46 Door alignment

[waterboychuck]

A quick history. Body off of frame until a couple of weeks ago when I painted the firewall and then mounted the body onto the frame. I painted the door jams on the car and each door so that when I do paint it will be easier for me. I’m glad I did that now as I need some help with door alignment on my 46 coupe. As you can see in the one photo that the door scrapes the rain gutter. This is on each door. The other photo shows the drivers door gap in the front, which is almost nothing. The hinge on top has no adjustment and the bottom hinge can travel in or out but only a small amount.

[Capt Kirk]

I don't know anything about 46 hinges so I'm just throwing out ideas. Are the hinges screwed to the A pillar? If so, could there be some shims missing? How is the gap at the back of the door?

[woodiewagon46]

Did you use new body to frame mounting rubbers? If you didn't, did you put the old ones in the exact location they came from? Did you leave one out? All the mounting bolt's tight?

[edhd58]

i know this sounds crazy, but it is straight out of this book.

[waterboychuck]

The gap at the bottom of door is good and yes they are new mounting rubbers at each location. I do not have the shop manual that edhd58 shows.

[Capt Kirk]

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Did the doors fit correctly before you took them off and removed the body from the frame?

[MMB]

Have never done a body off on my 41 but I ended up yanking the door as far rearward as it would go and still needed to add a1/16 shim behind the lower hinge to get the door squared up in the opening. I lacked the courage to attempt the above mentioned jack procedure.

[Capt Kirk]

MMB...my first thought was shimming the hinges. With these types of situations, I always think back to the person on the assembly line that put the car together for the first time. I would suspect that they didn't shut down the line to wait for the door person to get the gaps right. I wouldn't doubt the "4x2" method on the line but I'm not doing it. Get the front gap straightened out and I'll bet the top gap will solve itself.

[okiedokie]

Is that service manual a Ford publication? I never found one for my 46, or any 40 for that matter.

[johnny]

I suggest you have two separate problems :One you must lift the rear section of the body on each side ,keep the two front mounts as is .Get some thick washers maybe 1 inch or even larger ,cut a slot out of them and by lifting the body they can be driven in through the bolt ,on top of the rubber mounts do all except the front two on each side. this should give gap at the drip. Next take a 3/4 socket tight it to a wire ie a welding rod. wind the window down put the socket in side the front top hinge so it is caught in the cruck[[bend] of the hinge ,close the door against the socket put your body against rear area of the door gently force the door in do not have your fingers wrapped around the rear edge of the door just do a little then do the same to the lower hinge ,first make sure all the bolts are in and tight .work each hinge until the proper gap is gained. Try this first maybe it might not be necessary to add the washers. also maybe you might need a larger or smaller socket to get it to stick.

[Capt Kirk]

Body mount shims won't help the front hinge mount gap. The hinges need to be "tweaked" by the 4x2 method or by shimming. I've shimmed countless house doors with paper to get the gaps right. Again, I don't know the arrangement of the hinges of this particular car but it's obvious that the door needs to move so all that's left is how to achieve that movement.

[waterboychuck]

I did add a shim between the hinge and the door frame and that made things worse. The problem is on both doors hitting at the same spot on the rain gutter.

[Seth Swoboda]

I've had to work over hinges with a block of wood and a heavy hammer to move the hinges on the A pillar to where they needed to be in order to get all the door gaps to match. Sounds crude but after shimming fails it's time to tweak hinges. That's why you line up all your body gaps before paint.

[Bruce Lancaster]

The manual is a circa 1946 Ford Canada manual, now reprinted with various additions. On the block of wood bending tech...that is a way of doing it! I once read that the last stop on the Packard assembly line right after WWII was a big guy with a stack of wood chunks. Wood chunks and a calibrated eyeball...
As each car reached the end, he looked over the doors. If he didn't like what he saw, he chose the perfect block, stuck it into the offending hinge, and leaned on the door. He was apparently good enough to get the gaps right without second shots. You can buy a modern tool for this...it is just two different size knurled steel cylinders to use for different gaps hung together on a rod.


https://www.amazon.com/Tool-Aid-8750...oor+hinge+tool

[Tim Armstrong]

I would loosen the front body to frame bolts and use a floor jack to move the cowl up that should fix it. Then ad shims. I have had the body off several 46 fords. Use the jack to find were you need shims.

[waterboychuck]

The first thing I did today was to loosen all the bolts that held the body to the frame. I did not take them out, but just loosened them. The front mount was not attached and the rubber spacer was above the mount. I added washers to that area plus jacked up the rear of the car. With the help of a block of wood and a 3 lb hammer I was able to get things so that nothing rubs and the doors close. I wish I had a nickle for every time I loosened the bolts on the bottom hinge. I added shims in that area which ended up being no help, twice.

Thanks for all your help. It really made me think of how to fix this problem.

[mhsprecher]

When I worked at a GM plant one summer in the early 70's, they used rubber mallets, wood blocks and all manner of things to get doors aligned properly.