1931 Tudor Door alignment

Z

zookeepwr

Junior Member
This is my first Model "A" restoration so I'm not familiar,(which means I don't know what I'm doing) My drivers door is almost a half inch higher than the body behind it and I don't know how to fix it. I did try to raise the front of the cowl but that didn't work. I attached a picture. Any help would be very much appreciated.
 

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Thank you for getting back to me. I did try to raise the front of the cowl but that didn't work however I didn't try to raise the body like the website suggested, I will try that. I did notice that they were working on a Fordor and not a Tudor like mine. Hopefully it will translate anyway.
Thanks again. I appreciate the help.
 
No hood. I'm not that far yet. I did shim up the front of the body just ahead of the door post where the door latches. I got the door aligned, however I had to shim it up a inch to gain the approx. 1/2" that I needed to line it up. Now the floor bows up, it just doesn't look right.
Thanks again. If you or anyone can think of something else I would love to hear it. Thank you.
 
Did you make sure your frame was level and true before you put the body on? Model A's were notorious for a sag especially on the drivers side between the rear motor mount and the middle crossmember.
 
I did not check that and not really knowing what I'm doing I didn't think to check that. Probably to late now. Thank you.
 
Aligning hood/doors etc etc is a DARK ART . You MUST start at the very front and work back you must have a good hood before you begin . A straight frame is a bonus but good fits can be achieved even if the frame is not completely true .Start with the rad and rad shell just use one thin rubber pad at the rad feet to start with then trial fit the hood there is a lot of trial and error in this procedure . Adjust the cowl/body for a good hood fit and work back to the doors . It could be your bottom hinge is bent and the door can be dropped by bending the bottom hinge forward this can be achieved by using a large crescent wrench fitted sideways on the hinge . Get a long thin rod to drop through all 3 pin holes in the hinges so you can tweak the other hinges to maintain alignment when the door pivots .The centre hinge does not normally needs to be realigned You might find the door top fits tight on windshield pillar at the top this can be cured by putting a small wooden block at the top and closing the door on it this will move the door window frame back slightly . You will never succeed unless you start at the front for sure and you MUST fit a hood first . You are lucky you have only have 2 doors try a 4 door phaeton you fit 3 easy but any last one is a pain !!! Dont ask me how I know .

John in lovely crisp sunny Suffolk County England .
 
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Forgot to add if the frame is very slightly twisted you might need an extra pad on one side at the rad bottom bracket to get a uniform gap across the top of the hood where it meets the cowl but you can also achieve this by body pads as well ,it would not be noticed if the body is a smidgeon higher on one side but try the rad bracket first

John in same place same weather .
 
Thank you John. I don't believe I should have to use the 1 inch shim that I did so I'm going to pull it out and start over. I'm going to try what you said. Fingers crossed. Thank you.
 
You should never need a 1" shim anywhere between the frame and body. I would listen to the advice given and start from scratch. Just for my own piece of mind, if it was my car, I would lift the body and make sure my frame is flat. I recently trued my frame at a friends body shop. We used a machine called Car-O-Liner and used hydraulic jacks and a 8' straight edge to get it perfect. It had a 1/4" dip between where my original post suggests.
 
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