Drooping Door

[Austin Rover]

My 75 has a replacement front passenger door from a scrap car fitted at some point in its past.

My problem is that someone hasn't done a particularly good job at attaching it to the car as it is out of line with the rear one when you come to close it. It droops down slightly and the difference can clearly be seen when you compare to the rear door.

This means it needs an extra hard shove to get it to close or you really have to give it a good pull when you're in the car or it just rests on the catch.

Obviously, this won't do and I've finally got the motivation to do something about it, but what I need to know is how i go about it.

Does anyone have prior experience of lining up doors that they can share with me?

[Dragrad]

You need two people and a car jack. One to hold the door, the jack to support the weight of the door (place a bit of wood between door and jack) and you fiddling with the bolts....

Oh two more things required....

Time and Patience

[Devilish]

As Dragrad posted plus my tips for a 2 step operation, done it a few times. The patience is in the preperation, the operation is a piece of cake, works first time every time. 'That will do' does not work though.

Tools you will need.
Hacksaw, gunk, toothbrush, tipp-ex, pencil, swivel ratchet spanner, washers.

Thoroughly clean and dry around the hinges.
This is what I call clean & dry around the hinges


You do not need to loosen both hinges at the same time, this will be your downfall, next to a leviathan handed assistant to whom up a bit means 3" down on the jack handle.

I have no pics because the last time I did this I had the new Olympus OM10

First ascertain if the door needs to be raised, rotated, or both, and by how much.

To raise the door remove the circlip from the top hinge, you can easily tap it out from behind the hingepin with an electrical srewdriver

Mark around the hinges with tpp-ex (the door and pillar) you can mark the vertical position of the hinge with a sharp pencil

Using the doors' centre of gravity jack up the door and cut a slot in a washer of the desired thickness, and slot it into the gap you have created in the bottom hinge to support the new height of the door.

For this part, the genuine screw jack is the tool for the job about 6" from the rear of the door, hydraulic jack is no use for trying to lower the door a mm or two.

Loosen the door part of the top hinge it will simply drop down onto the door pillar part of the hinge. You should have a tipp-ex semi circle to guide you and the pencil lines marking the vertical position, with a friend on the screw jack to facilitate horizontal movement of the door.

Remove the washer from the bottom hinge and lower the door part of the hinge as you did the top one.

TADA... door raised vertically the required height in two easy steps

Hopefully rotational adjustment by means of loosening the door pillar parts of the hinges will not be required.

If you need to rotate the door, carefully mark the respective hinge,then with a friend on the screw jack supporting the door, carefully loosen the bolts and either tap the hinge forward or prise it back

[Austin Rover]

Thanks to both of you. It would seem I've enough information there to give it a go.

[Devilish]

Originally Posted by Austin Rover

Thanks to both of you. It would seem I've enough information there to give it a go.

Good luck, by 'give it a go' I know you mean you will align it no sweat

[Austin Rover]

Just to clarify, when adjusting the door by loosening the bolts, which ones do I loosen? There are two bolts visible on the A post and look a NAUGHTY WORD-NAUGHTY WORD-NAUGHTY WORD- to get to because of the front wing, then there are the two bolts at the other end of the hinge, attached to the door itself.

Or does it not matter?

[Greeners]

My drivers door was out of alignment when I bought it.....


I had a crack, and whilst its loads better, it's not spot on

Probably the worst job I've ever attempted.

[rallyjon]

slacken the bolts on the door for the majority of movement if you have to slacken the hinge bolts have fun
dont forget the latch on the b post moves aswell to get the shutting of the door just right
if you lived closer i would do it for you

[Dragrad]

Nice one Stephen, and you Jon. Having only ever done it on an Austin A30 I could not go into as much detail as you

[Devilish]

Originally Posted by Austin Rover

Just to clarify, when adjusting the door by loosening the bolts, which ones do I loosen? There are two bolts visible on the A post and look a NAUGHTY WORD-NAUGHTY WORD-NAUGHTY WORD- to get to because of the front wing, then there are the two bolts at the other end of the hinge, attached to the door itself.

Or does it not matter?

Yes it does matter, read my thread carefully. Once the door is raised the desired ammount, if you loosen the bolts on the door section of the hinge it will drop down onto the door pillar section of the hinge.

If you loosen the door pillar section of the hinge you will have to hold it up while trying to position it and tighten it at the same time

Clear and precise marking with tipp-ex and a pencil is essential.

If I undo the door pillar bolts I pop some spring washers in to hinder excess play, as I prefer to tap and prise the hinge little at a time rather than it moving all over the place

Be mindfull that you are only looking at maximum 1-2 mm movement at at time, and never loosen more than 2 hinge bolts at a time