47-55.1 Driver's side door adjustment? Or Altman Latch adjustment

[Chris(NJ)]

Ok, I just spent a few hours today on the driver's side door. I wanted a better closing door. I think everything went smooth. They're kinda hard to screw up, right?! Door plate is bolted on. Striker plate is bolted on. Not even close to letting the door close though. Seems like it's off by about 1/2" up/down, at least. I thought my door gaps were pretty good too. Without the striker plate installed, the door shuts fine. What do you guys think? Here's a bunch of pics to help better explain where I'm at......

[Chris(NJ)]

And a few more of the door gaps....

[Chris(NJ)]

And if everything looks good to you guys, do you think my best option is to simply drill a hole in the striker plate to lower the strike bolt (or whatever that part is technically called)?

[ndeep]

is it possible you have the striker plates reversed [ on wrong side] ?

[Chris(NJ)]

Originally Posted by ndeep

is it possible you have the striker plates reversed [ on wrong side] ?

I thought so too, but unfortunately not. I swapped them just to double check myself and the other one places the striker bolt WAYYYY too low. Like 1"+. I remeasured and it appears as though I'm 1/4-1/3" off, not 1/2 like I originally guesstimated.

I've never worked on door gaps and not sure I want to start lol. I honestly thought these were pretty good, but I guess it does hang a little low on the back side.

My thoughts for an easy(?) solution is to swap striker plates. If I use the passenger side plate on the driver side, the pre-drilled bolt hole will be at the bottom like I mentioned. That gives me a large area to drill a new hole up top without compromising the original hole as it was designed. This also lets me swap plates again in the future back to the original side if I ever get the doors where they should.

That make sense? Or do you guys think thats a dumb idea and I should bring it to a body shop to see if they can dial in the door gaps.

[Tempest67]

I had the same problem when I did mine.

I don't know if this was the right thing to do, but I drilled a new hole in the striker plate......figured no one will see it............unless they are looking for it.

[oldstrk]

You should have some adjustment on the striker plate side if they are topped out can you make make more room on the slots where they bolt on

[Chris(NJ)]

Originally Posted by Tempest67

I had the same problem when I did mine.

I don't know if this was the right thing to do, but I drilled a new hole in the striker plate......figured no one will see it............unless they are looking for it.

I tried adjusting the door, but it's not gonna happen. Well. I got it to latch but I now have a door gap the size of the grand canyon. So it obviously can't stay this way. But it was good enough to be able to go get gas in it this afternoon.

Any problems since drilling a new hole in your plate? Because at this point, my options seem to be to have a body shop do work on the door w/ maybe new hinges or flip the plates around and drill a new hole.

[joedoh]

if it is old and rotted, just pull. the channel will tear around the rivet or screw and you will be able to remove it after

yours looks recent, so look again for screws in the channel, mine are usually right at the lowest part of the window opening, with another on top sometimes.