Need help with door alignment.

[Nathan43]

I replaced the body mount bushings to get the body right for some sheet metal replacment, and hoped it would fix my drivers door being out of wack. The PO used one of the old bushings when they were replaced once a long time ago to halfway get it were it was. It also had a 1/4" piece of one on the front grill on top of a full bushing.Pic below.

When I replaced them it put the door back were it needs to be, but leaves a half inch gap on the striker door post(at the top but bottom is not as bad). The truck looks to have been rearended before which is probably what caused the problem. The passenger side is perfect. Drivers door also has about twice the shims on the hinges.

The measurements seem good. The distance between all points match between both drivers and passengers side. I also used a ratchet strap to fix a little gap on the tailgate, so it made distance between the bedsides 56" all the way down.

Any tips? I have no idea were to even start.
Edit: After measuring over a couple of times, the very top of the posts has a 1/4" difference between drivers and pass.

 

[langester]

Looks to me like the drivers side rear mount needs shimmed up. Do you have a hard top on your Bronco?

 

[Nathan43]

No no top on it. Took it off to take roll cage out and strip all paint.

 

[NGABronco]

Hey Nathan, here's a chart, you may have it, but start here. The door don't change, the hole it mounts in does!!! Shims are the only way to change the door opening and as langester said the hardtop can affect it as well.
Good luck!!!;D;D;D

 

[langester]

Did you take the top off before you changed the mounts? Just curious if everything was working until you changed the mounts. If you did have the top on you would be able to tell if the rear was low on the drivers side when you tried to bolt it up.
I might be wrong about the rear being low, but that is what mine looked like on my last Bronco and the only way I could get it out was shim up the rear.
I am hoping someone else might chime in with their ideas too

 

[Nathan43]

Thanks NGABronco.

I took the hard top off before i did this. The door worked acceptably but it was kicked out at the bottom and the gaps looked pretty bad. Most of the time you had to shut it pretty hard to get it to really lactch.

Right now the door hangs and fits good everwhere, but it leaves that 1/2" gap.

I raised it up enough on that back mount to make the gap close up damn near perfect,,,, but it raises the rocker panel up to where it is almost pretty much touching the corner of the door. Not to mention It took enough room to add another puck to that body mount that I raised it up at.

I think the hinges are as far up on the post as I can get them to.

 

[langester]

How tight are your hinge pins? Any slop in them. In the picture it looks like it droops down, or is their a shim behind the upper door hinge?

 

[Nathan43]

How tight are your hinge pins? Any slop in them. In the picture it looks like it droops down, or is their a shim behind the upper door hinge?

The slop isn't to bad. There are shims behind both top and bottom hinges. About twice as many as the passengers side.

 

[langester]

Can you tell how thick the shims are? Are there more than one behind the top hinge? Do you still have a little more gap at the top on the hinge side than at the bottom after you adjusted the back body mount?
Sorry for all the questions, just trying to wrap my head around it.

 

[Nathan43]

There are around 5 thin shims (didn't measure the gauge/thickness of them) on the top and 1 thick + 1 thin on the bottom. All of those added up to the same thickness between the two hinges. Theres around two to three of the thin shims on pass side hinges.

Before bushings replaced...... The door was kind of twisted as in the top was closed but the bottom had around 1/4" left to close up. didn't close well at all. Didn't look right at all.

After bushings replaced....... The gap between the hinge's door post and the door is fine and the gap at the rocker is fine. It closes good, looks good. But the gap at the top of the striker post is at a 1/2".

I'm not the greatest at explaining stuff.

 

[suckerpunched]

when you raised the rear up did you you tighten all the other bolts down. I think thats what I would have tried. I had the opposite problem on one side. Gap at the rear of door to tight on top. A 1/4" shim at the body mount behind the front seat rectified the problem for me.

 

[langester]

This might be a dumb question , but are all the body bolts tight or is it just sitting on the mounts?

 

[Nathan43]

Yes they are tightened up. I didn't tighten the one I raised when I raised it.

Right now it is siting with the new bushings and no shims on the mounts with all bolts tightened.

Measuring according to the chart above. I have 39" from the center of the bottom fender bolt hole and on the middle fender hole. But it goes up to 39 and 1/4" on the top one.

 

[langester]

Did you have all the bolts tight except the back corner when you shimmed it? I am having a hard time understanding why the rocker moved up at the same time the rear was raised, I would think the mount behind the seat would hold it down but I have been wrong about just about everything today.
And just to clarify , the gaps are even everywhere but the striker post side?

 

[Nathan43]

Did you have all the bolts tight except the back corner when you shimmed it? I am having a hard time understanding why the rocker moved up at the same time the rear was raised, I would think the mount behind the seat would hold it down but I have been wrong about just about everything today.
And just to clarify , the gaps are even everywhere but the striker post side?

On the clarification yes all other gaps are Great.

I just added another 1/2" bushing to the rear one. It takes that 1/2" bushing to close the gap an 1/8". Which adds an 1/2" to the body and bumper gap and also closes the gap between the door and rocker. It also makes it slightly harder to close.
%)
At this point I'd just go with the 1/2" door gap and add some of that door edge protector chrome.And fudge it a little. I think they make a strip that I could use for the door post side too. On this project it looks like to fix one problem it creates two more.

Remember this rig was rear ended in a previous owners possession.
Whats your opinion. And thanks greatly for your help too.

 

[langester]

I am no expert by any means and I am stumped. The only other thing I can think is to try to shim all of the mounts on that side a evenly little bit except the one behind the seat and see if it will raise the front and back but still leave the rocker gap even.
I was hoping one of the body guys on here would respond, there is probably a simple answer. Without actually being there its hard to come up with a solution for me. I hope I haven't wasted your time.

 

[Rustytruck]

If you level the top of the bed rails is the ledge of the rocker level? With the top of the bed level and the rocker ledge level is the outside face of the door opening square to the rocker ledge? These need to be level and square. Try swapping the hinges of the door if openings are level, square and plumb.

 

[Nathan43]

I am no expert by any means and I am stumped. The only other thing I can think is to try to shim all of the mounts on that side a evenly little bit except the one behind the seat and see if it will raise the front and back but still leave the rocker gap even.
I was hoping one of the body guys on here would respond, there is probably a simple answer. Without actually being there its hard to come up with a solution for me. I hope I haven't wasted your time.

Didn't waist my time at all. Thanks for the help. Its just giving me an excuse to wrench on it. And that is fun in itself.

Give me a min rusty truck i'll go at er again.

 

[Nathan43]

With the bedsides as level as I could get them. The driver rocker leans a half an inch on a two foot level. With the lower side being the front hinge post end.

Square shows the same problem.

NOTE: Rocker is riveted to the hinge post side and still seems to be factory done at the strikers end. It doesn't look like the spot welds have been cut from the inner rocker and floor.

 

[langester]

Maybe the front needs picked up and not the back if that's what the level is showing. You might try shimming the front one and the one under the front floor and leave the back two mounts bolted down without any shims.
If you have two jacks you might loosen those two and gently jack up the one under the floor board and then gently move the front one and see if it helps and how much you have to move it to make a difference. That way your not replacing shims every time you want to change it a little bit.
I have had trouble in the past and sometimes it's easy and sometimes it makes no sense what actually fixes the problem. At least in my head! I look forward to seeing what actually fixes this.