Shimming the body/Hard doors hard to open/close.

[PhantomEB]

For the first time since I brought the bronco, 17 years ago,I am going to hard doors.

Now when everything bolted up and Center body mounts loose, I have jacked up the Center by a good 1/2”.

Doors need to be SLAMMED hard which raises them up 3/8” of an inch to have it all line up. Outside door knob won’t work so it’s to the inside to get it to release which then opens and drops the 3/8”. Window ain’t gonna be down all the time so this is all useless.

I already have peeled back the sheet metal that surrounds the striker knob.

 

[66broncoCT]

First step is take the striker off the door post. Close the door. Are your lines/door gaps good? The striker can not pull the door into alignment that’s not what it’s designed to do and it will wear out plus cause the latch mechanism to be excessively stiff as you already found out.

 

[75MIKE]

Worn hinge pins may be adding the alignment fight. Especially if you can lift the doors with the striker knob.

 

[suckerpunched]

also new hinges can add to the fight. Which body mounts did you shim and what shape are the body mount bushings in? do what 66bronco said and take a picture showing allignment

 

[DirtDonk]

I posted to your thread on NorCal, but will add a bit here too.
The way I see it, shimming the body mounts is to correct the vertical gaps on the leading and trailing edges of the doors ONLY.

To keep the door from rising and falling during the latch process you need to have the latch striker set at the correct height to level the door with the rear bed rail, and do the same with the hinges for the front body. Or, with the hinges the possibility exists that the front fender is not aligned properly from a replacement, so you could conceivably adjust the hinges to keep the door top level with the rear bed rail. Letting the front alignment fall where it may unfortunately.

The falling of the door off the latch is either the latches not set up properly due to the A-pillar not being perfectly aligned, or the hinge pins failing and leaving too much slop.
Either of which can be fixed.

New hinges, or new pins & bushings, will take care of slop.
Remember the factory ones were pretty sloppy too sometimes though, so if yours are not too bad and you're not ready to fix that yet, you can shim the lower hing outward from the A-pillar and raise the back of the door to better line up with the striker that way.

It's a big dance, just like so many other things on vehicles. Unibodies with hard tops are not so bad after all sometimes!

Other things to take into account with door adjustments too, assuming the whole rig has been apart at some point, are the angle of the windshield frame, the relative location front-to-back of the hard top (if applicable) and, especially if an early door, the location inside the door of the window frame.

It's literally five, six or even seven things you have to factor in when installing hard doors.

Paul

 

[Rustytruck]

Take a framing square and cut off about 1/2" off the outside corner of the square. Now use the square and check the door opening accross the rocker ledge up the face of the rear quater and make it square. Check the same ledge to the face of the fender. Also check the inner bed side to the floor. Got to start off square and plumb. Check that the floor braces are still straight and havent bent by the body mounts.
There is a drawing on a picture with door opening diminsions on this site that can verify what your door openings measure.

 

[AC932]

As others have said, make sure your latch is in alignment. If you gotta move your door post, you can use a piece of wood on the door post and an 8lb sledgehammer (although if you've got a good gap along the back door edge, then probably don't). Hit the top forward and use a longer piece to move the bottom out from inside the fender well. A smaller hammer can also convince a latch to move a bit more in the right direction.

 

[904Bronco]

Take a framing square and cut off about 1/2" off the outside corner of the square. Now use the square and check the door opening accross the rocker ledge up the face of the rear quater and make it square. Check the same ledge to the face of the fender. Also check the inner bed side to the floor. Got to start off square and plumb. Check that the floor braces are still straight and havent bent by the body mounts.
There is a drawing on a picture with door opening diminsions on this site that can verify what your door openings measure.

Here you go Les...