'40 Door Adjustment

Kruzn40

Kruzn40

Member
I'm in need of some insight from the body and fender experts. The D/S door on my '40 Tudor has a 1/4" gap between the door and the A-piller and 0 gap at the B-piller to the point of the latch sticking. The P/S door has a 1/8" gap on both sides and opens and closes perfectly.
Is there a means of moving the hinges forward short of milling an eighth of an inch off of the mounting flanges? What am I missing?

Thx
 
If the gap is even top to bottom, I would suspect the hinges were slightly bent. Have you measured the opening and compared it to the "good" side? An accident could have moved the cowl back a little on that side. Look closely at the hinges on the good side and measure the gap between the part on the door and the part on the body, if it is less then the bad side something is wrong (bent, or loose) on the side giving you trouble. Are the hinge pins good an tight? The driver's door always get worn out before any of the others.
Body shims won't make much difference in a closed car.
 
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I suggest carefully removing the door and bending both the upper and lower hinge straps forward slightly. If memory serves bend the shorter upper hinge strap more than the longer lower hinge strap.
Be sure the hinge screws are tight.
Place a block of wood against the hinge strap and strike the wood with a large hammer driving them forward. They will bend easily. Don't overdo it.
Hang door and close slowly to check gaps. Repeat if needed.
 
Thanks for all of the replies.
There is 1/4 " gap between the hinge parts on both closed doors and the pin are tight.
I'm going to do some more measuring between the bad door and the good one and then, as suggested, I'm going to remove the door and try some friendly persuasion and try to make the bad one a mirror image of the good one and go from there. I hope I don't screw things up more than they are.
Thanks again............
 
You could also try shimming the inner most end of the hinge strap between the strap and cowl.
This will tip the outer end of the hinges forward and close the door/cowl gap. You can do this without removing the door.
 
Shimming is worth a try. I don't think a 40 door hinge strap will bend easily when hit with a hammer, if you twist the A pillar where it attaches you will have more problems. Did you measure one door width against the other as well as the openings? I believe the answer will be tweaking the hinges, its just how you go about it. You didn't mention if the tight gap was even top to bottom, if not one hinge needs to move more then the other.
 
The gap is uniformly tight from top to bottom. As you say, shimming will tend to angle the pivot point of the hinge forward and I'm going to try that first. Why didn't I think of that?
Thx again........
 
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