How do you adjust the door hinges?

LaserSVT

LaserSVT

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I need to bring the lower portion of both doors out about 1mm to make them line up perfect. Yesterday I loosened up the lower hinge to door bolts thinking they were adjustable but I didnt get any movement at all. So how do I adjust them? They are nice and tight with no rattles or movement so they are not worn and I know Ford would design the door to be adjusted I just cant figure out how.

I dont want to break anything so I figured I would ask first. :D
 
Laser, not sure if this is something you will take into consideration but when I worked in the body shop custom shop the guy who owned it was an old school guy that I learned a great deal from. He would always adjust the front of the door about 1 to 2mm in to lessen wind noise drag. He explained it to me it was always better to be in on the front so it doesn't act like a scoop and creat wind noise. Made sense to me at the time being on older cars but with your new seals I am not sure. food for thought?
 
Thats not what I am trying to adjust. The upper half of the doors are out about 1mm more then the lower half. I adjusted my latches so that the doors close better and are aligned nicer but when I did that the crookedness showed up more so now I want to bring the bottom out a hair more then bring the latch in a hair.
 
Right from the 1997 factory service manual, just for you laser! :D

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Thanks Lux. I only loosened the lowers and with no movement at all I just figures I was wrong. I will loosen all four bolts and try again. :)
 
I used to adjust Cadillac doors on the assembly line in Detroit.

I'd leave one bolt tight on the top hinge. This gives you a pivot point and the door doesn't go way out of adjustment.

If you leave a lower bolt tight on the top hinge, the upper part of the door will go inboard a bit. If you leave the top bolt tight, it won't go in so much.

After you adjust the lower hinge where you want it, do the same for the top hinge, leave 1 bolt tight on the bottom.

If you loosen all the bolts, it's a bit of a pain.
 
Great information. Interested on how it goes. Tell us how you finally make the adjustments. I read somewhere that a hydraulic jack under the rear of the door gives some support and makes the adjustment easier. I don't know, but would a spacer or shim be needed?
 
It's hard to tell from the pic but that doesn't look too bad at all.

Yes, for the door to the quarter adjustment, you need to adjust the door to the fender first.

If it's still way off, try to split the difference up front to make the quarter look better.

If it's still way off, you need to check to see if your fender is off a bit (check it's fit to the hood).

If the door was actually warped (yours isn't) you don't want to hear what we would have to do to it but, it was before the car was sealed, painted, and was just the sheet metal. It involved carefully bouncing the door off a rubber mallet held by the quarter panel body lock. Don't do this now though , you run a big risk of cracking the paint, sealer, and glass.
 
Well I loosened all hinge bolts and the door didnt budge. So I give up.
 
Yeah your door looks fine laser... You mess with that and it will prob look worse... you can always take it to a body shop seems like you are familiar with a bunch in your area
 
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