Opinions on my Edsel's Door Alignment.

'59Edsel

'59Edsel

Senior Member
Hello all,

I have always had an issue with my Edsel's driver's door not closing right. It sags a bit. Here is a video of how much play there is in the hinges. Excuse the rust…and me and my father's banter

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnIVphdU3kE

I looked in my manual and I see there are adjustment for this type of thing, but I wanted to get your opinions on it first. I know the rust in the body can account for the sag too, so I'd like to see if it's even worth a try.
 
You need to rebuild both hinges before you can even think about trying to align the doors. Kits are available from many vendors and at NAPA.
 
i have never seen any door kits for 50s fords.you have your hands full with fifties doors even when the higes are good.
 
as stated you you need to rebuild the hinges I myself have not seen kits for 50's cars so you may have to adapt later model kits measure the pin width and length with a caliper also bushing size you may have to open the holes to fit these parts your bottom hinge looks to be egged out you may have to fill with weld and resize but first you need to get them out may need heat and a good impact driver most autoparts stores have a [help] brand rack that has a good selection of parts for your job do 1 at a time and remember which way they mount also the bolts for the door are under the door panel your adjustments for front/back up/down are done here use a floor jack to hold door during removal its heavier then you think
 
Last edited:
darrell said:
i have never seen any door kits for 50s fords.you have your hands full with fifties doors even when the higes are good.
Click to expand...

That is correct but the late model kits at NAPA have the correct sized bushings and pins. You just need to "tinker" a little.
 
I tried to do some work on it today but, things did not go to plan…I tried to take the hinge bolts off on the body, upper and lower hinges. I ended up stripping one bolt due to rust, and two bolts have started spinning. It appears the spinning bolts are spinning because the nut the bolt threads into (which is normally fastened to the body with a clip of some type, or maybe welded I don't know) broke away from the sheet metal of the body.So now my dilemma is how to remove those bolts and fix the striped nuts. Anybody have experience doing this?
 
your going to have to drill them out and make a backing with threads for the new bolts to attach to second option is to remove the fender an cut an access hole in the post to grab whatever is holding the ones you can turn hard to say what is best without seeing the problem
 
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