Door window to windshield gap question

[Yooper74]

Anyone have any thoughts on why the gap on the passenger side windshield frame would be extra tight and the drivers side real wide?





Tried to edit. Not sure whey pics are showing up sideways

 

[yakelys69]

The gap on the driver side looks consistent with the gap of the door post. Maybe something with the hinges, does the driver side have spacers between the hinges and the door post?

when I get home I'll look at the spacing on mine but the passenger side looks too tight.

 

[Yooper74]

No shims behind the hinges. The gap on he drivers is quite big. Can put your finger through it. passenger way tight.

rest of the gaps are kind of close.

 

[1970 Palmer]

How's the hood fit up by the grill/headlights?

Looks like the cowl needs a little port-a-power pushing forward on the passenger side. I base this on the fit at the bottom of the door frames to the cowl.

John

 

[Yooper74]

Was thinking about that. Do you think it would bend without any damage?

Hood grill seem ok but I have not fully assembled everything there . Only a quick text fit

 

[1970 Palmer]

Was thinking about that. Do you think it would bend without any damage?

Hood grill seem ok but I have not fully assembled everything there . Only a quick text fit

I recently purchased a "Roll Over" to rebuild. It was a soft roll over from a towing accident while it was on a trailer. It had lots of bent metal away from the impact point that showed absolutely no damage until you got out the square and tape measure.

I would mock up all of your major body parts, doors, door window frames, windshield frame, roof, front fenders, hood, grill for a "gap fit" before you start your bending and tweaking.

The hard part is in the diagnosis. It's actually pretty easy to push it back into shape. You have lots of adjustment potential with body shims.

John

 

[DirtDonk]

How's about a little history Yooper? What has been done, and do you know if it all fit together before?

Your "good" gap is parallel, but it's too far apart it looks to me.

paul

 

[rydog1130]

it's hard to tell with out seeing your door post for comparison, but it could the upper portion of the cowel like other said

 

[71 CA Bronco]

Hard to tell in the picture but looks like your passenger side windshield frame might be welded a little further back than the driver side. I'm judging by the way it lines up at the cowl. A close up pic of this area on both sides could help. In any case like others have said you should be able to tweak the cowl a little if needed.

 

[71 CA Bronco]

On second thought it does look like the driver side door is way further back on the post that the passenger. I think someone smarter than me already pointed that out.

 

[langester]

Are those new A pillars or the originals ?

 

[Rustytruck]

are you using the original Ford hinges in the same location they came from?? allot of them were tweeked by Ford to make the doors fit.

 

[Yooper74]

here's a couple more pictures


Drivers side A-pillar has been replaced. Passenger side is original.

I took some measurements last night and found from the same point on the rear quarter to the window frame is close to 3/4 of an inch further on the drivers side. the door openings are within an 1/8 of an inch of each other.

It almost seems like if I bent the cowl where the window frame attached forward on the passenger side a hair and back on the drivers side it would clean things up.

 

[71 CA Bronco]

Full disclosure, I'm far from an expert but did fight this same issue.

It looks like you could shim out the passenger side equally on both hinges to get a larger gap at the windshield. Then slightly tweak both hinges on the driver side to tighten the gap there. I went through several different hinge sets until I got my gaps right. Ended up tweaking one in the vice a bit in the end. By far the most frustrating part of my build. Good luck brother.

I would also do this with the top on to be sure you are in the right spot prior to adjusting.

 

[langester]

I had the same trouble you are experiencing. I installed a new A pillar on the drivers side of my Bronco as well. I thought I had everything is the right spot by measurements as well. What I found was the angle of the face where the hinges bolt up was off quite a bit. By the time I found out my problem I had already painted mine. My door fit exactly like yours did in your picture. I had to get creative to make my door fit correctly.
There was a thread a while back that had several other folks that had purchased A pillars that were not made correctly. I will see if I can dig it up.

Edit: check out this thread, it might help. There is a video on the last post that shows the problem with some of the new a pillars in the past.
https://classicbroncos.com/forums/showthread.php?t=299177

 

[Yooper74]

i'll check out the link. thanks!

what did you do to get 'creative' to fix yours?

 

[langester]

Since it was already painted I couldn't do anything to the a pillars. I ended up milling about 1/8 inch off the back side of the hinge that mates up to the a pillar. I had to bend both hinges slightly as well. Both of those actions were not quite enought to get it done so I had to add another 1/8" shim to the inside of the door to push the hinge back toward the striker post. That ended up making the gap work out nicely. All this would not have been necessary if I had caught the problem early enough. I didn't have my windshield frame attached when I checked my door fitment and that bit me in the butt. It took me a while to figure out the angle on the new a pillar was way off from the original one.

Good luck with it!

 

[Yooper74]

Did it mess up your fender, grill, hood alignment?

Mine might be off. Just went and looked and the new A pillar lines up further away from that hole in the inner fender like described in that video.

still a little confused how this is causing the issues I'm having and not messing up the rest of the alignment

 

[71 CA Bronco]

The gaps still look fairly square to me. You might get away with shims and bending hinges a bit. Not sure if you have tried it yet but the hood and front fenders can be moved around a bit. If its off square a little you could put a hood shim on one side. Oh hell what do I know. I fought this issue for weeks. I feel for you brother.

 

[langester]

Did it mess up your fender, grill, hood alignment?

Mine might be off. Just went and looked and the new A pillar lines up further away from that hole in the inner fender like described in that video.

still a little confused how this is causing the issues I'm having and not messing up the rest of the alignment

Check the angles that he is talking about on the video between the drivers side and the passenger side. If they are different (mine were way off) that causes the hinges to line up differently and forces the door back toward the striker hinge. Might not be your problem, but worth checking for sure.