[DML] Re: Door Alignment

["twinenginedmc12" <twinenginedmc12@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Joe/Don.

Aligning the doors is tricky.  Many things have to be correct 
simultaneously to make it look good.  If you're putting on a 
different door, you may have to settle for "as good as you can get it"

Dave's Swingle's trick of removing the pins seems pretty sweet.  I 
wish I had known that when doing mine.  I did it with the pins 
installed, and it would have been lots easier without them as David 
suggests.

About aligning the doors to the panels, you can also move the panels 
to align them to the doors.  The panels can be bumped out of position 
and adjusted a bit, so you needn't consider their locations sacred.  
I ended up doing a little of "align the door to the panels... align 
the panels to the door... etc."  I did the alignment with the panels 
not quite screwed down, so I could shift them a bit to match the 
door.  I wouldn't bother with that subtlety until the torsion bar is 
installed.

About shims:  Maybe not all cars have door shims.  Mine doesn't have 
them, never did.  It does have body shims, different amounts of body 
shims one side vs. the other.

About seals:  Old ones are fine.  

Another pitfall to avoid:  if you're aligning the door without the 
torsion bar, and you unlatch the handle and pull up on the handle to 
open the door, it's easy to break the handle.  I did that.  A less 
destructive way is to unlatch the handle with one hand, and lift on 
the bottom edge of the door with the other hand, to avoid 
overstressing the handle.  Eventually I got into that habit, and do 
it all the time now.

You will notice the door is more curved with the torsion bar than it 
is without the torsion bar.  If you align the door with the torsion 
bar uninstalled, the alignment will need a little refinement after 
you install the torsion bar.  (pins will need to move up a little 
bit)  No big deal.  Just know that you aren't hallucinating if it 
looks different with the torsion bar installed.



Rick.


--- In dmcnews@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "Joe" <skateboarderx24@...> wrote:
>
> thanks David. 
> 
> I'll take your advice about propping the door open. 
> 
> Right now I've been aligning to the panels and thats somewhat hard
> since no matter how hard I try it doesn't happen. I also tried 
aliging
> to the door with the panels after I was happy at one point. 
> 
> I do not have new door seals, the original is on, I guess new door
> seals would help out, a lot since they would tell me more than these
> worn out seals.
> 
> I know the rules about the torsion bar, sure its only the passenger
> side and is cheaper than the drivers side(I need one of those too!)
> 
> 
> If I read correctly you mentioned about shims, is that for the up 
and
> down alignment? As far as I know the door was removed from teh other
> car and just hung on this car and not aligned. I've been aligning it
> by myself since I figure its moot if two people are here that have 
no
> clue. I'd like to say to Tony at DMC-FL.. here fix it for me please,
> but I'm not on that kind of budget. :)
> 
> 
> So, I will take your info and advice and do my best to get this door
> aligned. This is probably the hardest door alignment I have ever 
done
> on a car.
>



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