As many of you know I wrecked my car last spring. I am slowly putting her back together and I recently had the front end pulled out. It only needed the slightest bit of straigthening. Anyways, I noticed that do not have a consistent gap between the fender the the driver side door. Is this normal? Does anyone have a pic of a non or never wrecked door with their fender? The gap is about 3/8" up top and almost nil at the bottom. It looks rather even in the pic but that is shadowing that is playing with the camera. I will get a better pic tomm. I tried to compare it to the other side but can't quite tell. What should this gap be? Check out my site under "the wreck" to see more pics for those of you that may need to see more.

 

My guess is that your door is sagging. ALOT of us have this problem, especially on the driver's side door. There are a few different hindge repair kits out there for sale, personally I havnt tried any of them because they seem to expensive to me.

Check the bottom of the door opening for scratches and scuffs for the door rubbing when it closes.

 

i believe the proper gap is like 1/4 - 3/8" not quite sure. i agree that your alignment problem is sagging door hinges. here is an easy test to see if you need to replace your door hinges. open the door, and try to lift up on the door. if you can lift the door up, then the hinges need to be replaced. if the car lifts up with it, the hinges are fine. how does the rear of the door align with the rear quarter? your door may just be misaligned. you can get a little door alignment tool that could help. you can get the hinge repair kits and the door alignment tool both tds (sponsor up top). i'm sure lon (owner of tds) will chime in to give you some more info

 

I could be wrong but, I don't think the hinges will affect the gap since the door striker is non-adjustable (which would affect fender-door gap when the door is closed).

 

Well I will try to lift up on it and see what happens. The only way this door could be sagging would be from age and not mileage. Then again it could be wacked out of allignment from the wreck. I just want to maks sure that the front end was done right. The door does make a "uuuuurrrrreeeeek" sound when I open it. It never did that before the wreck.

 

that sound sounds like a door hinge problem

 

Yea, it does seem like its sagging or the hinges are messed. Can I ask about how bad the wreck was?

A little off topic, but ShiftyCapone, what are you studying at UD? I just graduated there in 02 with a BS in ME. Where do you live and what year are you? How are you liking it so far?

Sorry about your car.

 

My doors do the same thing. The bushings seem to be fine.

JamesC

 

Thomas Aquinas,

I am a fifth year MEE student about ready to graduate this may. Heck I may have been in some of your classes.

The wreck doesn't look to bad but it going to be costly to fix. I slid siedeways right into a gaurd rail and then into a concrete wall in the rain on an onramp. Check out my website under "the wreck" and you can see tons of pics. I ned a new front bumper, maybe a little more frame work (hood is a tiny little bit missalligned still), new door skin, nex rear quater, new rear spoiler piece and thats about it. Everything is a bolt on part except for the rear quarter. That is where the $$ comes in. Everything else I am pretty sure I can do.

Anywas, I played with the door today and it does not lift up at all and there appears to be no sag. What I think is happening is that the fender is not on right. They had to take it off (can't remember why) and they sawzalled part of it in half. I think that once I get a new fender the problem will go away. The noise I hear is from the fender coming in contact with the door.

 

Shifty-

Very cool about being a 5th year, I lived over on Woodland my senior year. Did you have Jain at all?

Anyways, yes I looked at your website, and I totally know where you're talking about on 35-75. Man that is some serious damage. Good thing you're ok. Alignment is what takes awhile and is hard to do. The whole deal about the guys haven't to cut the front fender, could definitely be your missalignment issues..body panels are teh expensive. Repair on that rear quarter will definitely be $$$$. and I thought my little ding was a problem. Anyway good luck.

Did you have homecoming this year?

 

Yea I had Dr. Jain for mechanical Design. he was a really good teacher. Hard grader though. That picure of the turn doesn't do justice and I should have taken it when I got closer. it is banked about 10*, narrow and does a 90 right before you merge. I was doing 25mph in the rain and nascar style went in the wall. Funny how 25mph can do so much damage.

You can see in this pic where the two are rubbing. You can see by the color change. It should be all red but the rubbing has worn the paint off.

 

i would say ge tthe door bushings and a door alignment...you can get the tool for around 100 and do it yourself...

 

Besides the door hinges, trying to line up accident-damaged body panels is pretty worthless IMHO. They are no longer their normal shape... when metal creases, it will pull in the surrounding metal changing the shape of the panels ever so slightly. If your strapped for cash and cant afford new panels at the moment, loosen all the fender bolts, and move it forward enough so the door clears for the time beings.

 

my car had a gap like yours, but i knew my hinges were gone, i ordered up that repair kit from the guy on here (forget his name) removed the door and installed it, but when i put it back on the gap was all messed up, turns out that i had to re-adjust the fender, the previous owner must have moved it with the door the way it was.