i have a 51 ford tudor, and i'm having some issues with getting the doors lined up. the car had new floorpans, and rockers when i got it, so i don't know if that has anything to do with it, maybe something moved when they had everything cut out? i don't know? i was wondering if anyone has had this problem and if so, how you fixed it?
The body structure could have sprung/warped out of shape if the floors were cut out without support. Normal way to align doors is to start with the rear of the door gap with the front of the quarter panel. Move the hinges to set the gap even from top to bottom. Sometimes you have to shim the rear body mounts and raise the back of the body to close the gap. After you get the rear gaps correct you hang the front fenders and shift them around until the gap at the front of the door is set with the rear of the fender. Now install the hood and try to get the side gaps between the edge of the hood and fenders equal. It can take days of shimming and tweaking to get it right. If you find the cowl or body has sagged you will need a Porta Power or big jack and try to push things back into shape. Good luck.
On my 48 Chevy 1/2 ton panel truck it took several days on each of the four doors after rebuilding the hinges. Lots of adjusting and cussing helps. But it's worth the effort.
It looks like you supported the car real well when you chopped it, but it still could have moved a little bit. If the doors fit the pockets you will get them to align. I have had to cut the doors to fit the hole on some projects I have bought. I am interested in following this for when I start my 51 club coupe in the future. Nice work and good luck.
well, you can't really adjust the hinges other than shims, and i have so many in there now and it still not enough
That is the one thing a lot of guys tend to forget when they start cutting on a car or truck body. The doors have to be perfectly aligned before you make the first cut and they have to be braced very well. If they didn't fit well before you chopped it it's going to be the pits getting them to fit now. My own truck is a prime example of that.
yeah, i put plenty of bracing before i made any cuts, but the floors and rockers were done before i got the car, thats why i was thinking maybe something moved. i thought about cutting the support where the hinges are welded to the car, and just moving it to where i need it, then weld it back. but thats a last resort.
This tech week post has some good advice. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?p=8160011#post8160011 With new floors and rockers I would suspect that something got tweaked in that process, bending hinges or shimming body mounts might need to be done to correct that. With my truck it took quite a while with a jack and porta power to get everything so that the door actually closed. If the doors are just plain sagging, the old closing the 2x4 in the hinge works well to bring it up. Also check the door pillars to see if they are properly supported to keep the hinges from twisting.
When i did the floor/rockerjob for my shoebox,i kept the doors bolted on the body,so it was easier to get the doors lined up.But there was some gap issues because of the saggy doors,the hinges were really worn out.I rebuild them and the gaps get better after that.
i dont think these are the original doors, so for all i know there might not have been doors on it when they did the floors and rockers
with new hinges they might need to be bent body shims, and lots of time to get them lined up some times you spend a day putting shims here and there and then adjusting the doors only to come back the next day and pull them all out again and start from zero. From studying a lot of original cars and working on a few shoeboxed cars the gap from Ford was not perfect the front edge seams a little large and the doors dont move forward with out some cutting. but i would fit and refit everything before making any cuts. if the inner jamb is gapped even and the skin is at fault make sure the door skin and the fender quarter skin are on the same plane that affects the gap. and if all else fails you can always edge weld it to get the gap perfect. Just my 2 cents.
no cut the door post where the floor pan attched to the door post. and the move the whole door post, also remember if the hinges are worm it will toss the door out alignment. the floor should not have been welded until the door was aligned correctly the ems guy
I traded my '51 Ford for a finished '52 Chevy where the doors wouldn't close properly. The Chevy had a lot of rust repair, so the doors had been removed. The doors were re-hung and the car painted. After I got the car, I took it to a shop where they removed the front clip, aligned and re-hung the doors, then matched the clip to the doors. Now it works fine.
On the Fords and the Mercurys and the Lincolns they bent the door hinges to align the doors at the factory. Put a block of wood in the bottom hing to raise the rear of the door. A block of wood in the top hinge to lower the rear of the door. A block of wood in both to move the door back. Shut the door on the wood to bend the hinges. To move the door forward you will need to take the hinges off and flatten them so the gap between the leaves gets smaller at the pin end. A large flat piece of sheet stock can also be used under the hinge to shim the hinge if you do not want to bend them. Fritz
Fritz speaks the truth. I rebuilt the hinges and changed doors on my '50, had to do a fair amount of hinge bending to get everything looking decent. Just bend a little at a time, it's a bitch taking the hinges out to flatten when you bend to much
ok one more thing, not on the top of the list but possable, it is possable that if the bottom of the door is rusted and allowed to blow open or over opened to far by force it can not bend the hinge but bend the sheet metal the hinge bolts to. the ems guy
thanks everyone for the advice, i did the 2x4 trick and it took less than a min to get both doors lined up. i still think something moved when the floors and rockers were done (before i got the car), the passenger side needs a little trimming and welding to get a nice door gap. but other than that it worked perfect. thanks!
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