Door Alignment Help

[clinem03]

I have read some of the past threads on this issue, and know it can be the most frustrating one. I'm hoping that since I only have a small miss-alignment someone here can help point me in the right direction before I start trying to realign the driver door. When I got the truck back from paint, the door was aligned perfectly when the door was shut BUT the latch on the door was not aligned with the striker on the inner panel so you had to slam the door to get it to latch. I also have new gaskets and know that is at play here - but I looked at it when closing it and it was way off, the door latch was about a half inch above the center point of the striker. Even when you opened the door, it would almost 'pop' down before swinging out. I moved the inner striker around to get it better aligned but now the door sticks out a bit. I can live with it if its the best it will get, but it could be aligned a bit better to get the door to align with the rear quarter panel. Any ideas on what I should tweak to get the door panel to align better with the rear quarter?

In case it is helpful - I put on new hinges when we painted the truck and all the metal is original ford metal from the doors to the quarter panels.

 

[Rustytruck]

striker post too high lower it to where the top of the door is flush with the top of the bed side. move it back a little too. you want the door edge to sit slightly proud of the edge of the door opening. once that is set its up to the front hinges and maybe some shims. while adjusting the hinges the door pivots around the fixed striker post. the striker post keeps the door in place even if the hinges are set a little too high or too low. if you put a level on the face edge of the inner rear quarter where it folds into the door opening your looking for vertically plumb and the lower edge of the lip on the rocker where the upper half is welded to the lower half of the rocker panel your looking for level might have to run the tires on some blocks to get the vertical jam plumb and then check the lower rocker ledge to see if it is level. if you have a digital level then you can do it in degrees and see if you get 90 if not you will probably be shimming body mounts to get your door jamb plumb and level. once the body tub is welded there is pretty much nothing you can do to the rear face of the door opening and the tub and bed rails. you can move and shim the striker post to get the door located and you can fudge a little in and out to help with gasket fit but pretty much there is only one place to put it with out the door looking like crap on top and the face of the truck. the front of the door there is allot of moving around you can do and body mount shims will add another plane of adjustment that will actually move stuff at the weak body structure at the hinge side of the door. it gets complicated fast and dealing with new paint and a damn heavy door doesnt help. first time I dealt with a pair of ill fitting doors it took every weekend for a month to get them working properly and fitting pretty good that was over 40 years ago.

 

[Bronco-Brian]

Some good tips listed above. Your door looks to fit pretty good to the rocker, but proud on the quarter. One other tip I can share is try temporarily removing the vertical run weatherstrip from the rear (peel off of pinchweld and lay on the truck floor out of the way), then close door. This can tell you if the rubber is holding too much pressure on the door. If you say you need to slam it, then the answer is yes. I adjust the striker w/o this weather strip in to get perfect panel alignment. Once the weather strip goes back on, and holds the door out - you found the problem spot. I have had to hammer the rear pinch weld inward (away from door) like a 1/16" inch with wood blocking due to the thickness of today's weatherstrip. The oem stuff was softer and thinner. The new repop quality causes alignment trouble - even the best repop (I've tried them all). This has solved many a bronco door I've worked on, and results in a door closing lightly like they should. If you are careful, this can be done with final paint and w/o damage to it.

 

[clinem03]

Lots of great advice here. Thank you! Seems I have lots of trouble shooting to do and need to be patient knowing there are lots of factors…