Hoping someone can point me in the right direction. I have an '89 TA, it is in very good shape. Just this spring, the doors (mostly the driver side) won't close properly all of the time. You close it and it almost bounces off the striker. It catches but just enough to rattle on the striker bolt and not tightly close. If you slam it, it sometimes is ok.. If you gently close it, sometimes it's ok. Window up or down doesn't matter. There is absolutely no play in teh pass side pins and maybe the slightest bit in the driver side. (Enough to make me think that isn't it). You can see where the wear is on the striker bolt as well. It is shiny in one spot.
I tried WD-40, some dry graphite, thinking something wasn't greased. No difference. When the door does close, it looks to be proerly aligned (as it should be because it was never touched)
I'm looking for some advice, I can order new strikers but they are about $75 for a pair and I'm not 100% convinced it is the problem.
One thing to note, the striker pin is bare metal, I had thought there was a plastic bushing on it? anyone with some pics? I will grab some of mine tonight.

Thanks.

 

Sure sounds like hinge pin bushing wear. The door may not move up or down too much but, the bushing that the hinge pin goes through may be worn oblong or as I've also found, to be cracked thus causing the alignment issue at the striker. Is there a lot of wear on the top of the door lock plate?

Neither of my 3rd gen car's striker pins had nylon coverings.

 

If there's rust on the bottom side, it might be a sagging frame. Older cars tend to have that problem.

If you have a T-top or a convertible, this might be likely.

 

ok, my camera phone doesn't take great pictures, not really worth putting here, but i did haha.
The frame isn't sagging, I have 2"x1"x.125" rectangle tubing welded in as sub frame connectors. The car is really good so that wouldn't be it anyway. Good thought though I didn't think of it.
there is a little play, not much but it is there in the door pins on the driver side.. and absolutely none on the pass side.. I'm guessing that it is a royal pain to change the pins and bushings on the doors?
I'm wondering if the catch on the door itself might be screwed up somehow?

 

Not sure how you are checking the hinge pins. Open the door half way, to the middle check position. Grab the bottom and lift up on it (50-60lbs force). If it moves up and down you'll need to send Top Down Solutions about $83 for there hinge pin kit.

 

Is the paint rubbed off in the door sill (top of GFX)? If the doors are sagging that paint will surely be rubbed off. My drivers door is sagging, but it also doesn't move much when I pick up on it. I wonder if the hinges themselves don't become bent over time.

 

Very good question! I did the hinge pin replacement on both doors about a month back and still have a problem. While the back of the doors line up perfectly with the latch and the rear 1/4 panel the front of each door is visibly lower than the should be. At least they look that way based on where the front of the door lines up with the back of the front fender. For one the door molding does not line up and more importantly the bottom of door has no clearance to the front fender and just barely rubs. You can actually see how the gap between the front of the door and the back of the front fender changes from a large gap towards the top half the door to a diminishing gap the further down you go.

Either the hinges themselves are sagging dropping the front of each door about a 1/4 inch or each front fender has been replaced/ adjusted and are to high towards the back making it appear the doors or low.