenders to get the gap on the front the same and the body lines to line up.
You may have to adjust the radiator support up or down to get the gap even top to bottom.

Then you have the bed. If the body line is lower you can shim the bed up but it is to high you will need to shim the cab up and remember the radiator support will also need to go up to keep the door / fender gap even.
A string ran from the rear bed edge to the front fender edge should give you something to go by to get everything aligned.

There is a round foam tape that comes in different thickness you use in gaps like the doors and hood to keep over spray from getting in there.
Like when you do 2 tone paint so the other color does not make a mess in the door jambs.
Think I used 1/2" foam tape and it took a little learning to et it to work right but it did its job.
Other wise you have to use normal masking tape and paper to do the same thing but harder to do.


And yes I painted it.
Dave ----

 

Wow Dave, that's a beautiful truck and nice job on the paint job.

 

Thanks for the heads up.. Truck looks great. Also the tape is great advice. I appreciate it. I have already aligned the bed with spacers. I can't decide if I'll remove to paint or call it good. I know it will be the best, jsut don't know if I'll get that much benefit. Anyway that's another discussion.

The pins all seem tight. When I left the doors there is no noticeable play or movement. Can I loosen the hinges and lift? Is there enough play in the mounting holes?

Agian. Thanks for the assist.

 

Sorry for getting back late.
Thanks guys for the kind words on the truck.

Yes you can loosen the hinges both on the cab or the door side and adjust as needed.
The door side will be the easier ones to adjust.
Trick is not loosen all of them all the way.
Keep 1 top & 1 bottom bolt snug so with a little pressure the door will move a little but stay in place till you can snug it up to check fit.

So you guys know what my truck started as

And this is what it looked like just after I got it home

Dave ----