door's do not line up correctly/leak

[TorontoJohn]

Alright,

neither door is lined up 100%, the driver side door looks ok but the passenger side is way off.

The passenger side door, when closed, has about 1/2 - 3/4 inch gap at the top. It closes fine, the latch hits, it locks and everything, but at the top, where it meets to door cill, there is a gap. The gap is big enough that you can see the weather stripping. Sometimes water even gets in.

Is this a sign of a bent frame? Light frame damage, or just damage to the door?

ty

John

 

[krafty]

My passenger side was like that. I GENTLY bent the window frame in a bit to seal it. It worked for me

 

[TorontoJohn]

Ya I did that too. But I am sending the car out to be painted soon. Don't want to go get a nice paint job on a bent car!

I can get the door to seal, it just looks awfull in the frame!

 

[BLADDER92FOX]

Mines is like that at the bottom too,i hate it. I'm just getting it fixed when i paint my car later on at the end of the year.

 

[krafty]

If your having it painted soon, have the body shop do it. I am not saying you bend the hell out of it. I did it to mine. It does not crease the frame

 

[Zero_chance]

My passenger door is like that too. Funny thing is I never noticed it until my ex shut her hand in the door right at the curved part of the frame. Makes me wonder if her hand bent it slightly.

 

[TorontoJohn]

If your having it painted soon, have the body shop do it. I am not saying you bend the hell out of it. I did it to mine. It does not crease the frame

Is it an expensive fix? If it's too expensive I am just going to have them fix the gaps for apperance, give it a cheap paint job, sell it and move onto my next stang.

 

[PonyBoy90]

A body shop could tell you exactly what the problem is. Either the doors not alligned properly or yes, the frame is bent. The frame being bent could be from just about anything. Could be due to an accident, could be due to torque and chassis twisting, or if you installed subframe connectors under the car, if the chassis wasn't supported properly when the subs were welded in the car may have twisted a bit on the hoist. Result is the subframes welded in on a twisted chassis, hence why you now have improperly aligned doors. This happens quite often to the point where when the car is lowered and you go to open the doors, the doors arre ceased shut due to the strength of the subframes.

 

[90lxfoxbody]

i had the same problem with my 90 lx. i bought a hinge and bushing kit off of ebay and it fixed it. i had to lift the door gently with a floor jack ( i wrapped the head of the jack in a towel to keep from scarring the door ) then use a rotary tool to cut the old pins out. i had someone else hold the door while i removed them. then new bushings and pins slid right in then last a cotter pin in each door pin. door shut perfectly after that. here's a link to the vendor who sells the kits. they some other really good stuff too. good luck man.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1979...ewItemQQcategoryZ33642QQitemZ8034250026QQrdZ1

 

[dbdragracing]

Im going to replace my door hinge pins and bushings...hopefully this will make my doors line up. Is there any other way to tell if the car is twisted? It drives fine and all the other body panels line up. Thanks.

 

[jrichker]

Some thoughs about the hinge pin kit...

Hinge pin & bushing kits are available at many auto parts stores. Or see http://www.texasmustang.com/ or http://www.mustang-unl.com/. Usually less than $7 for the kit with one pin & 2 bushings.

Th hard part is to get the old pin out. Some were spot welded in, others were hammered so that the end mushroomed. Either way, it takes a grinder or cutter bit in a drill or Dremel tool to cut the pin or grind off the weld. Once it is off, tap the pin out with a hammer. Only remove one pin at a time so that you don't have the full weight of the door to manage. I highly recommend that you have a helper standing by to hold the door.

Once the old pin is out, lower the door and tap out the old bushings. Put the new bushings in and have the helper lift the door in place so that you can slide the new pin in. It may have to go in differently from the way it came out. That's OK, as long as you put the cotter pin in the hinge pin.

OOOPS!!!The important thing to remember is that the hinge pin isn't supposed to move once you are finished. If it does, then you will end up like me - the pin moved, it wore the door hinge instead of the replaceable bushings. Now in order to fix it right, I have to remove the whole thing again and drill out the hinge to the same size as the bushing and use 2 sets of bushings in each hinge rather than one set.


The fix for the OOOPS was very time consuming and if you aren't up to some very interesting machine work, do it right so you won't have to do it again. I fixed the OOOPS but I had $43 worth of drill bit and specialized reamer plus pulling the fender off to fix it.

 

[90lxfoxbody]

once i replaced the pins and bushings i bought new weather stripping for the door. no more leaks and suddenly it was much quieter in the cabin.

 

[TorontoJohn]

Alright, well I am going to hold off on the bushing work because I am trying to find GT doors anyways. My doors have several problems...power window motors are crap and drawing a lot of current, window trey in p-door is broken, power locks only work in 1 door, and the biggest reason is I did a GT conversion and need the GT door mouldings. So there is no point changing the bushings if I will replace the doors anyway.

 

[old_blue]

Alright, well I am going to hold off on the bushing work because I am trying to find GT doors anyways. My doors have several problems...power window motors are crap and drawing a lot of current, window trey in p-door is broken, power locks only work in 1 door, and the biggest reason is I did a GT conversion and need the GT door mouldings. So there is no point changing the bushings if I will replace the doors anyway.

HMM, seems extreme to buy new doors just for the moldings and other parts that you could get for cheap. There is a thread on here ( i think jrichter has the link ) for a the door locks. The actuators are like 5 bucks apeice I believe (maybe cheaper) and they work better than the stockers. and the power windows will eventually fail in the GT as well so why not just get new motors. Gt doors are the same as Lx except for the moldings. Like said before a lot of things contribute to doors sagging. Cracking hinges at the frame, not aligned properly... etc. Putting the doors from a GT would not necessarily fix the problem. infact, it might make it worse. whatever you want to spend your money on I guess.

 

[TorontoJohn]

When you add all the costs of the things I need to change on the doors, it could end up being the same cost of buying two scrap yard gt doors.

for instance, every moulding on the door was painted red when I got the car. I don't like this and want to take it back to black. However, I have been told that to do this I would have to buy new mouldings(truthfull or not i don't know). But if I do have to buy all new pieces they are not cheap.

 

[old_blue]

I don't know why you would have to buy all new pieces. I don't know of anyone who went out and bought new pieces when they repainted their mustangs. You gotta remember though, when you go to the junk yard you are going to get pieces that will be pretty much just as old as the pieces you already have. So you will either fix what you got of go buy another set of problems. These are normal repairs on these cars. Especially ones that have been in the junkyard. Obviously they haven't been taken care of.

 

[TorontoJohn]

It's not fixing, every plastic moulding on the car was painted red. I think it looks god awefull so when I get the car painted I want to put them back to black. But I have been told the work it will take to strip the paint off, prime and paint them, it will get expensive.

 

[old_blue]

I am not looking to argue with you. It is your money,I just think there are better ways to spend it. If you are just painting them black do it yourself. Stripping and primer (if it needs primer) wouldn't cost that much. I am just trying to give you other options. Buying some premier molding pieces off a GT from a junkyard you would still probably need to do all the same things. Good luck with your project.