Dropped Doors

[ants]

A question for the knowledge base.
The doors on my '70 Mach 1 have dropped, not much but enough that the bolt on the underside that holds the window guide in place has damaged the sill plate.
Question is, can the doors be adjusted without removing the guards?
I'm hoping it will be an easy job.
Thanks

[ozbilt]

A question for the knowledge base.
The doors on my '70 Mach 1 have dropped, not much but enough that the bolt on the underside that holds the window guide in place has damaged the sill plate.
Question is, can the doors be adjusted without removing the guards?
I'm hoping it will be an easy job.
Thanks

Open the door and see if you can get any movement in the hinges. If yes then they need re-bushing. That means fenders off.

I assume they are original rocker (sill) plates and not repo ones (repos are taller).

[ants]

Thanks for the reply ozbuilt
Hinges were rebuilt when I rebuilt the car.
After reading something that you wrote a while back I think the main issue is that I didn't allow for the door to drop once I assembled the internals.
And yes it does have repo sills.
I'm hoping that if I can lift the doors a little and replace the bolts with button head caps crews I can fix the problem without to much hassle.

[ozbilt]

OK. If the door is correct height at the front (level with fender) and is low at the rear, then you can lift it by placing a rolled up rag (say about 75 mm dia) in the open door on the lower hinge. Try to close the door and you will feel pressure lifting it. Do it gently at first until you have "the feel" of what is happening.

You may also have the striker on the B pillar a bit low so will probably need to adjust it up a tad.

The bolts in the bottom should be half thickness heads as they are special for that purpose.

[ants]

Thanks for that Kerry, will give it a go next weekend if I can find the time.
When I put the car together I used a AMK bolt kit and I think all the hinge bolts had the same size bolt heads, or I wasn't smart enough to see some different bolt heads amongst the set. But I will find a way around it.

[ozbilt]

Door attaching bolts are 5/16" but the bolts in the lower glass slides are 1/4" (7/16" heads). The correct head depth of those bolts is only about 1/8" (3mm) as compared to a standard bolt of that size being 3/16" at least.

[ants]

Aah, I thought you meant the bottom hinge boots were 1/2 thickness to get between the guard and the hinge bolts to adjust the door.
Will go through the trays of original bolts to see if there is anything there for the window guides otherwise I'll try the button head cap screws , as I mentioned earlier.

[ozbilt]

You can aslo flatten the scuff plate a little by tapping the moulding with a strip of soft wood & a hammer (lightly).

Do that with the sill moulding in place. The gap between the door and it is very small.

[ants]

What size block of wood would you suggest





Think I'll need new scuff plates...are any brands better than others?

[ozbilt]

Oh shit

I do not like the repo ones as they are too shiney. The originals were just a low sheen anodized aluminium finish.

See if there are any "Dennis Carpenter" ones about as he has all the old Ford dies for just about everything.

If shiney and thin, then it is crap.

[ozbilt]

Check with Harry's Mustang as he would know what fits best. Harry is a panelbeater by trade so has a better idea than most dealers as to quality.

If I was building a "correct" car, I would take the best ones I could find and have the gloss anodizing removed and low sheen anodizing applied. Hardly worth it in most cases.

[nassi]

What size block of wood would you suggest





Think I'll need new scuff plates...are any brands better than others?

Ouch, and you are still smiling?

[ants]

What size block of wood would you suggest





Think I'll need new scuff plates...are any brands better than others?

Ouch, and you are still smiling?

Mate, there's no point getting upset, what's happened has happened. Only car I've ever restored and was expecting a few things would need to be re worked.
Might not have been to happy if the paint had got damaged though.

[nassi]

Good attitude.