1932 Ford 3W Door Alignment/shim questions...

Thanks John... What about the other body bolt positions? Also, looking for the thickness of any other shims. I am most interested in the back four bolts since I have some door gap alignment that I am trying to fix.
 
The next-to-last body bolt on each side has a 1/8" thick fabric/rubber insulator block between the body and frame. The body/frame webbing runs under this block and ends there. The rearmost body bolt also has an insulator bloc, but this one is at least 1/4" thick. (No webbing involved there.) The photo shows the rearmost pad. As you can see, it appears to be made of several plies of material. I don't have one handy to measure or verify construction. Can add that info later if you need it.
 

Attachments

  • Rearmost Pad - 1 compress.jpg
    Rearmost Pad - 1 compress.jpg
    40.8 KB · Views: 62
Last edited:
John, Thanks. Thickness Dimension of the last one would be helpful so I can duplicate what Henry did. Though just knowing this helps with trying some stuff. So from you description the webbing (which I think is 1/8") ends before the 2nd to last bolt which has a rubber 1/8" pad to match the webbing thickness, then the very last bolt has a much thicker pad, say 1/4" for now.

Do you know if there are any rubber pads on top of the webbing beyond the 4 associated with the cowl towards the front?
 
Webbing goes under the insulator block at the 2nd to last bolt and ends just behind that bolt. There are no rubber pads on top of the webbing at any of the other body bolts (other than those under the firewall feet we've already discussed).

There are also rubber pads between the running board brackets and the body at the inner bolt (not the outer bolt that goes thru the frame). Not sure if all cars had these pads, but it seems logical.
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the clarification. Do you know if your coupe is a early model or late model? It seems like there might be some mid production changes with whether Henry used rubber pads.
 
I had a little time this afternoon to work on this. I ended up adding one metal 1/8" shim at the B-pillar bolts (both sides) and this is all it took to move the door front edge up by about 1/4". Though I haven't done the math on this, it makes sense that a little movement along the hinge axis would translate to a good bit of movement at the latch end since the door is 42" long.

BTW, my plan is to take the body off the frame in the next six months or so to do some other work and I'll try some rubber pads then.
 
If the spacing between the hinges is about half the door width, then adding a 1/8" shim at a hinge should raise the front of the door 1/4".
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top