Door adjustment

[alaric]

Hi all. I'm trying to assemble the passenger door on the +2. The door is on the car, and when I put the chrome window metalwork into it the clearance between the chrome and the bodywork at the front upper corner is about nothing, while the clearance at the back top corner is about right. The driver's door is fine, and I can't see any significant difference between the bodywork, so have concluded that I need to adjust the hanging of the door. I've undone the bolts from inside the car and got the front of the door as low as poss, but that's not helped - I don't think I managed to drop it any further. Next port of call would appear to be the bolts between the door and the outer flange of the hinge. Before I disturb these, is it likely to provide any additional adjustment? Any advice re hanging the door would be appreciated. The driver's side door is a reasonably good fit.

Thanks in advance.

Sean.

[alaric]

Hi all. I've just been looking at the door clearance again. It looks like the chrome window frame is pressing in toward the body more on the passenger side than on the driver's side. In other words with the door shut on the driver's side the chrome is flush with the bodywork, but on the passenger side it's not, it sits below the line of the roof. I suspect therefore that shimming the door hinge, to push the top edge of the door out a bit, will help. I can't see any other significant differences between the two sides. If anyone can advise on a sequence for shimming the door and adjusting the height that it's bolted that'd be appreciated. I've not adjusted one before so it's trial and error at the moment.

Regards.

Sean.

[stugilmour]

Hi Sean. Pretty much trial and error here as well. I am still trying to adjust the rear of the doors as they are still a bit proud of the body lines. OK in the front though, which I assume would be handled with the slip-in shim count. I did not have to add shims to mine to get this far. Thinking I just have the door catch too loose, so will be pulling the door cards again and adjusting.

For up / down adjustment of the door hinge, I supported the end of the door in an almost closed position with a suitably padded platform jack (wood and cloth), loosened the four hinge bolts behind the kick panel, raised & lowered the height of the rear end of the door, and then re-tightened the four hinge bolts. Took several iterations to get it right.

I am assuming one would just loosen the nuts a bit further to slip in an open ended shim.

Recommend loosening the mounting screws holding the door catches. They will be miss-aligned when you go to trial close the door. With the screws loose my catch just floated into place on the retaining loop.

Also, top of the window frame can be moved in and out slightly to put more squeeze on the door opening gaskets by adjusting the number of washers in the lower mounting bolt; this part is in B16 of my WSM.

If I have miss-understood, let me know.

[alaric]

Stu, thanks very much for your reply. I'm sure it's something to do with the hinge shims. I don't have any washers under the lower window frame bolt at the moment but haven't tighened it right up either, so will start with a spacer under the lower edge of the door as you suggest, loosen off the striker plate and catch bolts, then adjust the height to the lowest I can get away with, put the shims into the front hinges to get flush with the body, then fiddle round with washers and re shimming to get the door frame to fit. What can go wrong - well actually quite a lot as I proved last weekend when trying to replace a radiator valve on the central heating - what a mess. It all cleaned up afterwards luckily.

Regards.

Sean.

[stugilmour]

Hi again Sean. Hope the doors are going well.

Been fussing with shut lines this weekend. How's it going at your end?

Got the bonnet and light pods a lot better, but man what a lot of fiddling!

My driver's door (LHD) is as good as its going to get now. Adjusted the catch latch tighter and tuned up their relative height to the closure loop.

Height of passenger door looks good all the way around.

Tip for you is while fussing the door height with the hinge bolts loosened, pay close attention to the closure stop lever on bottom of door. It is possible to chip the paint on the upper rocker panel area with the closure stop rivet.

I adjusted both the latch and the closure loop as tight as possible. Shut line on the top of the solid door panel looks OK, but the bottom rear of the door is still proud of the body a bit, say 1/8" or so. Not sure I can get it better. Checked the hinge shims, and I have two on the top and none on the bottom. Did you find adding or subtracting shims altered how proud the rear of the door is set?

Last item is adjusting the electric door lock kit. They seem to work OK until the interior door actuator and lock are attached.