Searched all around and could not find an answer. I have a problem with aligning the body. I am aware everything is adjustable. Problems are on the right side. Anyway, the door has a 1/8" gap at the bottom on the quarte panel side, and a 5/16" gap on the top of the quarter panel side. The same is true on the fender side. 1/8" at bottom and about 3/8" on the top. My car is an '86 TA. This car has a replacement door from a '91 TA. It also has an aftermarket fender on it. I am trying to line all this new stuff up. Looking at all this, it looks like if you imagined taking the car and bending it over your knee with your knee in the center of the car and your hands pushing down on the hood and the deck lid??? The car was fine with all the old stuff on it. I had to replace it due to rust. I know it needs a lower hinge pin. I did this test myself, I lifted up on the door while it was open and I could here the distinct noise of something "chucking" back and forth. Now if I replace the pin, it may result in the door coming up in the back, making my problem worse on the quarter panel side and better on the fender side??? I also thought of raising the door at the hinges which would cure the back side and make the front worse, which then I determine I would have to raise the front of the fender at the nose and put shims all over the place down through the upper fender mounts. WTF? Anyone ever needed the use of shims on the upper fender bolts? Should I use shims there or would that be an indication of a serious problem? I thought the only fender adjustments were front to back and in and out from the hood? Its like the angle is off? Is there a measurment what the door gap should be at the quarter panel, cause I'm thinking it would be best to start there and work forwards, if anyone has an unmolested car and can measure the gap at top at bottom let me know, or 50 people can answer and I'll average it out...

 

Sounds like the door hinge pins are shot letting the door sag which would throw the gaps off like that. Not just the bottom door pin, but the upper door pins as well.

Lon at TDS (sponsor above) has kits to change the upper door pins out and they will allow the gaps to line back up as they should.

 

when you change the doors on these you have to drill the out the mounting holes on the door hinges.I believe there are one or two of the holes that are smaller then the other holes and prevent you from being able to adjust the doors.The factory does it some special way but as soon as you replace the doors you have to drill the smaller holes out on the hinges so you have some room to adjust the doors around.when you get that right then you start adjusting everything else going forward,and yes they do have shims under the fenders.

 

Wow! That is news to me. I have never heard of drilling out the holes? And you mean the holes in the door hinge, not the body side? I know I have tried before to move the door ahead and it will not budge; I know because I took a flat bar and wedged between the rear of the door and the quarter panel. Also I don't think I could move it up in the front either. I always thought that there were threaded plates that floated freely on the body side? Can anyone else corroborate this? I can however believe that you can shim the fenders, but from what I can see I may need 5/8" of shims on the front bolt near the nose...

 

yes,you definately want someone else to confirm this but it's in the boards here somewhere if you want to do the searches.I think if you look at each hinge there is one hole that is smaller than the others that prevents you from moving the door around.If you drill it out to the same size as the others the doors will adjust,but yes have some other people here check me on this.good luck..I have the same battle waiting for me...

 

Man I started working on this and cant figure a few things out. I got the lower pin and bushings out and the bushings did'nt look that bad really. I noticed that the hinge half that is welded to the door is oblonged on the top hole. If you stick the new pin in there you can rattle the top of the pin probobaly 1/16". The only fix I can come up with here, without buying a whole new hinge, is to weld the hole and re-drill it. Now, after taking the old bushings out of the body side hinge half I have a problem with the new bushings. The O.D. of the new bushings are way too small for the holes in the hinge. I got it from Advance in the help section. It is the correct part number for a firebird which covers alot of other GM vehicles I guess. Anyway has anyone else found that they are too small; or have these been replaced once before? I really don't think these have been replaced, everything looks original. Anyone else use the motormite (help!) stuff?

 

Figured out one thing. The help section has another package with an assortment of bushings with the correct ones. I installed these and door still goes up and down, I welded the oblonged hole closed and re drilled it and it still moves. I know when I put the pin in it almost falls into place, im thinking it needs to be driven in tight?

 

Are you sure it isn't the upper hinges that are moving?

 

Positive, it is not the uppers, they are nice and tight. Like I said before it was all the lower hinge that is welded to the door; they were oblonged. I spent about 2 hours today welding the holes closed and die grinding them back to where I could just drive the pin in tight. I have a small right angled die grinder and it was still a SOB getting it in there. No way a drill was gonna fit in there so I just took measurements to what I thought was the hole center and ground it out. It may not be perfectly round hole, but the door does not chuck up and down anymore and I can close it with my pinky finger with a nice crisp sound and not a thud. It hangs on the striker when you open it just a bit; I think I will move it a little. I had thoughts of taking one on the other bronze bushings and enlarging the hole in the door side lower hinge and pressing them in but that would have been more grinding, we'll see how long the welds last before I do that. Anyway its going good, I'll have some photos on here soon...