URW450X Drivers Door Hinge/alignment

[Paule]

When I bought the car I noted that the drivers door alignment was out. It's low to the roof line at the rear and is proud (sticking out) from rear panel at the bottom of the door, contour lines don't line up. I took it was just badly refitted and aligned after the spray job.
Went to adjust at the hinges today and noticed that the top hinge has a plate behind the three nuts but the bottom hinge doesn't. Shouldn't there be a plate?
If so, is it the same shape and pattern as the top hinge plate, can I copy it and make one up?
The problem with window falling out is the rubber has perished in the bottom runner.

[Rich K]

Hi, the plate is effectively a shim to adjust the door position. The factory would have used shims behind the top and bottom hinges as appropriate in order to optimise the door gaps and door alignment. The doors were never the best fit so it can take some time and effort to obtain an acceptable fit. You could indeed copy the existing shim and place one or more behind the bottom hinge in order to raise the ear of the door. It is also possible that one or both hinge pins have worn allowing the door to drop at the rear under it’s own weight. Shimming the bottom will help to bring the door back up; I did this on my car when a worn hinge pin caused the door to drop.
Rich.

[Paule]

TY Rich K. From what you replied have now looked at an exploded drawing on Rimmers website and see the different shim thickness used. It also shows only shimmed at bottom hinge. Maybe mine is fitted wrong way round as a shim is fitted the top?. Hinge pins are good no lift or sideways movement.

[Rich K]

Glad to hear that your hinge pins are good. I have known cars to have shims in both hinges as well as just the bottom. You just need to find the best combination that gives you optimum door gaps in all three shut lines (front, back and bottom) as well as twisting the door as required to get the best match all the way down front and back with the wing and quarter panel.

[Beans]

I have seen (different) shims on both the hinges.
But so far the best way to align the doors properly is to align the door without the skin only loosely fitted.
This way you can adjust the door to the gap (I know not very helpful when you are not going to fit new doorskins )
Also a very big hammer used expertly (so not by me ) against the steel hinge points welded into the A-post can be very effective