Door Alignment

[rogerotto66s]

1966 Austin Cooper S, LHD

My passenger door does not close properly.
The top left portion hits the door frame.
If I hold the door handle and lift it closes slightly better.

I am holding off installing the door cards for now.

What options can I try?

[Tim]

Its usually caused by wear in the hinge pins and/or their bushes. You can get a small amount of adjustment by loosening the screws and nuts that hold the hinges to the door and try to adjust the door position. However if the hinges are badly worn, its likely you still won't gain you enough adjustment, in which case you will need to re-bush the hinges and replace the hinge pins. There are kits available which include new bushes and pins. As long as the holes in the hinges aren't enlarged, its not too difficult.



Tim

[Peter Laidler]

If the holes in the door hinge sections are slightly elongated/worn you can ream them out and machine a new, SLIGHTLY oversize pin and bronze bush. Not difficult at all. How many hinge sets have been binned for want of this simple fix......? And so easy to do

[rogerotto66s]

I took a second look at the door hinge pins and they look good - no shimmey.

I have noticed the position of the external door hinge on the RH side is different than the LH side.
The LH hinge butts up against the external seem while the LH hinge has space between the hinge and the external seem.

If I could reposition the RH hinge against the external seem the door may be able to clear the body.
Is this possible by loosening the hinge nuts/bolts located in the wheel well.

The LH door closes OK.

Here are a few pictures.

RH with space.

3799127F-009A-4034-AAE3-0F749307E9E0.jpeg

LH with no space.

F73D32A8-2F40-45CF-AFDC-DBC4ADEDEA9E.jpeg

[Andrew1967]

Yes Roger, slacken off both the hinges on the A panel and then you should get some adjustment how you want. Then re tighten.

[rogerotto66s]

I loosened the 4 hinge bolts, tried to align door and re-tightened the bolts.
Sorry to say ... only slightly better!

[winabbey]

Does the door align with the body aperture correctly? In other words, if you undo the hinge bolts so the door is detached, can you position the door with the correct gap all around?

Collision damage to door or body shell can result in a misaligned door. If it's all OK then you know its just the hinge to door and hinge to body that you need to play with. The mounting holes can be ovalised to assist in alignment.

[rogerotto66s]

Does the door align with the body aperture correctly? In other words, if you undo the hinge bolts so the door is detached, can you position the door with the correct gap all around?

Collision damage to door or body shell can result in a misaligned door. If it's all OK then you know its just the hinge to door and hinge to body that you need to play with. The mounting holes can be ovalised to assist in alignment.

I will try to do as you stated re: door alignment to check the door gap.
If the hinge holes are “ovalised” that would surely assist in proper door alignment.

[Zami]

C807592A-53C6-47F2-B4E7-1963E8DFB088.jpeg

[rogerotto66s]

Thanks Zami.
Car is currently on jack stands.
When it is standing on its own wheels I will try these techniques before drilling holes “oval”.
What document contains this image?

[Peter Laidler]

One thing that you could try to gain a bit of space/clearance Roger is to remove the hinge that butts up against the front side seam and slightly re-profile the front end back a bit to allow that hinge to move a bit further forward and therefore allow you to slightly alter the geometry of the door. You wouldn't need to loose much material because the accumulative effect of this, over the distance, at/on the other parts of the door would be sufficient to cure the problem.

Just to illustrate the point. To reinforce my shell during my restoration, I made solid (no glass) L and R doors from shutter-ply to sit in the apertures while I chopped material out. I made both L & R doors using one good door as a symmetrical L & R pattern. NOT a chance!!! 1 door was perfect of course but the other was way out. Got there in the end though.

Door fitting......, a P.I.T.F.A.....

[TECH396]

This may be a silly question, but is the door alignment wedge/pocket pulling the door down at all?
Seems odd, that after the hinge adjustment you did, there was no change in position. ?

[Zami]

Sorry I only had this one page that was sent to me.