Major Door Adjustment

[81dmc]

Hi, I started my alignment from scratch on my passenger door after a new roof box was installed. It took a few hours to align the hinges so the door would close properly to the fiberglass. However, after I installed the torsion bar, the door went WAY out of adjustment. Is there supposed to be a factory starting point for the number of shims on each hinge? Now this only occurred after the torsion bar was installed. Does this mean it is time for a new passenger door as well?:(

[DMCMW Dave]

Hi, I started my alignment from scratch on my passenger door after a new roof box was installed. It took a few hours to align the hinges so the door would close properly to the fiberglass. However, after I installed the torsion bar, the door went WAY out of adjustment. Is there supposed to be a factory starting point for the number of shims on each hinge? Now this only occurred after the torsion bar was installed. Does this mean it is time for a new passenger door as well?:(

Not that I know of. But I do know that the door alignment will shift a bit with all that torque on the front hinge. Sometimes you can accommodate this by moving where the hinge bolts to the door, but if the door is really "shifty" where the skin is bonded to the frame, you will need to address that problem. Keep in mind that when the door is approaching "closed" the hinge shims are not all that important (they impact the fit at the top much more) the sliding nuts where the hinges bolt to the door have a huge impact.

I have a car in the shop now missing one torsion bar, and the door still works well (albeit a bit heavy!).

[81dmc]

I have figured out how to do the door adjustment. You start with the torsion bar on, check door alignment, remove torsion bar, readjust, install torsion bar, check adjustment, etc. Another part where my car needed to be adjusted was the striker bracket. For this, I had to remove the infill panels. Overall, the door adjustment seems to be a labor intensive job and should only be done if there are major problems occurring such as, a rotten roof, a cracked hinge, or a bent door. With that said, once the adjustment is complete, the door should open and close better than ever.

[DMCMW Dave]

Overall, the door adjustment seems to be a labor intensive job.

Yep.

[David T]

Yep.

And even with a LOT of labor you cannot always get it to look good. Once you finish with the door you may have to align the other panels to get it to look OK but it still is all about compromises. This is why it is advised to not remove the doors unless there is no other choice. As mass produced in jigs as the doors were they are all different and will need to be fitted to a car. Of course once you get the door the way you want it you will need to do ALL of the other adjustments including both striker pins and most likely all of the internal adjustments. Use new door seals when fitting a door to a car.

[Jonathan]

81DMC,

I was looking through this thread and noticed you also wrote the thread about installing the fixed glass portion in the door. I think your adjustment question was about the opposite door though, so maybe both were getting some rework and you also mentioned a new roof box.

One thing I thought I would mention was how much of an impact the weight of the doors make to how much it springs open or not and general alignment, etc. And what I mean is, if you remove some of the components normally in the door, it changes very dramatically the tension from the torsion bar and how strong it will spring up.

I was working on my outer wipe seal recently on my passenger door and had the drop glass removed along with the upper trim panel, edging bracket and the pillar trim pieces. Considering the door is around 90 pounds when complete, and other than the glass piece itself, none of that which I removed was all that heavy, but boy does it ever make a big difference in the torsion bar/door opening tension. It almost wants to fly out of your hand and up with just that relatively small amount of weight removed.

Didn't know if any of that would apply to what you are doing considering you mentioned door alignment, fixed glass reinstallation and some other things. I would expect the door would really want to fly up if the entire fixed glass piece was removed since I'd imagine it's fairly heavy.

[81dmc]

81DMC,

I was looking through this thread and noticed you also wrote the thread about installing the fixed glass portion in the door. I think your adjustment question was about the opposite door though, so maybe both were getting some rework and you also mentioned a new roof box.

One thing I thought I would mention was how much of an impact the weight of the doors make to how much it springs open or not and general alignment, etc. And what I mean is, if you remove some of the components normally in the door, it changes very dramatically the tension from the torsion bar and how strong it will spring up.

I was working on my outer wipe seal recently on my passenger door and had the drop glass removed along with the upper trim panel, edging bracket and the pillar trim pieces. Considering the door is around 90 pounds when complete, and other than the glass piece itself, none of that which I removed was all that heavy, but boy does it ever make a big difference in the torsion bar/door opening tension. It almost wants to fly out of your hand and up with just that relatively small amount of weight removed.

Didn't know if any of that would apply to what you are doing considering you mentioned door alignment, fixed glass reinstallation and some other things. I would expect the door would really want to fly up if the entire fixed glass piece was removed since I'd imagine it's fairly heavy.

Yes, I know exactly what you mean. I have not installed the drivers door, and that is the one with no fixed glass. I remember how the door had more spring in it when I did a window motor swap, but then again, the torsion bar is a very sensitive (and expensive) part.