Door Alignment Help

T

tribouboys

Senior Member
Looking for advice from those who have been in this situation before me.
30-31 Roadster. Brookville body. Passengers side door did not shut well. The latch was higher than the striker. I tried to adjust the striker but not enough movement to get it to line up.
I removed a shim from the cowl to tip the door down and that helped the striker alignment but also created a situation where the back of the door near the bottom started hitting the quarter panel.
If I put the shim back in ,it eases that gap but latch does not line up with the striker very well.
Should I start to look at the shims at the front of the quarter if so add or subtract ??
BTW drivers door shuts well. Any advice shimming a body appreciated.
 
Body lines are good now that I lowered the door. The door to cowl gap is good as well.
Now body lines are more correct just the bottom of the door needs to move forward but that will cause the top of the door to be lower than the quarter body lines. Odd problem
 
If the frame is not straight, etc., alignment can be tricky. Usually starting at the hood / radiator shell and working rearwards may fix most issues. Possibly the door hinges need to be bent and/ or by carefully placing blocks between the hinge leaves while closing, etc. and being careful not to distort sheet metal. Or perhaps the rear of the body needs shimming at the body blocks to raise the lock jamb slightly ? This may affect the trunk alignment.
 
This may be of help. http://wescottsauto.com/Information/TechnicalArticles.pdf.

Remember to remove the strikers and dovetails during alignment. You could have a door fit issue, a striker/latch fit issue, or both.

Model A roadsters are "flexible flyers" and rely in the seat back wood for diagonal bracing of the body, and wood for stiffness of the door posts. Brookville opted not to attempt to address Ford's shortcomings in favor of "originality". We improved this on our fiberglass bodys by fabricating a 3/4" steel tube yoke that goes completely around the cockpit, then down to the floor on the door post, and with a "yoke" from the cockpit corners through the seat riser.

Brookville has an amazing product but has issues with getting all the incidental stuff (striker locations, internal dovetail sockets, and other details) exactly right. Expect to fix them (the alternative would have been for Brookville to retool 2 or 3 times to get much closer and their product would have to sell for 3-4 times as much).
 
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