Couple of questions, I bought some new pins and bushings from Top down solutions (TDS), with some effort i was able to get the new detents, lower and upper pins and bushing in. Now I'm trying to get the door lined up.

From years of sagging there is some slop in the driver side lower hinge, which even after raising the door with a strap and engine hoist, then tightening the bolts back down, the door still lowers enough to cause it to drag on the striker (slightly) before closing. Measuring my hinge compared to the passenger side, they are both the same height, so I assume the door side hinge has widened from sagging.

So I'm looking for advice on compressing the hinge that is welded to the door so that the lower hinge is a nice fit with no slop. I've thought maybe I can run some rope or chain through the bushing holes and tighten to bring the two halves of the hinge closer together. Thoughts on this?

Also, I checked the striker and there is no adjustment. There is a plate behind the stiker but the hole is only big enough for the bolt. I would like to avoid enlarging this hole to gain adjustment.

My second issue is the gap between the quarter panel and rear edge (striker/handle edge). What should this gap be? Cant find it in the helm manual. The passenger and driver door are not the same. Its only off by about 4 hundredth of an inch but this small adjustment is a large adjustment when it gets to the front fender fascia. Enough to where its noticable.

Look forward to your replies.

 

I can't answer the other things but after removing and replacing etc my front fenders many times I've found it's pretty easy to make adjustments to it to make it work with the door etc...

 

I can get it to work. I'm just trying to get close to the actual specs provided in my service manual. The manual unfortunately doesn't list the measurement for the quarter to door gaps. Since the doors are not the same distance from the quarter, with all the other gaps set correctly, the gap between the fascia and the headlamp is noticably larger on one side.

I can make the doors even, but I figured id ask if anyone know what the gap should be first. Also had the other issue I mentioned.

 

Take the door hinges off. put the hinge in a large C-clamp and clamp down there really is no other real way to do it. Or you could try to expand the hinge that is attached to the body.

The lower pins and roller are the weakest link on our doors. If you haven't replaced both you should do so. The uppers are great to replace as well but my car is 27 years old now and they are still original and working fine. They are a lot less likely to go bad than the lowers. You can possibly get a smoother action especially if you go with the greased ones.

BTW strikers are generally made to have some sort of adjustment so I wouldn't worry about trying to align the striker.

 

Thanks for the replies so far.

Backbmagic:
I think the hinge that can be removed from the vehicle is fine the way it is. Its the hinge attached to the door (welded) that needs to be compressed (not expanded). With the lower hinge installed there is about 1/4in vertical play. Seems to me that it should be a nice tight fit so I figured I need to bend the tabs on the door closer together to the point where the lower hinge, with its bushings installed, fits snugly and has zero play.

 

So do it. Its exactly like I said. Take the door off remove the body hinge then put a large c-clamp on the door hinge and compress it. You can add some heat to make it more bendable, because these hinges tend to like to spring back into the original form.

There shouldnt be 1/4 inch of play. You right.