Door alignment?

[jusglazin]

I have a 66 belvedere. Can someone pass along the secret to getting the doors aligned perfectly? I have installed new pins and attempted adjusting all the hinges but I can't get the things perfect no matter what I do.. Help!!

 

[69HEMICORONETR/TCONV]

The Truth,.......Our beloved Chrysler products of the mid 60s to late 60s were not the Best cars for panel alignment by far, .....It kills me to say it but GM had the Best, the "bodies by Fisher" beat us hands down, .....I have seen so many Dodges and Plymouths back then that were never hit, still in original paint with poor panel alignment, I'm talking 6 month old cars here,

you may not be able to get perfect and have to settle for damn close unless you are willing to do some serious massaging.

doors are a *** pain anyway, I start with the top hinge and get it as close as I can, then make my adjustments on the bottom hinge, and mess with it till I get it acceptable. I always mark hinge locations on the body and the door before removal.

 

[Speedy Canuck]

It kills me to say it but GM had the Best, the "bodies by Fisher" beat us hands down

I can vouch for that. My 41 year old Firebird still has great door alignment!

I'm disappointed to hear about the alignment difficulties for Mopar though, as I'm looking to jump into Ma Mopar's bosom...

 

[Meep-Meep]

Yep, pretty much all of us here don't like MoPar for the body finishing but rather for the indestructible drive train and bullet proof engines!

I have spent a lot of time aligning doors on different cars for me and other people and I can pass on the following info:

Looking at the roll - pitch - yaw drawing in the link for reference your adjustment will consist of the following motions (with the exception of yaw):

http://developer.valvesoftware.com/w/images/7/7e/Roll_pitch_yaw.gif

In addition to the rotation about the X and Y axis, you will have lateral movement there as well.

You may need some serious implements of destruction to make your door fit well. Rubber mallets, BFH, pieces of heater hose, floor jack, wood and maybe pry bars. I use the quarter panel as my point of reference and adjust the door, fenders and hood to that. The bottom gap along the sil plate is usually huge on the MoPars so don't go crazy trying to get that tight. Another trick is you can spread the error over all the gaps rather than getting three gaps perfect and having a huge gap at the fender or something. Also don't over look twisting the door to make it fit.

Rubber mallet and BFH - Help move stuck hinges or ????
Pieces of heater hose - Strategically placed between a section of door and body and used as a tool to deform the metal by forcefully closing the door on the piece of hose.
Floor jack - used to jack up the car (a little) by the open door to do more deformation, or with the hinges tightened just to the point of slippage under a bit of force, to move the door in a controlled fashion.

Wood - Protect bottom of the door from the jack; other adjustments.

And don't forget the window fit to the roof rail and getting the striker correct. You don't want the striker to put the door into a bind as it latches.

It's a lot easier to show you but I hope this attempt at describing what I do is useful.

 

[jusglazin]

Thanks a million, I knew I wasn't crazy. I'll try your technique and be a bit mor forceful.

 

[Meep-Meep]

You should have seen what I had to do to the doors and window frames on a 70 Porsche 911 to make them fit and close properly - and the paint was done!! If he was in the shop with me he would have turned white and fainted.

 

[74sundance]

All I do is hang the door, snug up the bolts so the door holds it self in place but loose enough that I can adjust it..Then snug up the striker,close the door then pull up and out on the top of the door at the same time to set the door, it will also set the striker in place. Then lean over the door threw the window to the inside of the car and just push the bottom of the door out to match the rear 1/4....Tighten all of the hinge bolts,slowly open the door and tighten the striker...Works every time for me.

 

[66_B_Body4ever]

All the above is good advice, here is an excerpt from a thread I submitted to awhile ago...

If your hinges are in good condition life is much easier for a start. Also, it would be easier to accomplish this with the front fender off the car, I am not sure what state your car is in. Keep in mind we are aligning the door to the rocker/quarter panel, not the fender.

