Door Alignment

mrsbojigger

Any ideas of how to move my front doors forward about 1/8" to 3/16" on a '51 Hudson stepdown. There does not seem to be a provision for this.
Peace,
Chaz

Clutchguy

Chaz,I have found it necessary to remove the hinge,take it over to the press and physically bend it.It might take a few tries to get it right,but this moves it forward.If you look at how far you bend it when it is in the closed position.You might use the torch with a #15 tip and heat a straight line where you want to bend it.Make sure the hinge pins are restored before doing this.If you have more than one upper and lower hinge,compare them and see if one sits further forward than the other,some do.Also the easiest way to remove the screws in the doors are with a Snap-on screwdriver socket with a #3 bit,3/8 drive,and good impact.Once the head in these screws start to strip,they loose all integrity and you will have to drill them out.The only way the nut plate comes out is to have no screws in it-OR the screws are broken or drilled off flush.You can also use a porto-power but the opposite end-[door jam]MUST be supported suffiently or it will cause damage there also.Spend the time and clean all the grooves out of the phillips screws before trying to attempting to remove them.

mrsbojigger

Thanks Clutch Guy!
Chaz

rambos_ride

mrsbojigger wrote:

Thanks Clutch Guy!
Chaz

Hi Chaz,

Just before you start doing this, given the amount of fabrication done on the car...I'd x-measure points of the door width opening on each side of the car to make sure you're close.

I've seen cars be off by 1/2" from side to side before requiring a pull on a frame rack to get it square again.

I'd hate to see you start down one side of the car fitting sheet metal to show up on the other side with a unaccetable tolerance

mrsbojigger

Dan,
I'm checking this as I go. Thanks for reminding me to be dilligent in this area. Here is a pic of the first time the "new" sheet metal for the 2-door converstion has been assembled on the car. It's sure nice to step back and begin to see what I had invisioned for the car years ago.

Had an alignment problem with my convertible that had stumped us. We worked and worked for days trying to align the hood to be centered with the grill. We finally gave up and just found a medium alignment that looked good. Later after the car was completely finished I did something just for kicks. I measured the width of the cowl. One side of the cowl was over a 1/4" longer than the other side. Using triangulation from a pivot point on the other side it placed the front of the hood over about a half inch. It was manufactured this way. The OEM stamping dies were off this much. You gotta check everything!

Peace,
Chaz

bent metal

I guess I missed it. I never heard what you are going to do with the side window area where the old back door was?

mrsbojigger

Hi Bent,
I will be treating the post areas similar to the car on the thread, "Taking the Plunge" aka "Panty Dropper" a couple of days back. Check out his posts. I have a set of 2-door posts that Jay Eldridge gave me. The rear panels will bolt to them just as in a stock Hudson coupe. I will be pulling the sail panel forward slightly a couple of inches so as not to have such a long window area. The rear hardtop window will be fully retractable. This has been such a major project getting to this point I should have an album for it.
Peace,
Chaz

bent metal

What a cool project! So really your going to make the doors like convert. doors and have no B-pillar at all? I'll be super interested in seeing how you make the back window area. Please keep taking pictures! I love this kind of stuff.