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By texasmark1 - 13 Years Ago
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57 Fairlane tudor model... trying to get the doors lined up... aaarrrggghhh! anybody got any secrets? got the front correct, the back was too low... got the back right on, then the front was off... checked the shop manual... yeah, it says what it says... anybody... anybody?? want the doors lined up so when I get to the weatherstipping ready to go on, it will fit right; also need the doors lined up before I finish my inner door panels so they will line up with the rear panels... Mark
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By Ted - 13 Years Ago
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When you learn the ‘trick’, feel free to come on down and work on my ’55 Customline. The passenger side door on it still needs some tweaking. I feel your pain.
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By slumlord444 - 13 Years Ago
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Wrap a short piece of 2x4 with a towel and stick it between the rear of the door about where the door latch is. You can then bend the top and bottom rear of the door inward to some degree. Careful you don't get carried away with it. The process is described in the Ford shop manual. Ford actualy made a jig to bend the doors on the T-Bird to fit at the lower rear end of the door. The T-Bird doors usualy hang out from the body there unless somone has gone to a lot of trouble to make them fit.
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By aussiebill - 13 Years Ago
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texasmark1 (8/30/2011)
57 Fairlane tudor model... trying to get the doors lined up... aaarrrggghhh! anybody got any secrets? got the front correct, the back was too low... got the back right on, then the front was off... checked the shop manual... yeah, it says what it says... anybody... anybody?? want the doors lined up so when I get to the weatherstipping ready to go on, it will fit right; also need the doors lined up before I finish my inner door panels so they will line up with the rear panels... Mark mark, patience is the trick, i found using a jack with a block of wood under the center of the door and loosen the bolts, jack the door up slightly then nip them up, now you can start and work out which end of door needs to come down, and as it is back up from where it had naturally sagged while you were fiddling, you should be in ballpark area for adjustment. Be ready for disapointment once you fit door seals as the the doors will bulge out everywhere until regular latch adjustment over time and seals settle in. I just set striker adjustment to close firm but not trying to completly shut too tight as door will really fight to pull shut. I know this may be a lot to absorb until you start again but is based on over 30 yrs of full time restoration of US fords. Patience and small steps.
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By DANIEL TINDER - 13 Years Ago
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What's maddening, is that when you get every dimension/aspect but one perfectly adjusted, the last little tweak will usually throw everything else off!
When I complained about the trouble I was having with one of MY doors, an officer of our local T-Bird club laughed and related how another member had spent over a hundred hours of labor lining up the doors on his show car.
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By Ivan M. Thoen - 13 Years Ago
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Mark,
Eastwood has three brilliant tools especially for door adjustment. A neighbor used them on her 1946 Buick and in a long day, taking time out for beer and barbecue, the huge doors were perfect. Generous application of silicone sealer on all the fasteners and body schutz (undercoating) inside the door skin and the 65 year old doors shut with a genteel thump.
You could then become a door alignment specialist. Good luck.
Ivan
http://www.eastwood.com/e-z-rest-door-hanger.html
http://www.eastwood.com/door-hinge-repair-kit.html
http://www.eastwood.com/e-z-store-door-alignment-tool.html
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By speedpro56 - 13 Years Ago
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On cars not t-birds I work on lining the rear of the doors first then adjust the fenders as good as I can to look reasonable with the doors. Then fine tune as best you can from there and it still won't be easy because you're still dealing with the vent windows etc and so forth so take a deep breath and take your time!!
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By aussiebill - 13 Years Ago
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speedpro56 (8/31/2011)
On cars not t-birds I work on lining the rear of the doors first then adjust the fenders as good as I can to look reasonable with the doors. Then fine tune as best you can from there and it still won't be easy because you're still dealing with the vent windows etc and so forth so take a deep breath and take your time!! Gary, exactly rght, rear 1st then fenders last, one thing i found over the years was that very few rear doors would match body opening when using another door, i think there would have been many left over doors that didnt fit any thing by end of week on assy line. I actually enjoy fitting doors and panels because of the challenge. This is also why some quoted paint n panel quotes seem high, but a lot of fitting and refitting goes on, without being evident.
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By oldcarmark - 13 Years Ago
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If you have a shop manual as I do for my 56,have a look at the chapter on sheetmetal.Ford had a piece of body shop equipment to bend the doors in or out to fit properly.Also supposed to use a torch to heat certain areas to contour it better.Everybody talks about how much better the old cars were built.Nonsense! Quality control was non existent.They could sell em as fast as they could build em!
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By Y-Block Stan - 13 Years Ago
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Mark, I have tried the no weather stripping line up first, no luck.Everytime I have tried that when I put the weather strpping on The doors don't close worth a hoot. The best luck I have had is to install the weatherstripping first, then get doors close and closed and leave em set a couple days so they kinda take a set then go for final alignment. The old body man that showed me used to close the door on a dollar bill and he would adjust till there was a drag on the bill to pull it out. I never saw his doors wind or water leak and always closed with a click. I have used the 2x4 with a towel method to bend them also. good luck doors can be a pain.
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By pegleg - 13 Years Ago
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Mark, I actually thought the firewall on my 57 was bent from a collision because the passenger door fit was so bad. It wasn't, and we eventually got it fairly good doing pretty much what Bill described. I taught myself some new words though. I quit drinking 35 years ago, but almost relapsed on that one.
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By texasmark1 - 13 Years Ago
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yep, good ideas all... OR... your 16 yr old son can buy his old car and your time immediately gets diverted from your project car to his...!
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