Has anyone had this problem yet?

[samples45]

As you can see the top of the door is even with the cab but gets wider as it goes.. Does anyone know a fix or have a ideal!? Thanks!

[samples45]

Sorry for the picture being sideways..on my phone. Someone can turn it if they'd like!

[dwcsr]

Put a 2x4 at the red arrow and push on the yellow arrow, then readjust the hing on the bottom. don't body slam it or you'll have the top front out of whack. Once its right go around and tack the skin in place to the inner door.

[samples45]

Originally Posted by dwcsr

Put a 2x4 at the red arrow and push on the yellow arrow, then readjust the hing on the bottom. don't body slam it or you'll have the top front out of whack. Once its right go around and tack the skin in place to the inner door.

Thanks I'll try it! This is a original door no patch panels! But maybe the board trick will work

[dwcsr]

if they fit before then try adjusting the hinges

[samples45]

Originally Posted by dwcsr

if they fit before then try adjusting the hinges

When i bought the truck no doors were installed, I bought brand new hinges and this was the first time i put them on.. Im starting to think it may be the cab.. not sure how to go about finding this problem.. i spent a couple hours messing with the hinges i think i coverd every way they could move a couple times

[OrrieG]

Drop your fenders on too so you do not end up "fixing" one side only to start over on the other. My truck has the original doors and I have done a lot of tweaking because, like yours, the lower hinges were shot and latch strikes worn so I started from scratch. To pull the bottom rear in you will need to loosen and adjust the top front too, think of the center of the door sitting on a point. Start with getting the horizontal body line from fender, thru door, to rear jamb aligned vertically. Then door to rear jamb and top. Then you will need to do some shimming the fender and moving the front of the fender up or down where it attached to the radiator core to get the front vertical aligned.

When it is close you will find that the bottom of the fender and door step will be out of alignment if your truck is line most. You will also find that the upper front door radius may not match the cab radius. Then you decide how anal you want to get, trimming, adding etc. When these truck were new the gaps were good at best, all the farmers, appliance dealers and contractors wanted was for the door to shut and not rattle too much. If the wind has caught the door, or its been hit when open the whole panel might be sprung too, I had that issue with one of mine, did not think the dent was a big deal until alignment time.

[mr48chev]

Was that the door that came with the cab or just one you picked up for the truck? Some times that swap meet door we pick up might be tweaked to begin with.

The other thing I can think of is make sure that the cab it's self is square. I fought that battle in spades with my truck's original cab after I got hit and the truck was pretty well tweaked. The cab was out of wack enough that I could never get the doors to fit right even though the original doors were not damaged in the wreck. We seldom know all that these trucks Be they AD or TF went though before we got our hands on them.

[1project2many]

Has anyone had this problem yet?

Why, yes! I have seen that! Let me tell you the story.

The original RH door for my truck was dented deeply enough to pull the rear of the door frame away from the cab. I tried pulling the dent with no luck so I decided to remove the skin for straightening.

Now I'm no body guy but I've got good training, a decent eye, and patience. So I worked the skin and frame carefully then began the process of re-installing the skin. But I didn't really have anyone to ask for help. Folks from a local body shop would come by as I worked on the door and when I started re-installing the skin they would say "That's never gonna work." I actually thought it was going well until I reinstalled the door. It looked just like your photo! I really felt like a jerk. All that work and the door ended up bent! I gave up.

I headed up to the local junkyard, picked through all the 55-58 trucks, and found a door that had never been hit or dented. It only cost me $75. Now I really felt like a fool as I'd spent way more in time on the old door. Once I got back to the shop I proceeded to swap out the doors. After bolting the new door on the truck and closing it I realized that it was the cab, not the door, that wasn't right. Turns out I did do a good job on the original door. But by that point I had one that had never been bent or re-welded so I kept the replacement.

I ended up hanging the fenders and adjusting the bottom of the door so it was correct. Then I bent the top of the door in. You'll probably find that the body line in the top of the cab doesn't line up with the top of the door anyway. On mine that meant there would be cutting and welding to the cab and door so it just made sense to move all the repairs to that area.

[MARTINSR]

The second I read "got new hinges" the red lights begin to flash in my head. If they are reproduction hinges you have to treat them like all reproduction parts, that is....

"Similar to original, can be used if nothing else is available."

The hinges on these trucks play hell with you when they are the originals, I can only imagine what reproductions ones would be like. Think about this, the hinge pivot point is what creates the fit, not where the hinge is bolted, but the hinge pivot point. On these trucks it stuffed way inside the cowl. Open the door and look into the hinge, that pivot point is waaaaaay in there. There is a long way from that pivot point to the door edge, correct? A tiny bit off in there multiplies the further it goes and the door fit is off a mile.

The movement of that pin, the pivot is crucial to the fit of the door. There is a hole deep at the back that wasn't even used in some years, my AD has the hole in the hinge yet there is no fixed nut back there like the outer bolts have. I have had a lot of these trucks apart and I don't remember every seeing a bolt back there, so I am not sure if they were ever used.

This is a hinge on a '55 Belair in the shop where I work.



See those bolts back there deep inside? They have a larger hole than the bolt so you can move it back there to align the door. I did this on my AD door to align it perfectly. I left the outer bolts a little loose and then pushed with a bar the front of the hinge bringing the pivot point in, then tightened that bolt (I had to put a nut behind it) and wham, the door fits as it should. In your case moving that upper pivot point out would bring the bottom of the door in, it pivots on the latch remember.

Now, that is not saying that the door isn't bent as well, but a little of both may do it.

Often aligning panels is a "dance" between trying to make it all perfect and making a perfect gap not so perfect to get another gap on the panel that is horrible better, so they are all "ok" instead.

Brian

[_Ogre]

put your front fenders on and use new hinges or repin yours before aligning the doors
not sure about using a 2x4, i bend mine in by hand

[samples45]

Thanks for the responses guys! Here's a update on the doors. I did get them to fit a little better. They are rubbing the back side jamb area under where the latch goes, both doors are having this problem. The other problem is the door to A piller is not even.. I've been doin nothing but adjusting these BRAND NEW hinges for about a week now and I can't get the door flush with the cab on either side.. Is the adjustment still in the hinges or does this become a bending job??

[MARTINSR]

It's hard to say because if they are brand new reproduction hinges they aren't correct, they are similar to the original but not perfect. So modifying them or moving them may be what is needed.

Do you have the original hinges? Why did you get new ones?

Brian

[samples45]

Originally Posted by MARTINSR

It's hard to say because if they are brand new reproduction hinges they aren't correct, they are similar to the original but not perfect. So modifying them or moving them may be what is needed.

Do you have the original hinges? Why did you get new ones?

Brian

I've been working on it a little more since last post and I'm getting it better.. Not where it needs to be yet. I got the window frame part of the door more even with the cab but it's sticking out towards the bottom of the rear. No hinges came with the truck when I bought it!