spixican07
Jr. Member
I'm not a mechanic at all but I'm about 100 times more comfortable under the hood than with body work...so bear with me! There are about five different things contributing to a problem here, and I don't know where to go.
Part 1: I have a gap that runs along the between the windshield and the front frame of the wing window. Its bad enough that you can actually see into the car, especially toward the bottom.
Part 2: There drivers' side door is not aligned well. It doesn't close flush with the rear panel -- sticks out.
Part 3: There's a large gap between the tailgate and the bottom of the lift gate. Again, its large enough that you can see through it (~1/4").
Part 4: Both doors "leak" air at your elbow while driving.
The passenger's door looks pretty good in terms of hanging.
I tried to fix this by sliding the top forward on the body (making the windshield a bit steeper) to correct the gap between the windshield and the front of the door.
This seemed to work ok, but required me to move the back of the door up...so I tried to shim up the bottom hinge and the door felt like it was binding. Then I noticed that the top hinge was shimmed with some washers, so I removed those. Now the door sits too high in the back (striker plate won't move up enough to make it open smoothly) and just looks like crap.
Also, now the back of the door is high enough that its hitting the bottom of the corner of the top...so it would appear that I would have to shim up the top.
Any suggestions? Am I missing something easy? Whats a good ("right") way to shim/ adjust hinges or the top?
Thanks in advance...always something new %)
Part 1: I have a gap that runs along the between the windshield and the front frame of the wing window. Its bad enough that you can actually see into the car, especially toward the bottom.
Part 2: There drivers' side door is not aligned well. It doesn't close flush with the rear panel -- sticks out.
Part 3: There's a large gap between the tailgate and the bottom of the lift gate. Again, its large enough that you can see through it (~1/4").
Part 4: Both doors "leak" air at your elbow while driving.
The passenger's door looks pretty good in terms of hanging.
I tried to fix this by sliding the top forward on the body (making the windshield a bit steeper) to correct the gap between the windshield and the front of the door.
This seemed to work ok, but required me to move the back of the door up...so I tried to shim up the bottom hinge and the door felt like it was binding. Then I noticed that the top hinge was shimmed with some washers, so I removed those. Now the door sits too high in the back (striker plate won't move up enough to make it open smoothly) and just looks like crap.
Also, now the back of the door is high enough that its hitting the bottom of the corner of the top...so it would appear that I would have to shim up the top.
Any suggestions? Am I missing something easy? Whats a good ("right") way to shim/ adjust hinges or the top?
Thanks in advance...always something new %)