Driver Door Banging on Body Opening?

Jwawhite

Jwawhite

Well-known member
Not positive yet what may be the cause, but I believe I do hear the Drivers Door hitting the areas on the body surrounding the door. I hear this bang when I hit a bump while traveling at a slow speed.
I know the body is torqued properly to the frame and the hinges seem ok.
The door is a bit out of alignment, the upper exterior of door needs to go in a bit and perhaps just a bit of a swing upwards.
Could this be the cause? What else would I look at? Possible metal fatigue at rocker/cowl?
Anyone else?
 
Could be that the striker plate is excessively worn or loose. This happened to me once and the striker plate had loosened up enough to allow the door to misalign just a smidgen.
 
I drove around in my '55 for nearly forty years with both front doors badly out of alignment in both directions. Corrected them in 2017 and posted a huge article on it here in Fordbarn back then. But in all that time, the doors never hit the door jamb going down the road.
I am beginning to wonder if the problem you had with the shaking "B" pillar is coming back to haunt.
Beyond that, the biggest problem I ever had with misaligned doors in heavy rain leaking in through the gaskets (although that was partially due to shrinking gaskets too). No matter how bad the doors are adjusted, you can adjust your striker plate to mate with the door closer mechanism properly, and that's a one time adjustment (until you re-adjust the door properly). Then go back and re-adjust striker plate to match your new door position. Once done, you are good to go.
JWA, are you sure the door is closed all the way, or that maybe the door is becoming partially opened when you hit a bump or something?
If that is the case, check to see if you have enough shims behind the striker plate and you need to have the abraisive shim between striker and door jamb also.
 
Hinge pin wear can be a problem. Rebuilding the hinges will help. Previous collision damage can get all sorts of things out of kilter too if applicable.
 
rotorwrench said:
Hinge pin wear can be a problem. Rebuilding the hinges will help. Previous collision damage can get all sorts of things out of kilter too if applicable.
Click to expand...
Regarding worn hinge pins with respect to proper door adjustment; ever notice how, when you are adjusting a door position, and it looks like you got it exactly where you want it, but then you tighten all the bolts and close the door, but it seems to have fallen some? That is often because of worn hinge pins. But it still can be corrected by re-adjusting using the two-jack method I described in an earlier post, effectively taking the slack out of the worn hinge pins.
These doors are heavy. They're not going to bounce up and down on worn hinge pins if you drive over a bump, because your door striker plate at the back has you locked in at the rear.
The secret is to use gravity as a means of determining the door position on the hinge while the bolts are loose and all tension is removed from the hinge. You will not get it right on the first try unless you are real lucky.
Attempt your first adjustment, then close the door. Determine what fraction of an inch the door needs to be moved from that point in order to get the door positioned evenly in the opening. I have always used a black magic marker to mark the amount of distance I need to move the door on the hinge based upon those measurements.
 
The front of the cowl is locked in it's location by the large stud and nut holding it to the car frame that you can see looking in the fender-well. Now, if that large bracket on the front of the cowl is busted off the firewall, that's a huge problem and you would have major deflection which would affect door movement drastically.
But regardless of previous collisions, if the body is rigidly welded and fastened down to the frame, you are solid and should not experience door movement. Even if the door opening was affected somewhat by the collision, as long as the damage was straightened and reinforced as needed/welded as needed, you have a rigid door opening to work with now, but maybe 1/16" off. You can adjust for that.
There are THREE bolts that hold each hinge to the cowl. There are THREE bolts that hold the door to each hinge. The bolts should be the original type having the serrated washer/head, or a normal bolt with separate serrated washer. The bolts should be tight enough to dig in to the hinges.
If you position the door so that it is evenly located within the opening, you should not be experiencing door banging up against the door jamb. There's actually a good abundance of space between door and jamb on the inside at top bottom and back of door.
 
To check for worn hinge pins, open the door and pull up on the back. If it raises, it needs pins/hinge. The door w/s and bump stops are important for the door to properly close and seal. This will aid in door movement.


Check for latch and striker integrity.
 
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