Fender / Door fitment Woes

[74 Bronco Billy]

I'm up for some brainstorming and advice. My '74 Bronco finally runs and drives after 8 yrs of solid effort. I'll post a bunch of pics. But my problem is Rt door fitment. It was real nice before paint.

Lt side is great, Rt side is tough. Big gap at bottom of door, mostly parallel with door, I can live with gap, but it should probably come down. B pillar gap is fairly good, it gets tight in lower 3rd but I'm happy with it. The A pillar gap is hitting at top of door, and tight at top of fender to above upper door hinge.

There are two thick shims under passenger floor pan body mount. No shim under body behind passenger seat.

I just loosened up right fender, pounded really hard to get it to move forward, then hung myself and son to pull it down, then tightened up Phillips crews. I actually bent the top of fender more in the top crease when pounding with rag covered wood block. Fender is now against the A pillar, will not move down or forward anymore.

My Bronco was in really bad shape, had to have new A pillars, (RUST), new floor pans, & new side skirts. The rockers were taken off and put back on, all whole new front sheet metal placed from front clip forward of the firewall due to previous wreck hitting in 1.5-2" on either side.

I have an Imron single stage paint job, and if I have to can trim door edge and repaint, . Or do I add more shims? I tried shims on the passenger floor pan, no real difference, but I didn't loosen the other Rt side body mounts. Hmm. I think if I put a shim behind passenger seat it would open the B pillar gap, making things worse, right? The gap is tight at upper part of door window frame and windshield frame.

I have not shimmed the door hinges and would like to not have to. I guess it's time to buy the all-thread and put it in the door hinge holes, realign and lower hinges on A pillar and lower the door a bit. But it won't help fender / door gap. Arg.

Any other ideas how to open up the top of door fender gap??

Forrest in Rescue, Ca
But moving to Sparta, TN in a year.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

 

[joshua]

I’m completely guessing as I have never done this. But I have seen this issue corrected with body shims. I realize you have played with these already so it’s more of a bump for your thread than anything else.

But like I said I’m guessing. Hopefully someone experienced will chime in.

 

[C-Dubb]

May just need to adjust your hinges. I have been able to loosen the front two hinge bolts on the top hinge and tighten the rear hinge bolt to move it that much. It may also need to be shimmed if it doesn’t move enough.

 

[NGABronco]

Have you measured the door and the door opening??? Are they both square and correct top to bottom??? Just asking!!!

 

[m_m70]

Have you measured the door and the door opening??? Are they both square and correct top to bottom??? Just asking!!!

This^^^^
Be sure to measure BOTH the actual door and opening for squareness. Your passenger side at the b pillar is off somewhere because the gap is big at the bottom and the top of the b pillar. The middle is tight. You'll never get those sides even if the edges aren't plum. Hell my drivers door was off by like 5/16".

see the attachments and go from there once you get the door and/or rear quarter squared away.
Hope these help! Bronco gaps are not easy but not impossible to get close!

 

[jamesroney]

Need three pics:

1. one single frame photo of the passenger door in the closed position showing all gaps at the same time.
2. One close up of the hood hinge pin and upper door/fender location. You almost got it in your third pic with the Bronco emblem in it. Frame that picture 1 inch higher, and put a paint stick on the door gap. Want to see where it lands.
3. Same picture on the DRIVER's Side.

You say that it was "real nice before paint" What does that mean? was it nice before the A pillars were replaced, or was it nice the day you rolled it into the booth to shoot the color? I am a skeptic. So I need to see a pic of it being "real nice" in primer.
My guess is that you put the a-pillar in the wrong place. Very common mistake. Especially if you didn't replace the kick panel. If you used the single piece A pillar, then that is 99% certain. There is a reason why the repop A posts come in 2 pieces now.

I'm also going to guess that you didn't measure the Bronco before, and you didn't realize that your bronco left the factory crooked. So when you "fixed" the grill/hood, you shrunk the RH side of the truck. So now the Bronco is "too short" on the RH side. Believe me when I tell you that you are not the first.

My guess is that you are going to have to filet the a-post, and stretch the door opening to move the fender forward. Then the hood will not align with the grill. So you will either have to run the hood crooked at the cowl...(like most factory ones) OR you will have to slice the fender and shorten it 1/8. All of this should have been done before it ever went to paint. So I'm interested to see what it looked like before in primer.

You can for sure cheat it with a porta-power and by bending a hinge or two. I'm just a little surprised, because it is normally the passenger side that is long, and yours is short. But I haven't worked on many 74's...

These are the pics I'd like to see from your Bronco. . This is from my 67 Military Bronco. It lived at McClellan AFB up near you. All original metal never unbolted. Gaps are square, but horrid.