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Author Topic: Door alignment  (Read 2021 times)

Offline Wildman10

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Door alignment
« on: February 03, 2011, 09:45:47 pm »
I've had a frustrating few hours trying to get my door alignment right - the top rubber edges of both front doors (of a 5 door) have gaps to the body towards the rear of the door and the creases on the back end of the door are a few mm lower than the creases at the front of the back doors.   

I couldn't find a description or advice on the net so used what there was in the free service manual links of the thread here.

Playing with the lock plate on the b pillar makes a little difference, but the top of the door still looks too far away and the bottom too far in.  I undid the bolt on the top hinge thinking it was an eccentric shaft but it just loosened and did no good.  I couldn't move the hinge on the body as one of the bolts was awkward to get at and I couldn't exert enough torque to loosen it.

If anything, I've made it all worse.   :sad1:  :sad1:  :sad1:

Before I apply unthinking brute force in frustration, Is there a guide?  Any advice?

Cheers,

Ian

Offline heavyd

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Re: Door alignment
« Reply #1 on: February 03, 2011, 10:28:52 pm »
I do this for a living on freshly built cars :sad1:
where the hinge plate adjacent to the door sets the general door height and body flush point on the door, at that point. as for the rest of the door. (not for the faint hearted) youve got to push and pull the the door sashes into place.
Dont undo the hinge to body bolts as they will be mastic'd onto the body and it dries like cement. You dont get any real adjustment from the hinge to door fixings. other methods are putting your foot on the bottom corner of the front door, and pulling the top of the door inwards to straighten the door up, but do it gently or you can crease the door :surprised:

It is a rough job, and your pride and joy, if I were you I would stick to playing with the door striker plates, you cant do much damage there! If that fails,  take it to a bodyshop I'm sure they will sort it out for you,  :popcornsoda: