Door Alignment

I need some help aligning the door(s) on my TR4. I am trying to evenly space the doors ans was wondering what tricks people use to align their doors. On my drivers side door the space at the front edge is noticeable larger than the trailing edge. Even on the trailing edge the bottom is a tighter fit than the top.

Any help would be appreciated.

.........Cheers, Alex

Align the doors with the top of the B post at the back, and the top of the scuttle,dash area at the front. Align the fenders to the door. then ajust the in/out of the doors to the fenders, and the inner sill/AB post pinch welds.

Pull the interior panal off in the footwell and you will see bolts down in some holes, that allow the door to move up-down-forward- and back. This could help. If the gaps are uneven to where you cant get them by moving the door around (I.E. they both get tighter at the bottom, or the bottom gap is crooked with the front gap correct) then you'll have to adjust the fenders like BOXoROCKS said. His method is good.. Iwas really just adding where to find the bolts. Hope you don't mind BoR.. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

The above suggestions are correct.

I also have to ask, has the car been off the frame recently?

The spacer/pads between the frame and the body also effect door alignment. Too many or too few spacers at various points position the body so that it's impossible to really align the doors.

Or, a car that's never been off the frame might have compressed the rubber mounting pads to the point where it's beyond the adjustment range in the hinges.

Just a thought.

Alan

Hi Alex aligning doors can be very tricky. The car is probably been in an accident and suffered some damage, sometime in its history. So anyways what I do is first put some blue masking tape or some tape with weak glue on the fender side and the door side, so that I do not chip the paint, and so I can get the tape off without pulling the paint off. You can take some of tack off the tape by applying it to a cloth a couple of times it is just acting as a buffer. Then gently lift the door up and down a little to see the condition of the hinges. If they are somewhat tight, I will then look at the reveal or the gap in the door from top to bottom and around the door to see what is wrong. Most the time the hinges have sagged and it sounds to me like your top hinge is weak. If the hinges are kinda good and you still have a gap at the top and little gap at the bottom, there are some carpenter tricks that I have learned. If you take and put a couple of small washers in behind the hinge between the post at the hinge, what will happen is the door will now lift up and line up depending on the thickness of the shim or in this case washes. You can lift them a little, maybe a ¼ or more depending on the length of door and this helps the operating of the door somewhat because it puts some of stress back on the other hinge.
My experience with tr3 is that the roadster body design lacks support at the posts. Roadsters because they are open cockpit give up some structural strength especially the ones with removable windshields. The fatigued sheet metal will actual tear right up the cowling from the toque and rolling of the body on normal driving. I am not sure on a tr4. What you might have to do is pull the kick panel and actually stiffen the hinge side of the body tub. I would hold off until you are ready to paint because this usually requires welding. The fabrication is easy (just angle iron) if you are crafty common sense will lead you through it.

George

Alex,
Just wondering, but you mention door('s), are both doors out of alignment? Is the right worse than the left..and vis versa?
I'm wondering if the car has been "clipped". You will be able to tell fairly easily, ( look for welds that are not supposed to be there ) if the car is sagging in the middle or rear deck area there may be some safety issues.
Just thinkin out loud...........let's face it you can only live safely if you don't take chance's. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cheers.gif

Thanks for the replies everyone. sp53, I like some of the tricks you suggested. They just might help me out. The drivers door is the one I'm having problems with fitting. Both doors stick a bit when trying to open them. I don't expect to get them perfect, but fairly even would be nice. The car is going to be a driver, not a pristine show car. I'll be working on the car over the weekend. I'll let you know how it all goes.

.............Cheers, Alex