Main driver and passenger door seal and window alignment

[MH77280Z]

Guys this is after I had installed the main door seal. I can probably live with it. But seems like the lower edge is aligned and not the top. How does your fitment looks? Can this be fixed?

 

 

[Patcon]

Well I would guess that if the painted part of the door aligns well then you could loosen the stainless frame and tip it in to preload it, so that it crushes the seal more.

Or as a final step you could bend the frame in some more but you'd have to be careful doing that

[dutchzcarguy]

First question i would have is.. does it fit like this when the rubber is out? I think it does.. If that's the case i would leave it out, loosen all the screws from the stainless part and close the door carefull then see if you can align it with the glass down.. be careful not to break the glass. Then open the door careful and fasten the lower screws and test if the door still fits. you can fasten the screws lightly and still change the fitment in the dooropening.. fidle with it take your time.

I wouldn't bend the stainless, when i take a look at your foto it's repairable by only make a adjustment in the setting of the screws.. they are made for these adjustment, they can make the top shift for half an inch or even a bit more i think?  above all, take your time and if you are scared to do something like this take out the glass.. but that's a lot of work.

Edited December 9, 2023 by dutchzcarguy

[dutchzcarguy]

About living with this.. your door is not watertight this way.. so don't leave it like this..

[MH77280Z]

I think I have found the problem. Have not verified yet...

This is the driver side door with the seal in. As you can see the top part of the chrome window channel is aligning well with the Qtr panel but the botom end is further pushed inside ... this is also consistent with the main door blue painted part also being pushed inside.

We took off the doors for painting the car. I think I have to loosen the bracket bolts to the door and pull this one out a bit. For the passenger side I might have to push it back in. Will give it a try later this week.

[Patcon]

The doors can be warped by hand if necessary

[Mark Maras]

 Odd. I remember you using your leg too.

[MH77280Z]

2 hours ago, Patcon said:

The doors can be warped by hand if necessary

Would never do that!!!

Once you do that the door or hinge is permanently de-shaped. Never mess-up with the OEM stuff. I think i will just need to play with it a bit with loosen bolts and get to set it correctly. Will tackle down the line. At the moment I am trying to install the wiper motor!!!

[Patcon]

Actually I dont believe the factory panels were perfect off the line. With 50+ years of wear we have no idea if the panels still have the factory shape. I reshaped my doors. It's buried somewhere in my build thread. If the front edge lines up with the fender properly and one of the rear corners of the door sits proud. It's the only way to make it line up. It's really not hard to do

[Namerow]

10 hours ago, Patcon said:

Actually I dont believe the factory panels were perfect off the line. With 50+ years of wear we have no idea if the panels still have the factory shape. I reshaped my doors. It's buried somewhere in my build thread. If the front edge lines up with the fender properly and one of the rear corners of the door sits proud. It's the only way to make it line up. It's really not hard to do

Second that.  Patcon's warping strategy was the only way I could get my P-side door's trailing edge to line up.  I made up a torque arm out of 1" square steel tubing to help with the job.  I drilled holes in the tube so that I could use two of the existing holes* in the back of the door to bolt it to the structure's trailing edge (* the holes that are normally used to attach the window sash to the door -- I had the window sash removed for this job).  When bolted in place, the torque arm projected ~ 2' above the top of the door and ~ 1' below the bottom of the door.  Sorry - no photos available.  Just put a yardstick against the back of the door.  You'll get the picture.

The quick-and-dirty way to do this job is the block the bottom (or top) of the rear of the door with a piece of 2X4 and then push on top (or bottom).  Easy to damage the paint using his approach (unless the car hasn't been painted yet).

[grannyknot]

13 hours ago, MH77280Z said:

Would never do that!!!

Once you do that the door or hinge is permanently de-shaped. Never mess-up with the OEM stuff. I think i will just need to play with it a bit with loosen bolts and get to set it correctly. Will tackle down the line. At the moment I am trying to install the wiper motor!!!

If you can get the door to sit right without manually tweaking it then that's perfect but reshaping the door by twisting is a standard body shop technique. Have a look at your door hinges, they're cast iron, you are not going to hurt them in anyway. This technique was used on every assembly line back in the 70's.

[Richie G]

On 12/11/2023 at 9:59 AM, MH77280Z said:

We took off the doors for painting the car. I think I have to loosen the bracket bolts to the door and pull this one out a bit. For the passenger side I might have to push it back in. Will give it a try later this week.

Had a very similar problem.  All i did was play with the striker latch and adjust it to accommodate the part of the door needing it.  If the top of the door sitting in like this but bottom flush you have to rotate the striker latch and play with the two screws on the bottom part with the spring.  Angle it just right and the door will latch flush top to bottom.  I dont think you have a hinge or channel problem.