Hanging doors on my Spitfire Mk3

[SpitfireGeorge]

Hi Guys,

When I got my car back from the bodyshop the doors were a good fit with nice gaps. I took them off to do some body filling round the edges where it looked like the new skins had been crimped on using a set of teeth, bit like the edge on a steak and kidney pie. Now I am trying to refit them and I cannot get them anywhere near right. What is the knack to fitting doors?

Cheers

[PeteH]

Time, and shed loads of patience?, move one thing, something else don't align, etc; etc; etc;. Being working on and off of on the 13/60 for over a year now!. And that's before it goes to the paint shop!. Still got an 8mm gap on the driver side cill.

Looking at some old pic`s of "our" cars coming from the production line, and even they are less than perfect!.

Pete

[Pete Lewis]

on tip is used just the setcrew in the hinge to door fixing  just a  light nip so it holds the door position but allows some in out shift 

once close tighten the other two bolts .

up down is allowed on both hinge fixings

tapered /front rear gaps is done on the balkhead bolts 

do not overtighen any as the caged plates are quite thin and stripping them is very easy

[SpitfireGeorge]

Thanks guys, patience, perseverance and time, loads of time, appears to be the key! Will press on and see how it goes.

Might try slackening the hinge to body bolts, fit the door lock mechanism, shut the door and keep adjusting the striker plate until it looks OK and then re-tighten the hinge to body bolts! Worth a try?

Cheers.

[DanMi]

have you fitted the door seals? If you have the "balloon" (tube) seals supplied by the usual traders, these can push the door out too far as they are a tight fit. But as others have said just patience.

 

[daverclasper]

And then any leaks? if used in rain etc, Not as much an issue for show cars that are not driven much, though will rot floors out on cars that are used.

You can also play with the narrow flange that the seal fits onto, around the door frame for fit/leaks

[chrishawley]

There's so much that could said about aligning doors!

May I add some thoughts into the mix?

When aligning doors it can be useful to take a critical look to see if the bonnet fit is as good as it should be. Does it really sit well? For example; the profile of the front wings is influenced by the interaction between the bonnet adjusting cones and the and bonnet catch plates. Too much tension in the wrong position will 'flatten' the wing such that the door never looks right adjacent to it. Similarly the lower trailing edges of the wings need a nice line along the sills. If there's a 'step' (in or out)  from wing to sill the door alignment can't look right.

In total there are 15 screws which influence the door alignment (3 on the striker plate, and 3 on each of the hinge attachment points. And all of these have to be adjusted in concert.

One ruse to help with setting the position of the hinges on the scuttle is masking tape. Having got  some initial position put strips of masking around the edges of the hinge plates and mark around with a fine pencil. The tape doesn't solve anything but it enables one to keep track of what effect further adjustments are having. So for example if it's a case of 'I need 1/8th inch lift at the front'  there's something to which to refer.

The striker has its own sources of devilment! Commonly striker plates will be worn on the lower tongue because the body of the latch is hitting on this when the door is closed and riding up in the process. Thus the striker is determining the position of the rear of the door. But ideally it should be the other way round: The door should be the right height at the rear first and then the height of the striker should be adjusted such that the latch enter the striker without hitting the lower tongue. But in getting there a ruse is to deliberately set the striker too high (e.g 1/8 to 1/4 inch), close the door and the adjust the fasteners on the hinges at the front. Open door and remove striker. The rear of the door will have dropped according to degree of flex and hinge wear. Repeat as necessary. Once correct the striker can be adjusted so the latch goes into it without interference.

The striker may or may not require shims under it. For example, if the door gap is too narrow at the rear shimming the striker helps to persuade the door forward.

Staying with striker: With no rubber seals fitted when the door is shut there will be a lot of free movement in an out. A correctly fitting rubber should take up this slack but not offer marked resistance to the door being shut. 

When aligning a door it can be useful to have the drop glass fitted. The glass needs to sit nicely at the right angle to the frame and this can be checked periodically during the process.

Lastly, for now at least, the hinge mountings on the doors allow not only in/out movement or front of the door but also rotation of the whole door along the car's axis (i.e. the door is moved 'in' on one plate while being pulled 'out'  at the other plate by the operator). Can be quite stiff though and firm pressure or firm pulling is needed to get the full range of available adjustment.

It's all a time consuming faff doing doors but getting it as right as possible makes a huge difference to the appearance of a vehicle.

[Pete Lewis]

and the body in white of the days gone by (and probably still happens now) 

a hammer to adjust the striker plate 

and  large bit of timber/cricket bat to jam in hingeways to bend the door to align rather than any loosen and adjust 

time and piecework  determined the fastest rectification .

Pete 

 

[SpitfireGeorge]

Well plenty for me to think of there! Thanks again guys will let you know how I get on.

[1969Mk3Spitfire]

8 hours ago, SpitfireGeorge said:

Well plenty for me to think of there! Thanks again guys will let you know how I get on.

Once you’ve done them, please feel free to pop around to my place and help me adjust mine 🤭

[Johno]

I saw a chap drill his hinges with  2 # 2mm holes in all hinge leafs and into A posts and doors before removal then use the back end of a number of drill bits to re-aline. When I get mine right the first time I will be doing this before removing them. A bit late for you now but not perhaps for next time.