This door fitting business has really been time consuming. It is one of those jobs that just has to be done, and cannot be over looked in a restoration. A re-paint job or some minor repairs would not be nearly this hard. But I have had to repair or replace parts of the chassis that make up the door frame, and I have “new” (not the originals) doors to fit. The originals are so rusty they cannot be reasonably repaired. The “new” doors do not fit exactly the same, but more on this issue in a bit.
Last time I detailed the way I found to tighten the door hinge screws with the door closed. To do the right side, an access hole to the lower hinge screws is needed, but the fuse holder bracket is in the way.
I outlined around the fuse block with a marker, just to be sure I was not about to do something dumb.
The bracket is spot welded on with 2 wide tabs and 2 small ones. I decided to cut them off, and not to try to drill out the welds. It was just easier to do this way. I will weld some new tabs on to the bracket, and put it back in with small sheet metal screws. The metal I left behind will give more thickness to screw in to.
Off it comes, and ready to make the access hole for the lower hinge:
And the result:
To set the height, or vertical position of the door within the frame, I made these little wood shims. They are cut pieces of cabinet shims, and marked with the thickness in millimeters:
The shims go on the door sill, with double sided sticky tape to hold them (the white patches):
These little tools I made are clips to adjust the door in and out at the bottom:
I had to cut two small grooves in the sill flange, but this will be covered with the door seal later, so I thought no big deal:
The clips grip the door in the drain slots on the underside:
Using the adjustment clips, shims, and modified hinge access feature, it is possible to get a very good door fit with minimum fuss.