Sagging Door

CarlG

CarlG

Well-known member
What is the best cure for a door (Driver's) that sags enough that it won't latch properly. Lift up on the rear of the door while closing it and it latches good. It is about 3/4" lower on the rear than is the door on the passenger side just judging from the way the belt rail with pinstripe just under the window matches up.

Can the hinge side be shimmed up?
 
Is this something that's just happened?? Or been this way for a looong time??
Check hinge pins, hinge to door frame tightness.
Shim it under the cowl.
How does the hood line up (frame sag)??
Paul in CT
 
No wood in the door frame, this is the all steel Budd cab pickup. I'll check it for square and how the hinges line up. Thanks.
 
1931 flamingo said:
Is this something that's just happened?? Or been this way for a looong time??
Check hinge pins, hinge to door frame tightness.
Shim it under the cowl.
How does the hood line up (frame sag)??
Paul in CT
Click to expand...
It probably has been in the works for a while, but just noticed it this past weekend when the door wouldn't latch properly.

Good things to check. I would have thought that if it were a frame sag that it would have affected both doors, but maybe not.

All good suggestions, Thanks.
 
CarlG said:
No wood in the door frame, this is the all steel Budd cab pickup. I'll check it for square and how the hinges line up. Thanks.
Click to expand...

Hey Carl,
'no wood in door frame', but there are wood blocks under body to frame...no ?
Check MARCO' site for the problem alignment and the cures. It all has to do with blocks/shimming....side to side and front to back.:)
 
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Hi Carl, when you lift the door do you feel some lash as if the hinge pins are worn, or maybe the hinge itself is loose. If you can raise the door and it helps, you can likely see where the problem is. Darryl in a very warm Fairbanks
 
CarlG said:
It probably has been in the works for a while, but just noticed it this past weekend when the door wouldn't latch properly.

Good things to check. I would have thought that if it were a frame sag that it would have affected both doors, but maybe not.

All good suggestions, Thanks.
Click to expand...

The highlighted comment above begs the first question. Was it parked on level ground or a place where you commonly park? If you have it at home in it's usual place right now will it do the same? If you took a brand new Model A (any body type) and parked it diagonally on a slope you would have difficulty opening the door and even more difficulty closing it. Of course the severity of the slope would dictate the severity of the experience.

The only thing that keeps the body square is it's foundation which is it's flooring and whatever is supporting that floor. In the case of a complete car, that is the frame. The wood over the doors does nothing to make the body resist flexing. It simply determines and maintains the width of the door opening at the top as do the floor sills at the bottom.

Now, if this did actually occur for the first time on level ground (and assuming you haven't recently driven MANY miles off-road :D), then I would first do a quick check for anything coming loose that would contribute. In this case only couple things should be applicable. One is the door hinge screws which will never come loose unless they've been out before. The other would be the very front body bolt loosening. Similarly a growing crack at the base of the firewall just forward of that bolt could contribute but your cab should have the reinforcement strap (beginning October 1930) in that area that I believe all but eliminated that issue.

There is more to the story but I'm out of time for now. In the meantime you can hopefully read and attempt to digest my alignment page linked below. You can ignore the parts relating to rear doors as you don't have any!

http://abarnyard.com/workshop/door-1.htm.



 
darrylkmc said:
Hi Carl, when you lift the door do you feel some lash as if the hinge pins are worn, or maybe the hinge itself is loose. If you can raise the door and it helps, you can likely see where the problem is. Darryl in a very warm Fairbanks
Click to expand...

X2

When I worked at the dealership I could tweak doors by opening them about 6" then placing a foot long 2 x 4 on the floor jack and jacking up on the rear of the door.
3/4" is more than a tweak though, and it sounds like the hinge pins are really worn or the hinges are very loose, or the body needs to be squared as mentioned.
 
Thanks to everyone for their suggestions. I'll be spending some time on this on the weekend. I took a couple pictures and some measurements. The first picture is the driver's door and the pin stripe is offset 1/2", the second picture is the passenger door, and the offset is 1/4". Haven't had time to check what the cause, but I'll dig into it.

Oh, and it's been parked in my garage for the last 9 months, as level as most garages.
And it's a late '31 Budd Cab, steel top, indented firewall.
 

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Another good place to check is the 'AA" truck website; www.fmaatc.org
Contact Neal Wilson, he has a whole procedure down that he can e-mail you. My truck is the exact same way on both sides. I'm going to Tractor Supply and see about getting some 1/8 or 1/4 reinforced rubber belting to make my own shims for the front blocks. All the rubber shims available that I've seen are plain rubber that compress when you tighten the body dolts, or compress over time. My 'AA' dumptruck was restored 46 years ago, and the doors were always a little low, but have gotten worse over time. Hoping to follow Mr. Wilsons plans and get things back where they belong this spring.

Stew
 
You can also stop by a trucking company and get an old mud flap for reinforced rubber.

I'm lucky to have a belting company about 6 miles away.
 
CarlG said:
Thanks to everyone for their suggestions. I'll be spending some time on this on the weekend. I took a couple pictures and some measurements. The first picture is the driver's door and the pin stripe is offset 1/2", the second picture is the passenger door, and the offset is 1/4". Haven't had time to check what the cause, but I'll dig into it.

Oh, and it's been parked in my garage for the last 9 months, as level as most garages.
And it's a late '31 Budd Cab, steel top, indented firewall.
Click to expand...

Hey Carl,
Hmm, just 'adjust' the pin strips, eh :D !
Probably been asked/answered, but have you checked frame alignment for sag ? I'd thinking that it is a hard job to do such, with the body on, no ?

Reasoning for asking, is that you say that this wasn't like that a one time. Those Ak roads are pretty tough, from memory. IMO, just the kind of roads that the A was made for in the beginning :)
 
Carl,
If you can lift it up & it closes easily, THEN, a fix will be MINOR! If you do ALL the things that were suggested, then your L/F FENDER PROBABLY WON'T FIT RIGHT & YO' TAILGATE PROBABLY WON'T CLOSE!!!
IF I sound like I'm being "smart assed", I AM!! Shall I go watch the TV with the Dorg?
Bill W.
 
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