Door alignment

[Tony Campbell]

Hi
I'm trying to align my front doors properly
The worrying thing is that when I have the body lines correct, the door pin is about 10mm too low and hits the bracket on the door jamb
Any tips please ?

[simmitc]

One of the more frustrating experiences in assembling a Minor. You may have already found that there is adjustment on both top and bottom hinges and for each hinge, on both the A-post and the door. Add to that the use of shims under each hinge "leg" - good quality laser cut shims of varying thicknesses are available from JLH Engineering. The catch striker plate and the locating socket for the pin also have adjustment on the B-post. Quite a lot of room for experiment.

You also have to consider what work has been done on the car in the past: Is the door original, re-skinned, or subject to a bottom repair? All can affect the alignment. Have the sills been replaced? What about the bottom of the B-post or the panel on the A-post that carries the hinges. Again, all can affect door alignment and make it impossible to get it perfect.

Start by checking that the hinges are in good condition - worn pins will make the alignment job job impossible.

With good hinges, remove the window and frame from the door and concentrate on getting the bottom of the door to align properly. Do not worry about the wing gap, that can be adjusted later, but get the rest of the door to fit as close to perfect as possible. It should close and latch easily.

With the bottom half of the door fitting correctly, refit the window and frame - tighten the bolts only when the frame is sitting so that it is aligned correctly. If necessary, adjust the gap to the front wing by loosening the wing securing bolts and moving the wing as required. The only downside is that you may also need to realign the bonnet and the front panel.

The final result will depend on all the things I mentioned above, and, without being defeatist, a poor previous repair may mean that proper door alignment is impossible without doing more restoration.

[Chief]

It was always a dissapointment to me how the very bottom of my drivers door juts out slightly and isn't fully flush with the cars body as you'd expect.

Recently I saw a period video showing a Minor with the exact same thing, so I guess some just look that way.

I figured I'd mention this in case yours ends up the same way and you keep re-adjusting things trying to sort it out