Hi folks, I removed my doors to work on them. I replaced the hinges with new ones. I am trying to install the drivers door and it's giving me a hard time. Is there a procedure I need to follow to get the door to line up right? I have taken the door off and on many times to adjust the hinges and it's still not close to fitting. Any tips? I am about ready to light the car on fire!!!
Never done this before - but just to recheck the obvious - do the new brackets look like the old ones? Do you have them installed on the right doors (left to right)? Upside down, etc etc?
Just take a step back and recheck all the obvious stuff.
'68 Firebird, 350-4, 2 spd auto, triple black, Dlx Interior
Do you still have your original hinges? I've read of problems setting up the repro hinges. I'm going to re-pin my sagging hinge because of this. You could put the original hinges back, set the door up with the original hinges and then swap in the repro hinges one at a time. That will show if one of the repro hinges is causing your problem. I think Ames has a re-pinning kit.
Set the door to quarter gap first. Also, align the door to quarter styling edges at the top, middle and bottom, taking the best compromise. If you removed the latch while working on the door, this could be off, locating the door high or low at the quarter. With the correct door height at the quarter, set the front edge of the door to make the gap even beneath the door. Once these are correct, work on the in/out adjustment of the door to meet the front fender. Keep the bolts tight that are not related to the direction you are trying to correct. If you run out of adjustment range on the repro hinge, you may need to ream some of the holes larger.
I read a hit I'll pass along to others getting ready to remove a door. Drill a small hole through each hinge into the door/body to serve as alignment guides. That speeds the alignment process.
Or install brackets and slide through the window, Dukes of Hazzard style.
One common mistake/problem when re-installing a door is starting with the hinges too low on the body. Once you loosen all the bolts the hinge falls down to the bottom of it's travel. You can take a bottle jack and raise the door with the jack then tighten the bolts. This will get you up a little before you start trying to line up the door. Just be careful not to loosen all the bolts at once so it can't fall again. A door has so much adjustment you can actually "roll" the door. There are so many tricks with aligning doors it would be hard to type them all. Jim
I can't find the old hinges. I tried again last night and wound up making it worse. I got so pissed off I had to walk away. The last time I hung a door like this it was a 71 Olds Delta 88 convertible. That door was so heavy. After almost giving up, it just kind of went into place. I am hoping that at some point I can get it close. Right now it's one step foward and two back.
If you get it really close and it's just the edge where the latch is that's off, you can twist the door itself a little. Believe it or not, you can grab the top of the door with one hand and the bottom with the other and just twist it. The door will bend a little. Sometimes it's what it takes to get it just right. If you don't have the strength to do this you can shut a piece of wood in the top or bottom and get the same results. Jim
I'm new to the site and was interested in door installation tips as I've just rebuilt the hinges on by '68 but have yet to bolt the doors back on. For anyone out there interested in rebuilding their hinges I can report the process is pretty easy - at least for '68 hinges. First of all, prior to deciding to re-bush your hinges, assess their condition. If the bushing holes are elongated the holes must be repaired before installing new bushings. The bushings provided in the kit are sintered bronze. They do not exhibit the mechanical properties of wrought bronze bushing material and will fail in short order if not pressed into a round hole. On the lower hinges, if the detent lever rivet is loose - my drivers side was ready to fail - then hinge replacement may be required. (I'm TIG welding the holes and re-machining mine to salvage the hinge – yeah, ok, I’m cheap.) Removing the original staked in hinge pin is the hardest part of the whole process. Carefully locate and center punch the pin center. Make sure your looking at the center of the pin, not the center of the remaining material between the two stake points. (becomes apparent if you look at your hinge pin) Start with a small drill maybe .062” drilling deeper that the length of the stake. Open this pilot hole up with an .343” drill until most of the original pin is gone. Be careful not to ding the hinge itself. Once drilled, knock off the remains with a small sharp chisel. A couple sharp wraps on the drilled end of the pin should move it. If not, return to drill & chisel mode. I found pin would drive out if supported on a solid surface with a socket to “swallow” the pin as it is driven out. Now that hinge is apart, remove the original bushings. Inspect the holes for wear and repair if necessary. To install new bushings I used a 5/16”-18 bolt and a few washers to squeeze the bushing into place. Thin wall sintered bronze bushings do not take well to being pounded on and will easily break if not started perpendicular to the hole. Bushings are a light press fit into unworn holes. Bushings may shrink a bit during installation. Not having an 11/32nds reamer handy I scraped, by hand, a slight amount of material out of the bushings with a machinist scraper. I don’t recommend sanding these bushings since it is impossible to entirely remove the abrasive that will be left behind.
Finally, a tip on removing and installing the detent springs. (I’m sure somebody makes a special tool for this but I don’t happen to own one) Springs can be removed by prying between the spring and the hinge with a big screwdriver. (the detent lever has a deeper retaining “pocket” and nothing to really pry against) I doubled up a hand towel to contain the spring from flying all over the garage. This worked pretty well.
To install the springs, I compressed them in a bench vise with just enough coil sticking out above the jaws that I could thread a .06” piece of soft bailing wire through the spring center. Collapse the spring and tie the wire together. Carefully release the spring, roll it over 180 degrees and install a second wire in a similar fashion. With pliers, locate the spring to the hinge and detent lever assembly so the wires holding the spring compressed straddle the detent lever. Stand back and cut the wires. With a small screwdriver pry between the hinge and spring just enough to slip the wire out.
Clear as mud? It worked for me. Now I just have to figure out how to line the doors back up - which is originally how I ended up here. Hopes this helps anyone thinking of rebuilding their hinges.
Also try removing the door weather stripping to makes the re-install little easier. I had fought with mine over a week and messed up door edge and door jams paint before a body man told me about removing the w/strip. Good luck, it can really try your patience. jd
1) Rebuild your hinge pins if you can when the door is off. 2) The job is 15,000 times worse if you have front fenders on. 3) Your door striker may need an extra washer to make it mate up with your latch in the door 4) Allignment is almost opposite of what you may think to do. Case and point: If you are working on your driver door, and the bottom right corner near the lower rocker is too far away from the body, unbolt the top hinge on the door, not on the unibody, and move the top left corner of the door OUT. 5) Finally once the door is mostly in place and closing and latching correctly, you can use brute force to tweak the last bit of the allignment. Dont be afraid to grab the top and bottom of the door and rotate it (top in, bottom out, or whatever) to get that last 1/8 inch correctly alligned. They did it in the factory.
Well I got the door on and it's not too bad. I had to use shims on the hinges in order to get it where it is now. I have finished one side of the car and now need to turn it around. I will come back to that door later and make it fit better than it is now. By taking off the door, replacing the hinges and messing with the fender and rear Qtr. I made this as difficult as I could for myself. I hope installing my new 400 hood and complete nose won't be worse than the doors. Thanks for everyone's help.
You are really supposed to have the fender off to adjust the door. One part that should be removed, and it isn't an option, is the striker because you cannot determine the natural the natural hang on the door when the striker grabs the door.
Ah, a 9 nose! You'll see! I hope you didn't take the support frame apart. Also, if you took the horns off the frame, your're going to have fun. When you start to get pi$$ed off, walk away and try on another day.