There are a few ways to go about this depending if the striker has been removed or adjusted out of position. If it has not been adjusted, you can latch the door closed and then loosen off the hinges at the A pillar and position the door for height and length and snug up the hinges. Now the correct order here would be to loosen the two inner upper and lower fasteners and leave them loose enough to move but so they will not allow the hinge to pull away from the A pillar during adjustment. The outer A pillar hinge bolt(s) is the one we will use for adjustment. Now I am assuming the fender is off or the splash shield is out of the way to gain access to the forward hinge bolt. Don't worry about the in/out adjustment yet, that's the last step. I use plastic fibre sticks that auto glass installers use for initial gap spacing, the are 3/16" or 5 mm in thickness which is a little tight for our MoPars but its a good starting point. Close (latch) the door, loosen off the upper and lower hinge pillar bolts and carefully insert the fibersticks at the front of the rocker and the rear close to the 1/4 panel. Now look at the door to the 1/4 pnl gap. Does it match the rocker gap? Don't be too worried about the overall height, that can be adjusted later. slide the door forward/rearward as required, then snug up the two front outer hinge bolts. Now try the door, it will probably drop a little as you open it, no worries, all you have to do is have an extra pair of hands lift slightly up on the door (while slightly open) and loosen the lower hinge outer bolt to allow the hinge to move slightly rearward. Tighten and try to close, make adjustments as necessary. Ideally at this time you should remove the striker, this will allow you to do the final adjustments without having the striker influence the fit. At this time the door should be square in the opening (rocker/1/4 pnl) but requires lateral/vertical adjustment. before proceeding, tighten the inner A pillar hinge bolts upper/lower.
Have a look at those beautiful body lines...does the door need to go up or down? Height is first here, in/out 2nd. If height adjustment is required, then all 5 (3)upper and (2)lower hinge to door bolts are loosened and adjust for height. Always use the uppermost bolt on the upper hinge as the first to be tightened, then the lower. Once height is good, loosen off only the lower hinge and swing the door into alignment with the rocker/lower body line on the 1/4, leave the lower 2 bolts on the upper hinge loose during this adjustment...once the door is aligned to the lower, snug one of the lower door hinge bolts and proceed to adjusting the upper hinge into alignment with the top of the 1/4 panel/upper body line. Of course when everything fits...tighten her all up, sit back and have a beer...This is a difficult task to accomplish and takes patience, it can take an experienced guy a fair bit of time...let me know how it goes or if I can be of more assistance.

 

[scotts74birds]

66 B Body4ever..You have been "Bookmarked" my friend! Thank you. Great tech!

 

[66_B_Body4ever]

We are all here to help, anytime.
-Cheers!

 

[spiros]

gap

help

 

[YY1]

These ARE real fun.

Just to give another 2 cents, I've seen many, including mine, whre, even though the door is centered and operates perfectly, one body line may line up but two or more do not. I'm faily certain this is due to poor tolerances between the dies for the quarters and the door skins. For istance the line on the lower part of my door is perfect, but the top line is 1/8 off and the top of the door is 3/16 too high. Closes like new, though!

 

[spiros]

gap

These ARE real fun.

Just to give another 2 cents, I've seen many, including mine, whre, even though the door is centered and operates perfectly, one body line may line up but two or more do not. I'm faily certain this is due to poor tolerances between the dies for the quarters and the door skins. For istance the line on the lower part of my door is perfect, but the top line is 1/8 off and the top of the door is 3/16 too high. Closes like new, though!

any ideas for correction?

 

[YY1]

Those gaps actually don't look too bad. Could come forward just a hair, Might let you push the bottom in and not hit the lower rear corner. Any work done to that jamb area? Lots of times too much filler makes it real tight. I've never had to do too much to the top hinge, but my brother just moved his forward about 1/8 and said it was a bear. Might go up just a hair as well.

I definately agree with using a floor jack in conjunction with a wood block. Be careful as the sweet spot for balance can move depending on how far the door is open. I also agree about leaving one each of the hinge bolts just tight enough to slide under force. Easy to go too far, though, and sometimes hard to get back.

Lots of patience required.


Oh, nice lookin car. Love orange on 1st gen RRs.

First hot Mopar I ever saw was very smartly and tastefully built butterscotch 69 RR.

 

[Billccm]

Resurrecting an old thread that I refereed to before I tackled swapping the hinges on my Road Runner last Friday (29 May 2020). I measured two reference spots to the floor in cm; one at the latch start wheel and the other the lip of the door bottom about halfway. Used the idiot proof tool and got really close on my first attempt. Decided to 'overshoot' the reference measurements 1 cm and got almost spot on. Tweaked the striker down 1mm and all is well.

https://www.forbbodiesonly.com/moparforum/threads/idiot-proof-door-hinge-tool.194831/

 

[Billccm]

Oh so slight striker tweak.

 

[440 4 speed]

Oh so slight striker tweak.

View attachment 957569

Is metric becoming popular,or have you been indoctrinated by retired Canadians? He he.

 

[Billccm]

Is metric becoming popular,or have you been indoctrinated by retired Canadians? He he.

I'm an engineer working in the mining industry. My colleagues have demanded that I work in metric.