Body alignment after body lift is off by 3/4 inch.

[Pestanza]

I thought this would be one of the smooth parts of reconstruction, but I should know better by now. I did a frame off restoration and had the complete tub on a rotisserie to do the work. After the frame and tub were ready to meet again, I put them on with a 2.5 suspension lift and a 1 inch body lift. When I tried to put my doors on to line them up properly, I found that the top part of the latch side of the door was pretty opened up. In other words, the opening expanded instead of taco'd.

I should mention that I welded in new floor pans, but I did this when the truck was still together so it would self-fixture. When I shimmed up the rear of the truck to close the gap, it was about 3/4 of an inch needed in order to shrink the gap. This is not going to work for me seeing as this seems excessive. Any advise on possible issues, or a sequence of bolting down the bolts, or anything else that comes to mind is appreciated! Thanks in advance for any input.

More info: Bottom line of door and body is pretty close, hinge side of door seems okay too. WH lift kit was purchased. That is about it!

 

[KBUCK1]

try shimming a little at the core support. That will do the same thing. also. taking some out of the body puck behind seats will accomplish what you need. These things were never perfect when they were new and you should expect to have to shim here and there to get the body lines right. Good luck

 

[DirtDonk]

I originally thought the same thing about the front mounts (in addition to the rear mounts) but since his door bottom edge is very straight with the body, I was thinking that moving the front pillar, where the hinges are bolted, would negatively effect the lower edge.

So, like you, I figured that shaving the two mounts behind the seats, and shimming the mounts at the back, should do the job. Only I think that just those should be messed with for now.

Not sure what else, since that 3/4" is pretty excessive. With it bouncing around on a rotisserie for so long though, who knows what was tweaked.
He did do a real nice job of using a very long 4x4 post under the floor, from the front to rear posts of the rotisserie. So it "seemed" to be fairly rigid on there. But there were no internal braces welded or bolted to the body to keep things solid. Just the four mounts and the 4x4 underneath.

Paul

 

[Crawdad]

Keep in mind how far down you might have cranked on each body mount. You can easily squeeze a new body mount bushing 1/4". I don't know if there is a specific torque spec for those bolts but might be a good starting point.

 

[JIMS74]

http://classicbroncos.com/forums/showthread.php?t=221604
Did you do any welding on the frame? The member in this thread was having a simaler problem.

 

[Pestanza]

Okay, so here is the update after 7 hours of fun. I ended up taking off all of the body mounts and cutting down the sleeves about 1/8 inch so I could have a bit more wiggle room as far as smashing down the pucks. I didn't shave any of the mounts themselves yet, but I did shim the rear mounts with 3 washers on each side. The gap in the door is still there, maybe a little less than before. A little frustrating, but at least I can cross one thing off the list. Tomorrow I guess I am going to start over and cut down the support behind the seat and see if that closed up the gap. I will give another update after that is done. I hope that does the trick, I can't think of anything else to do in order to solve the problem.

I also checked the height of the mounting brackets themselves and they were sort of close to the dimensions I got from JIMS74. The biggest difference was 3/8 which I will take off of the puck behind the seat. We shall see!

 

[Knifemaker]

I had a similar problem with passenger side door 1/2 difference in gap top to bottom at rear of door tried shimming rear mount but would throw off bumper I ended up cutting 1/2 inch off of body mount behind pass. seat problem solve. Not positive but more than likely frame is tweaked a little checked all measurements but did not see anything.

 

[DirtDonk]

Steve. Was just thinking about this after looking at the doors earlier.
I think you could actually close up the gap in the front/top a little too, which would give you some wiggle room with the front mounts as well.
Pulling the top front back just a bit with adjustments (if that's possible) would straighten the front gap, pull the bottom gap up a little towards the rear and let you bump up the front mounts just a bit until the bottom gap is level again.
That should put your rear upper gap just a tiny bit closer, so what you do with the rear mounts might have more of an effect.

Yes, lots of work. But you know the rewards!

Paul