Too tight door dovetail ??

hotrodA

hotrodA

Well-known member
One of the problems I've run into in trying to get my 32 Tudor doors to close correctly is the resistance of the door post dovetails.

Presumably, they're repos, and the springs behind the V'd bumpers seem to be too stiff. The door takes a considerable amount of force to get the latch to the second catch on the step. Take off the male locator and the door closes smoothly and fully. Doors appear to line up correctly, and witness marks on the dovetails seem to confirm this.

Any tips? Change the springs? Grind down the pads?

Thanks in advance!
 
I heard you might need some help here.

I have a 31 slant cabriolet and bought the early repro sliders which a close to the 32 style. I would need to see pictures of your sliders. My comments though should be enough.

I found the the repro holder for the sliders to not be formed right. This caused the sliders to not move properly. I found originals would move the full travel length with moderate pressure from one finger. The repro spring was extremely stiff and would not allow for movement, in fact I know the repro spring will damage the dovetail over time.

A&L makes the correct shape 31 type sliders and originally used too stiff a spring. I told them this and was brushed off. Then the owner restored a slant and found the door would not close. He remembered some idiot telling him the springs were wrong and put in a lighter spring. So what I am getting at is you may be able to get the springs from A&L and I do not know about the sliders.

Now the V8 sliders are available NOS, but I am not sure if that covers the 32 style. I modified a pair to work in my 31. At the time A&L had not come out with their stuff.

Having the dovetails working properly is important for body function. They prevent the door from beating the body to death as the frames are fairly flexible. So it is important to get them working right.

Hope this helps. Please PM me or better email me (find my email at my website below) if you have more questions.
 
The tongue on '32 closed car male dovetails is longer than on the similar looking Model A part, but since no one reproduces the correct '32 part, the A&L reproduction Model A part is the next best thing. In fact, they may work better than the correct '32 part if the problem is excessive spring pressure in the female dovetail.
 
BTW, David, the white grease helped on the driver side! Half way home.

After installing the passenger side, there is considerable misalignment of the dovetail and latch tongue to the striker (1/4" low), even though the beltline is only low 1/8".

Can the subframe be flexed, like Model A, with shims at the A post,, to bring the rear of the door up? Or is there adjustment at the hinge? Doesn't appear to be room for shins behind the lower hinge.
 
Following closely. I just received 4 sets of '32 dovetails that I plan to use on my truck based woodie. Right now the doors close very nicely without them and I have been afraid that the addition of the dovetails may hinder the nice solid thunk when they shut. I also know we need them.
 
If you correct the belt line misalignment with shims, evidently you'll still have a 1/8" misalignment and that can be resolved with an offset male dovetail. Dovetail misalignment occurred in production and Ford used two different offset male dovetails to address the misalignment as shown near the top of the right hand column in the photo below. Originals are not all that easy to find, but I noticed on eBay that some clever supplier (United Pacific?) has come up with an adjustable male dovetail which appears to have three different positions.
 

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The adjustable dovetails from United Pacific work great shim the subframe and body to get the beltline lined up and adjust the dovetail accordingly.
 
Also some times you can just take a pair of channel locks and angle the original style ones up or down and even squeeze them a little to get them lined up.
 
Thanks for the tip on the UP offset dovetails. Very nicely made and took care of the issue at the beltline.
Can't load a pic, browse function under manage attachments not working for me
 
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