door alignement, mounting overriders

[BadDog]

Can anyone tell me a good procedure for aligning my doors? I tried doing them last weekend, but I didn't fare too well. Plus, the top bolt on the driver's side door catch snapped off :-(

How about what hardware is needed to mount bumper overriders and how to do it? I don't feel like "winging" that one, especially the rear! :-)

[kmack]

Well, i just put the doors back on my car (been off for about 2 yrs). And I aligned it by myself using paint sticks. The paint sticks I have are about 1/8" thick and I broke them into 3 pieces.

I took a stack (3 pcs/each) and placed them on the door sill in the front and the back of the sill, so that the door actually rested on the paint sticks. I found that this will put the height of the door just perfect with the body. Now you just have to get the spacing from the fender and rear qtr right. With the bolts loose on the hinges, you can slide the door forward or rearward until it looks right. Then just tighten up the bolts.

I found that I can tighten about 3 of the bolts through the window. Tighten as many as you can this way real tight, then open the door, reach up under the dash and tighten the rest. If you don't have them tight enough, when you open the door it'll fall and all the alignment will be off.

[BadDog]

I was just trying to adjust them because it is very hard to get them to close... I thought I'd just need to adjust the striker. Maybe I need to do the whole shebang?

[2ManyZs]

If all you want to do is adjust the door plate, loosen the bolts and then tighten them just enough to make it hard to move the plate. Close the door and re-open it carefully and tighten down the bolts. The idea is to loosen them just enough so that when you close the door it will move into alignment with the door and not move when you re-open the door. When you open the door and re-tighten them they should be lined up right. Of course if the door gaps aren't close to the same around the door, you can use kmacks suggestion to re-align the door in the body. Sometimes the hinges will sag and the door will not be lined up in the door opening. Just take a look around the door when it is shut, the gaps should be close to the same all the way down the front and back edge and along the bottom. Open the door and lift up on the back of the window channel to see if the hinges have any play in them, this can cause a door to be hard to shut if the hinges let the door drop after it is inlatched.

[BadDog]

I actually had thought of that at the time, but didn't try it. One time when I shouldv'e paid attention to my mechanical instincts

Speaking of door hinges, "door check" piece (at the top of the hinge) on my driver's side door hinge is missing...

Before I do anything, I've got to figure out how to get that bolt out and re-thread the whole... I think I gotta drill it, then get the right size tap, etc... sound like an excuse to buy one of those moto-tool-thingies, maybe the one with the flexible shaft... I can grind off rust with it, too :-)

[2ManyZs]

Before you drill out the broken bolt and re-thread you could try soaking it with a penetrating oil, and getting a good set of extractors and then drill out the center of the bolt and try to turn it out. Eastwoods has a good set for a decent price. Always easier to try to remove it before you drill and re-tap the threads. Be carful you don't break off an extractor though, they are tough to drill thru if you do end up drilling it out and re-tapping. That's why it's better to spend a little extra on a good set of extractors instead of the cheaper ones that will break with little force.

You might want to ask or look in the for sale forum, you might be able to get another set of hinges from a car that's being stripped. I'll have a set later in the summer when I ever get time to start gutting my parts car.