I took the drivers' door off of my '85 Crown Victoria to put new hinges in. One new hinge on top and put a new pin and bushings in the bottom. Stupid me lost the alignment of the hinges for the door. How do I align the door? Is there a trick to it? I need to get this thing back together tomorrow.

 

After taking over 5 hours to put my two doors back on my 79 pick up and getting the margins right, I found out the hard way how to make it easier. Your car hinges may be set up different than my truck though.

It takes two people, one to loosen and tighten the door hinge bolts and the other person holding the door. They can "feel" how much you are moving the door, a lot better than the person on their knees wrenching the bolts. Get a floor jack or sling off of a engine hoist to hold the door, either one will be taking the weight off of the person holding the door.

Loosen all of the hinge bolts to where you can move the door , but keep them tight enough so the door will not slide around freely. Put masking tape around all your door openings so you wont chip the paint if the door hits the opening wrong, which it will..

The door hinge bolts on the windshield pillar have the door's up and down adjustments in them. The bolts on the door's hinge have the inward/outward (tilt) movement adjustments in them. Make small movements and adjustments, close the door SLOWLY and step back and check your margins everytime you move the hinges, the margins will show you which way the door needs to move.. When you move the door up vertically, the "tilt" will change , so you need to take the adjustments in sequence. Just be patient and you will finally get the proper "margins" set on your doors, it is not a quickie job for sure. good luck

 

Instead of a second person, you can use a floor jack with a strip of foam or rubber on top. That's usually how I do it.

All of the Fords work the same way. Car, truck, doesn't matter

 

I did it today. It took most of my time. It was an incredible amount of trouble and headache. The drivers' door was damaged when I bought the car, which made it even tougher. It's better, but not quite right. When I unlatch the door, it swings open by itself. That's not right.