Drivers door issue, it’s wonky

[Svtfreak]

Hey guys. When reassembling, it seems my door is twisted. The back lower corner is low, the top is aligned. The front lower corner sticks way out and the top is way in. If the front wasn’t so far out, I could correct with bumpers but I need to get that front bottom in without getting the rear lower in farther. Any ideas? I’m still fiddling with as the latch isn’t quite in the right place either, I’ll prolly have to drill a couple holes of my own to make it line up. But that won’t fix the twist. Thanks in advance.

[GoDadGo]

Could you possibly use a pair of screen door support, the turnbuckle style, maybe in an X-Pattern to pull it to a point to make you happy?

Just Spit Balling An Idea From "The Dell" Slidell that is.

[Svtfreak]

Not a bad idea, Steve, to fix another problem I’m having lol.

But actually when I mean low I mean the panel sets too low and high I mean it doesn’t sit flush. Height compared to the body panels, not up and down. I’ll post pics tomorrow.

[GoDadGo]

Not a bad idea, Steve, to fix another problem I’m having lol.

But actually when I mean low I mean the panel sets too low and high I mean it doesn’t sit flush. Height compared to the body panels, not up and down. I’ll post pics tomorrow.

On my MK-4 I had to split the drivers door, spread it and then re-glass.

Could you split the door, then spread or shrink the piece and then re-glass also?

https://youtu.be/6UK6K2jcwTU

[Blade]

Hey guys. When reassembling, it seems my door is twisted. The back lower corner is low, the top is aligned. The front lower corner sticks way out and the top is way in. If the front wasn’t so far out, I could correct with bumpers but I need to get that front bottom in without getting the rear lower in farther. Any ideas? I’m still fiddling with as the latch isn’t quite in the right place either, I’ll prolly have to drill a couple holes of my own to make it line up. But that won’t fix the twist. Thanks in advance.

Mine was twisted maybe in much the same way as yours. I stared at the manual till my eyes crossed, I then just saw where it says something about getting in place and then tightening the fasteners. So, I loosened up all the hardware,including the bear claw,the carriage bolts,etc... pushed the door closed on the latch, put my paint stick spacers back in,pulled out what was too far in,pushed in the rest and tightened the hardware back up. I was surprised how well it came out. You may have already done this, just adding it worked pretty well for me.

[Svtfreak]

Mine was twisted maybe in much the same way as yours. I stared at the manual till my eyes crossed, I then just saw where it says something about getting in place and then tightening the fasteners. So, I loosened up all the hardware,including the bear claw,the carriage bolts,etc... pushed the door closed on the latch, put my paint stick spacers back in,pulled out what was too far in,pushed in the rest and tightened the hardware back up. I was surprised how well it came out. You may have already done this, just adding it worked pretty well for me.

Gen 1 or 2? I’ll go check my manual and see what it says. But I may try that anyway. I’ve done some amount of that but never all the moveable points.

[FF33rod]

My approach is similar to Blade.
There are essentially 4 adjustment points for in/out twist:
1. How the door mounts to the hinge arms
2. The 2 bolts that hold the inner backing plate to the rear of the door
3. the latch attaching to the front of the door
4. using shim washers where the latch mount attaches to the long internal door arm

The couple of times that I've put the door on I've had good luck with doing the following
- tighten up the 2 bolts that hold the inner backing plate to the rear of the door
- slip the door over the 2 hinge arms, put the bolts in place and tighten to the point where they're just causing a little friction. Before tightening them, you have 3 things to accomplish - getting the front of the door at the right height, getting the door centered in the opening (gaps are correct front and back), and get the rear of the door lined up properly with the body (in/out). When you're happy with that, tight up the bolts.
- now it's time to adjust the front so there's no twist, I usually keep the latch secured to the body and adjust with shim washers. I find it's the easiest.

Steve

[Svtfreak]

- now it's time to adjust the front so there's no twist, I usually keep the latch secured to the body and adjust with shim washers. I find it's the easiest.

Steve

Steve, where, exactly, do you put these washers? Sounds like I have everything done like you say. I tried putting bumpers up top which twisted it around the latch, but that put too much pressure on the latch and it didn’t wanna work right then.

[FF33rod]

here's a pic of the door frame components, the 2 bolts i'm referring to are circled. Adding washers between the 2 components on 1 bolt vs the other will cause twist...

128937

Steve

[sread]

I had to actually twist my frame on the drivers door...otherwise you will need a huge stack of washers to try and shim it into place. Lay it on a flat surface and compare it to the pass side. Another issue I ran into was the inner part of the door contacting the body before the lower corner was flush. Was able to grind a little clearance in the jamb on the body to give me what i needed. And definitely get the door in place and lined up before tightening all the adjustment points.

[Svtfreak]

Thanks y’all. Steve, I thought that might be the ones you meant. I’ll give that a try first thing next shop day. I appreciate that. Sread, I don’t have it contacting and pushing things out of whack anywhere. That was the first thing I checked. If I have to, I will surely loosen it all up, get it into place then tighten again. I’ve done that twice already lol! But I think I’m gonna shim like Steve said, it shouldn’t take many for mine, then go from there.

[AJT '33]

here's a pic of the door frame components, the 2 bolts i'm referring to are circled. Adding washers between the 2 components on 1 bolt vs the other will cause twist...

128937

Steve

Here is how mine is setup for the drivers side door.
128966 128967

You need to get the door lined up to the body as best as you can with the bear claw latch, only then after use the shims to find the alignment needed. You then install the door strike pin accordingly.

[Svtfreak]

Thanks AJ! You guys suggestions make sense. Not sure why I didn’t think about them. I appreciate that. I’ll be attempting this today.

[Svtfreak]

Yep, one washer on the bottom bolt did it. Door lines up really nice now. Thanks guys!
https://i.imgur.com/Ixl3yCp.jpg

Before, it was touching at the top and the bottom rounded corner was prolly 1/4” above level. That one washer really got it back right.

The striker bolt was way off. Too high and out of alignment. I’m working on it but gonna have to modify the plate pretty good to give me enough adjustment. Like weld a tab and make a new slot. I’ve started that but the kids wanted to go swimming so I called it a day. I’ll finish that up tomorrow.

[fostia]

I had serious striker problems. I completely cut off the striker mount and had to weld my own slotted extension in there and butchered the fiberglass in that area. I'm going to have to put some sort of two piece aluminum plate over it to cover up the mess. I'm not at the point yet of fine tuning like you but I'm not looking forward to it.