Hot Rods Improving door gap on steel 32 Ford 5W

Looking for suggestions here where there are folks who have actually done it. We have a steel 5W here where on one door the door gap is tight in the rear and wide in the front. This appears to be a repro steel body produced before United Pacific was in business where the door part of the hinge is solid(welded) inside the door. It looks to me that the only way to change the gaps is to remove the body part of the hinges and bend them a bit. Anyone have any comments on this or a better idea? Thanks

 

Is the body painted? It makes a difference how aggressive you can get. Lol

 

If you take the hinge pins out, and tighten up a huge Crescent wrench onto the hinge half, you can tweak it a little. I've done this to fine tune the gap and the alignment of the two hinges (very important to make sure the pins are absolutely inline). I'd try bending the body half forward or the door half backward a bit. Might take a few tries.

All the 32's I've seen had the hinge rivetted and welded to the door, and countersunk machine screws into the body.

BTW, I've never heard of anyone reproducing a 5-window before UPC did it. Maybe you have a very nice original body?

 

I removed the body part hinge and put it in sheet metal brake tweaked it fit good after

 

Thanks to all who have chimed in so far. The car is painted, quite nicely in fact, so I can't get too aggressive as mentioned. I can't see how this is an original Henry as it is just too nice with parts like door jambs one piece and no evidence of a cowl vent ever or rain gutter. My thought was to try to bend the hinge in the press with chosen fulcrums so as to not bend in the wrong area. Anone ever done it that way? Thanks

 

If it was mine and I couldn't live with the gap, I'd probably remove the front of the hinge and put it in a press like 32v said to. Then you only need to paint that small hinge. But do it in very small amounts, as it doesn't take much to change the angle.

 

My 36 passenger door had an odd wide gap only in a 2- foot section. The rest was good. I welded a bead on the edge of the door in the wide area, then ground it down to match the correct gap. Came out perfect.

 

We need pictures of your 32.

 

Yup, WE LIKE PICTURES

 

Thanks again to all, I guess measured physical violence in the press will be required. I'll get some shots of the car when I get it out of the shop. It's not completely traditional with the pinched and stretched nose but with a CT400 engine, Tremec 5-spd and a 9" it sure is a hot rod.