side door adjustment

my side doors never fit right. the rear door was tight to jamb and center hung way too low, it overlapped the rocker and front door was recessed enough that handle rubbed on rear door. so i removed the door, put a vice on lower hinge and tightened in hopes of flattening just a little to push bottom away from jamb 1/8" and in the process, lifteng the center slightly. it sounded like a good idea. i just couldnt get it to bend at all so i placed a wrench over the handle for leverage. above are my results. plan b. take hinge off and bend in bigger vice! this didnt work much better so i got out my precission bodyworking tools. finally!!! it bent, a lot more than the 1/8" i was wanting so spent the next few hours bending, bolting on door, adjusting, removing door and rebending. i ended up elongating the bolt holes and grinding hinges so i could move bottom out. i did manage to move door away from jamb slightly by bending hinge and raised door in the newly enlarged holes and it finally fits and closes.my rear hinge is bent so much that i needed to grind off the stops. it is much better than what i had but i still have small gaps at the jambs and a big center gap. i cant beleive this are made with no adjustment for side gaps. i have no idea how my hinges could of ever been right. this will have to do for now but i will need a new hinge and will do some fabricating to allow adjustment when it comes time to paint. and yes, that is blood smeared on the door in last pic.

I was waiting for a picture of a broken sledge hammer lol!

Man every time I work on my van I get a little more DNA on it.


I guess that's why they say you put your blood sweat & tears in it.

i have top 2 and rear bottom. the other rod came with van with the spare parts. my rear door hung to low to close, it overlapped rocker panal. the rods line up poorly with the holes and dont see any adjustment there. bottom hinge is bent about 30 degrees so something isnt right. both hinges need another 1/8" to have a normal gap. front door is fine but needs lower rod installed.

doors (hinge areas) are made to be ="SHIMMED" look for some shims (body shop guys??) auto parts -or make some-adding shims between the door & the hinges. Remember if it doesnt fit correctly? somethings wrong or unseen or not present.

doors have hinge bolted inside, not outside so shims would pull door closer to jamb.

nice job!

M1D

m1dadio wrote:nice job!

M1D

thanks, but i am really not happy with it. my first mistake was trying to flatten hinge on door side. whatever i gained in length was lost because door needed to swing a few more degrees so all i did was pushed it in farther, no help on gap. i bent it back and then bent part connected to van. that worked but hinge looks horrable. what is needed is to rebend door side as to lenghten the short part parallel with van. that would of opened gap and pulled it out flush with body. i will try again with another set of hinges and a torch. not today.

jrinaman, i just went through this on my 64, I pulled the whole hinge and put it a shop press and bent the hinge back to where they started.This took a few tries but came out pretty good The hinge is bent from the door being open to far over the years. Remember these vans never had great even gaps to start with!!!!!!!! Bob

(Note: More on this topic on this page)

Hey Bob, glad to hear you got some good results! To be clear, which part of the hinge did you end up bending? The curved one that bolts to the door jam or the straight one that bolts to the door? I don't believe my bodyshop's idea of inserting wedges is going to do the trick. Did you take any photos?

Thanks!

Vanagain, I bent the curve part(van side) I might have picture but have no idea how to post them. My buddy that's helping me with the body work tried every trick that he knew. I pulled the hinge and put it in the press bent it a little , put the hinge back on and repeat. I spent the better part of a day but it looks a ton better Bob

in the body shop we sometimes spring a hinge. do this by closing the door on a block of wood a little thicker than the inside jamb , gently at first, push near the latch,harder only if necessary, the lower hinge first to lift the door at the latch