Door Alignment Question (with Pics)

Markos

Markos

Well-Known Member
Site Donor
Messages
13,369
Reaction score
7,523
Location
Seattle, WA
Hi Folks,

I haven't given this much thought, except for the fact that there are some doors being sold locally.

My driver's door appears as if it doesn't shut all the way. However, the glass is planted against the rear window felt. The door gets progressively worse as you head towards the ground. There is a pretty large gap on the underside of the door.

Is this an alignment problem, or should I be going after a replacement door? Your input is greatly appreciated. It seems like the whole lower portion of the door needs to move inward. Do the hinges facilitate this type of adjustment? Thanks!

18827291441_716527d510_b.jpg

18202029804_739016488f_b.jpg

18798360686_ce2fab972f_b.jpg

18824614385_125e14a640_b.jpg


Pay no attention to the white powder on the door!
 
Last edited:
Never looked into door issues but if the door was never hit it may be sagging at the hinges. I recall reading that it is adjustable and seeing pictures of workers at Karmann with mallets getting each car to comply.

When you slam the door does it make a nice rewarding door close sound? Mine does followed by a musical resonance for about a second or two, or four seconds when my wife closes it.
 
Hullo, you have a number of door issues, you door has dropped , note the alignment of the upper rear of the door shell, to the upper forward part of the rear guard , also as the door has come down it has come out, looks like the lower rear of the door is sitting out from the body about 3/16 or so. You also look to have a nasty growth on your glass?.
In regards to the adjustment , first open the door and check for wear in the upper door hinge, you do this by lifting the door up and down from the lower rear of the door shell, if it clunks get another hinge, or re-bush it , a little movement is ok.
Loosen the upper door hinge bolts where they attach to the door, lift rear of door up about 5/16, snug up one bolt , you will have at least 1/8 of sag in the door with good, old hinges , lower the door glass, remove the door striker from the vertical face of the rear guard, you now have the potential obstructions out of the way.
Slowly attempt to close the door, is the height right? if not, re-adjust and tighten the other bolts.
The lower rear of the door could be sitting out away from the body still, if so loosen the lower door hinge bolts where they attach to the body and move the hinge in board untill the rear of the door , upper and lower is flush with the body, tighten bolts.
Re fit door striker making sure it engages the door lock smoothly and does not pull the door up or down, move the striker inboard untill the rear of the door is flush with the leading edge of the rear guard.
You may have to adjust the door glass , as you have just moved the top of the door up and out.
Good luck .
Burky.
 
Burky,

Thanks for the great post. It sounds like the issue can be addressed via adjustment. The passenger side door is in much better shape, but it has likely been used quite a bit less. I might give this a shot this weekend. I need to do something that isn't too strenuous this weekend. Maybe this is it.

As far as the growth, that's just nature man! You probably haven't seen my budget resto thread, but my 'barn find' was parked outside for quite a while. I haven't fully scrubbed all the moss off the car yet. One reason is that every seal on the car is bad, and the thing takes in water. I will be giving it a dry bath once it's in the garage. Right now it lives outside under a tarp. That should change very soon.

16752003600_26fb3cef55_b.jpg
 
Markos,

As long as the lower front of the door sits out as much as the lower rear of the door, you can correct it via adjustment.
 
Markos,

You may already know this....but I don't think your door is the problem.

I mean from the images, it does not look bent/tweaked, or abused.

You may have a case where your chassis is overloaded from structural deteoration. Hence the door wants to sag, it can also be just on one side like in your case or both.

You can try a new-used door, but I am not sure that is your culprit.

MF
 
Markos said:
good to know. If not, should I go after that used door in town?
Click to expand...

That used door might fit your car even worser than the one you have, as the doors were probably tailor made to fit the body they were hung on from the factory. My car had doors taken from another car, and they did not fit the body at all, they had used 5-8mm of bondo in the lower part of the door to get it flush with the body, and the gaps were all over the place.

Thats one reason why I changed the doorskins, it was easy to twist and pull the door to correct fitment before welding the new skin in place.
 
Last edited:
Markos said:
Ugh, I should probably tackle this soon!
Click to expand...

It could be that it just needs a quick adjustment, so try that first before worrying ;-) But the hinges is probably not in top condition anymore if they never have been replaced or re-bushed. Mine were shot.
 
I took another look. The door doesn't appear to shut all the way. I can push against the door and it will close more. If I let go, it bounces back the gap. I'm thinking that I need to adjust the door catch so that it sits further inward. When I shut the door, the rotating latch clicks twice. I'll fiddle this weekend.

Anyway, when I press on the door, the gap is gone fore the most part.
 
And your door will never latch properly if it doesn't have the little plastic kernels that slip over the catch on the door mechanism, they are very inexpensive too.
 
HB Chris said:
And your door will never latch properly if it doesn't have the little plastic kernels that slip over the catch on the door mechanism, they are very inexpensive too.
Click to expand...

Ah, that mistery part. Historians speculate the tower of Pizza was also missing that part.
I check mine is still there every time I check oil level.
 
Thanks Chris/Markos. I know I used to have those on the catch but have no idea if they are still on. I will be installing new door seals this weekend and suspect I will have more than a few door closure issues so this thread is timely.

Doug
 
Markos said:
Hi Robert,

Any recommendations on hung suppliers? W&N?
Click to expand...

I bought two new hinges from W&N, seems to be of good/original quailty. Both left and right upper hinges were in bad condition, and I tried to re-bush the original ones first, but didn't turn out great so I decided to buy new ones.

Did you try to lift the door when open?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top