I've been trying to pick up the back of my 39 ford coupe pass door and can't seem to get it . It has tight hinge pins (new) and I've tried shimming the back of the cowl but that didn't help. I've been reading on bending the top hinge some but need some advice on going about it. I don't want to make things any worse.it needs to come up a little more than an eighth of an inch to line up with the reveal. I'm waiting to hear on an offset male dove tail too to see if that will help. Any advice is appreciated.
You can remove the bottom hinge plate from the cowl and shim it with a piece of 16ga sheet metal. Might suck to get the fasteners out of the hinge plate, but it is the best way to do it. -Abone.
Before you do all that, have someone open the door about halfway and lift the rear bottom of the door up and down watch to make sure you don't have any slop in anything. A small amount of slop in a hinge pin or mounting fasteners makes a big difference at the rear of the door. -Abone.
The door should shut perfectly before it hits the dovetail. The dovetail is just to keep it in position after it’s latched. If you are relying on the dovetail to shove it up, you are doing it wrong. Make all your adjustments with no dovetail in place.
I can get the screws out ok flame. Everything is tight in the hinges. Should I shim the whole face of the hinge or just the bottom part of it where the one screw is ? And thank you for the reply
What does the gap look like on the front edge of the door? If it is nice and even, you probably don’t want to be shimming hinges. That would alter your front gap. When you say you tried shimming under the back edge of the cowl, did you also add any other shims on other bolts? Might need the biggest shim at the A post, but another small one halfway back in the door opening. Maybe even remove a shim at the firewall if there is one there.
loosen A and B pillar body mount bolts with an extra inch play and pry or jack up the cowl and the door will come up to alignment...and add shims accordingly ( GM shims are ushaped so you can slide them in ...then tighten down bolts..its easier than you think....done it many times..the dove tail might have to be adjusted....
Ford made off set male dove tails. I know because I have had one & sold it to a Hamb member in Nevada. It would Pick up the door about 1/8 in if the door had a little looseness & saging.
Before I would give advice on just using shims or bending any part of a hinge, I would want to see the gap all the way around the Door. Most often if you have good tight hinge pins the issue is in the Body, not the hinge adjustments. Moving the bottom hinge back will lift the door but can cause the bottom of the door to then be tight at the B post. I would advise you find out what the actual problem is before you start Jacking the door around.
I just looked a little closer at the 2 photos you posted. The photo showing the top corner tells me enough that I would be looking into an actual Body issue rather than just a hinge adjustment. How is the Gap across the Top of the door and down the windshield part of the body? Has this Body had Rockers/Floors repaired or replaced?
On the B pillar, Door gap looks like it gets wider above the Trim and tighter below. It's going to get worse as you move the bottom hinge back. Not the direction I'd want things going.
the floor has a small patch in it and was done before I got the car. Done quite a while ago I would guess. I'll put some more pics on here later. The door gap gets tighter above the trim. You can see where the paint got chipped off on the door from rubbing top of B pillar.
I can see the wedge in the A post gap in that photo. Looks tight at the bottom. Adding a shim behind bottom hinge will improve that as well as the trim alignment at B post. Question is what will it do above the trim on the A post and below the Drip Rail?
the hood and door trim line up good. the cowl trim is low but maybe it was the way the PO put it on. I'm going to work on raising the back of the door today to get a better line on the door and quarter trim then i'll see what i can do with the short cowl trim. thanks
For sure, that came around quite nice. To me the Body line is more important than the trim fit. The trim can usually be shifted just a bit for final fit.
Yup that's what I want to zero in on is the body line. There's a little wiggle room in the trim. It's 83 years old but I'll try and get it as close as I can. Again I want to thank everyone for all the advice.
Funny story behind that. I was at our local racetrack in 1968 having a not so good day. I was under the hood when a fellow asked me what that noise was. I was not so quick to reply so he walked away. Just then another came along and asked how I was doing as I was answering the first person's question. I was just a bit Gruff so he put his hands up, turned around and walked off as yet another coming over to see if he could help and asked the second friend what was wrong with my Motor. He said don't go over there, he's totally Pissed off and he's Broke! Yah, it stuck.
One of the things that I am always aware of is the alignment of the hinge pin axis, those two holes have to be on the same axis when there isn't any wear on the hinges or pins.