Reply to "2548's Restoration"

I really appreciate all of the great comments and feedback on this thread so far. Someone suggested that it would be a good time to start fitting the doors before I get too far along. Seemed like a good idea at the time; but that’s why I haven’t posted anything for a month. Dang what a can of worms!

I’m not done yet, but I have a solution to a difficult problem that I thought I would share with you.

Anyone who has done this already, knows what a pain it is to get the door in just the right position, then get the hinge bolts tightened up without moving the door. It’s not just a pain, it’s impossible. It’s not the bolts that hold the hinge to the door, those are easy. The flat head, countersunk screws that hold the hinge to the A pillar, cannot be tightened with the door in the closed position. They must be loose enough to allow the door to be jockeyed into position, then you open the door enough to tighten the screws, the door slips, and you start over. Again. And again. And again.

I really had to chew on this one for a while until I came up with a solution. First I spotted this obround hole on the interior side of the A pillar. This one on the driver’s side is just above the weldment that supports the dash and steering column:



You can see the tips of the screws as the come through the captive nut plate in here, but that doesn’t do any good. Then I realized that I don’t need to get all three of them tight; one will be enough to hold the adjustment. The final piece of the puzzle is to use a nut and bolt, temporarily, in place of one of the screws. Ah-ha. I think I have the answer.

The screws here are M8 x 1.25 mm thread, and I needed a bolt that would pass through the threaded hole in the nut plate without engaging the threads. I used a 1/4 inch x 20 thread carriage head bolt. Just happened to be what I had on hand; M6 x 1 mm would work just as well for you metric guys. I welded a square bit of metal on top to keep it from turning:



Install the through - bolt in the center hole, and the regular flat head screws in the other two positions. Tighten just snug, then back off about 1/2 turn:



Put a flat washer and nut on the through bolt, inside the A pillar:



Unfortunately, the factory did not put one of these convenient holes next to the lower hinge, so I had to add it:









Next time I’ll add some more door alignment ideas I came up with.