I have removed my doors on my ’53 F100 so I could install new weather stripping and now I need to reinstall the doors. I left the hinges attached to the cab and removed the bolts holding the door to the hinges. The plates that the hinges bolt to in the door are free to float for proper door adjustment. Is there a preferred method or a trick for aligning these floating plates with the holes in the hinges to engage the bolts?

 

Tape the cowl and door edge....have an extra set of hands, and go slow.

I use a small drift pin to slip through the hinge into the plate once the door is slid onto the hinges. Thats where the extra hands comes into play.

 

Thanks. I have an engine crane that I use to position and hold the door. The small drift sounds like a good idea.

 

As long as the doors are off, before you slide them back on to the hinges you might want to check to see if your hinge leafs have any excessive play. Especially on the drivers side since they can be the most worn. If they do have play you should re-pin the hinges. Sloppy hinges will make door alignment even more difficult.

 

I could have used this knowledge a month ago when I rehung my doors.

What a great idea using the engine hoist for the doors - they are quite heavy even when stripped of their innards. If it’s not too much trouble, I’d love to see a picture of how you rigged the door to the hoist.
Phil

 

I didn't take any pictures taking the door off but later next week I will be putting the drivers door back on. I will take some pictures then.

 

Looking forward to seeing the images… I could sure use the extra hand with the doors..

 

Here is what I did with mine. I had to re-pin my hinges. One was broken. That part of the job was really the pain of the whole process. The door alignment was hard too, but at least to me wasn't as bad as trying to remove a broken hinge pin.
But back to the door. I stripped the window and vent window out, and window regulator. Took off the stricker plate mechanism too. But left the door latch mechanism in. Then when the hinges were re-pinned and re-installed I used an engine lift to hold the door up for me so I could slide it back on the hinge leafs. I then used a drift, punch, and or even a phillips screwdriver to align the door pocket tapping plates to the hinge leaves to get the bolts started. Go real so if your are working alone, because the door will swing around on the lift.
After you get the door on the leafs and you believe (hopefully you made some reference marks) positioned close to where it was before you removed it, I added some slit pieces of 5/16 inch rubber hose, around the doors edges to act as temporary spacers. The outside thickness of 5/16 rubber hose is almost 5/32" and makes getting the door gapped a lot easier. (Saw that tip on a Tri-5 Chevy website). I then carefully shut the door, aligned the door left and right, but the real hard part is getting the door high enough in the opening. Even with the engine lift it is hard, and to be honest that is where the rubber hose sort of works against you. I put wood blocks on the running boards, and then shims to help me raise the door. I just kept using the engine lift to slightly raise the door, and kept adding more shims between the wood blocks and the shims that were already under the door. Once I had the door aligned where I wanted it. It was time to go inside, try to lay on the floor and tighten up the hinge to door leaf bolts in the door pockets. It got to the point I had my wife inside the cab with a nut driver to help me with that as it seemed the position of the door would change with me getting in and out of the truck numerous times through the passenger side.
On my door I did have to add a 1/16" inch shim between the doors bottom hinge leaf and the tapping plate. Otherwise the inside of the lower door wouldn't quite clear the outside part of the lower cab and you could see a small dent around that area.
Anyway on mine, for me, it worked out in the end.

 

I’ve actually never thought about shimming the hinges; what a simple solution to some door alignment issues. I actually own a restored 56 that rolled out of the driveway and rather abruptly stopped at the base of a rather large tree. Luckily the tree kept it from going into our lake.. Long story short, the front end was totaled and had to be redone (Photo) I’ve had some problems getting the passenger door straight ever since, shimming the lower hinge might be the fix..

Thank you for the details and the pictorial, both will be used by many in the coming years.

Just installed a new 700r trans and shifter and I thought it was in park… Ugh!




Ready for car shows again..

 

What a beautiful car Phil! As much as a Ford classic truck guy I am, I Love the tri 5 Chevys! Looks like a great job on your repar.
On my 56 F-100, I used one of those auto body U shaped shims initially. Then when I had to pull the door off for the hinge repair, I used used a pair of washers. It was kind of hard keeping the washers under the hinge leaf and on the bolt to start it, so I almost switched back to the body shim that I used earler. Maybe better though is parts retailer Mid-Fifty and other guys here on this forum have drilled, tapped, and threaded bolts into the hinge leaves for added door adjustments if you can't get quite enough adjustment on the B pillar side of the hinge to keep the door alignment straight from bottom to top.

 

Since I work by myself, I like to use tools that make that situation easier. Here is one such tool, a door dolly. It is easy to use and it places the door in the exact position necessary to make installation safe and easy.

 

Here are a few pictures of how I used my engine hoist to position the door on my '53 so I could slide it over the hinge leafs. I rolled the window down and found that placing the strap a few inches behind the wing window frame gave a pretty good balance point. Using the hoist to get the proper vertical position, I was able to slip the door frame onto the leafs. Still not a piece of cake, but doable with patience.

 

Knowing that people have had issues getting doors aligned when installing them I drilled 2 1/8" holes through the floating plate and the door before I removed the bolts. That way when I went to reinstall the door I aligned the holes and installed metal pins to hold them in place. I used a transmission jack to set the door on. Since I did all the work on my truck by myself this helped me allot getting my doors aligned.

 

I used a floor jack with a 2x4 under the bottom edge of the door with no striker plate mounted and no running boards attached. Aligned the door, crawled into the cab and tightened all door bolts worked out perfect, one person operation

 

Literally just got this last week.