Josh....I have this Danchuk article saved in my favorites for situations like these....Very informative:

http://www.danchuk.com/images/Downloads/News Letters/News_11.2_body_adjustments.pdf

 

body

here a tip i use fold pieces of card board to desired thickness stick it between door gaps or fenders loosen bolts add card board to you get it right also help from chippimg paint.hope this helps donnie:wavey::wavey:

 

you do have the car sitting on all 4 wheels right?

Duke

 

Thanks guys.
Pops, I have a tech article from 57Viper and have the one you linked to but couldn't find that one. I saved the link and thanks.
Fruit1955, I've been using paint sticks but cardboard is a good idea. Thanks.
Duke, yeah it has all the wheels on it. I tried driving it with 3 wheels but it kept leaning to one side:sign0020:. Just playing around.

I think my doors are really close to being good. The passenger side only required door bolt adjustments but I'm going to try and slide the door back a little so I can have more room to move the fender back. The hood is getting a different hinge on the passenger side to see if the hinge is causing the problem. I've had issues with that hinge and believe it is holding the hood up. The passenger fender looks like it is bent on the tip closest to the cowl and hood which will require me to remove the fender and "tweak" it some way. The driver side needs a little adjusting as well but I might try some shims here and there before removing it. It was right until I made some body adjustment and cut and rewelded the front outside frame floor brace.
These things take time of course and it isn't something I have ever had to deal with. I appreciate any and all help.
Josh

 

I worked on the gaps last night and did not accomplish anything.
I first tried to adjust the hood. I got the passenger side rear to go down to about a 1/2 to high but I still can not get it all the way down nor can I get the hood to slide back to the cowl. So, my plan was to install another passenger hinge. After finding 2 sets of hinges, I learned the passenger side hinge must be a weak link. Both sets had the passenger side broke or bent. I tried to weld one back together but the flexing sideways made it break back loose. I guess I will have to buy another hinge or I may test the one that is one my sons 4 door on my car just to see if the hinge is crap. But I am stumped as to why my hood has a 1 inch plus gap between it and the cowl. Anyone?????????
I moved on to the driver door and tried to only lower the entire door down a 1/8", didn't work. Once I made that minor move the whole door moved and I started all the way back over. Adjustment here adjustment there and I ended up getting the door to square up in the door opening buuuuuuttttttttttttt the door is too far forward and hits the fender and the top A pillar. I did everything I could think of and the door would not pull towards the back of the car. I even used a ratchet strap.
The only way it would move is if I lowered the door or raised it which put the door out of alignment with the opening.
Here is my thought. I believe the if I slot the hinges, were it bolts to the door, then I can square the door up and adjust it back towards the rear.
I believe something is wrong either in the door or the hinge because I can adjust the door a hair and it changes the way the door sits in the door frame.
My hinges have never been removed from the car so the only thing I can think of is something in the bolts and their opening s are not allowing proper adjustments. I should say that I have had to drill and tap the bolt holes in the hinges and door because the stock bolts stripped out. I've got grade 8 bolts in there and added a nut to one of the bolts at the top hinge.

So my plan for the hood is to replace the passenger hinge to maybe fix the vertical problem. I have no clue how to fix the hood/cowl gap adjustment (I'm maxed out on the hinge adjustment).
The driver door is going to be pulled and the hinges will be slotted about a 1/4" towards the rear.
I'm going to tackle these 2 adjustment first then move on to the fenders. I know several of you have had the same issue so any help you can give is appreciated.
Thanks
Josh

 

I did find this information:

This is the strange little trick that you have to remember, if you raise the back of the hood on the hinge or raise the back of the hinge on the fender the hood will go up. If you raise the "front" of the back of the hood ON THE HINGE or the hinge to the fender it will go down. What you have to remember is you are working with a pivot point in the hinge, not a stationary part.

If you loosen the FRONT bolt on the hood (where it bolts to the hinge) and put a shim, or washer between the hood and hinge, this will LOWER the hood on that side. If you put that same washer under the rear bolt it will RAISE the rear of the hood on that side.

So, if you loosen the bolts from the hinge to fender and close the hood, the hinge will rotate on down in the front right? This will raise the REAR of the hood like putting a shim in the back bolt between the hinge and hood!

What you need to do to lower the back the hood is to loosen the bolts (only slightly) and PUSH UP on the front of the hood. This rotates the hinges back, thus raising the front of the hinge and lowering the hood in the back.

If the hinges are warn out it won’t change how high the hood sits when the wear, not by more than a fraction of an inch. And I have never seen a car with these style hinges that you couldn't put the hood a half inch LOWER than the fenders if you wanted to. The adjustment is HUGE on these cars. That is one of the things that is easy to do on them is align panels.

I recommend you remove the striker or latch from the hood so that you can move it up and down without worrying about the latch grabbing the hood. After you have aligned the hood, take a piece of dumb-dumb or clay or something similar and put it on the latch. This way you can see exactly where it hits when you do install the latch. You bring the hood down till you just tap this dumb-dumb but DON'T LATCH IT. Just so the hood makes an indentation in the clay/dumb-dumb. This tells you where you have to move the latch.

I do this at work everyday, by my self so if you can't get help this is the trick. Always leave one bolt on the hinge tight. If you want to rotate it back, leave the front bolt tight. If you want to rotate it forward, leave the rear bolt tight. When you move the hood forward or back on the hinge, leave the bolts snug enough that you have to tap on the edge of the hood to get it to move. Or if it needs to go back, leave the bolts a little snug, and wiggle the hood up and down and the weight of the hood will make it slide down. Remember it only needs a 1/16" or so to make a 3/16" or more change at the front. To pull the hood forward on the hinge loosen them so they are still a little snug so you have to pull up on the back of the hood to make it slide that little bit. If you loosen it up so it moves anywhere you want it, YOU WILL NEVER KNOW HOW MUCH YOU MOVED IT AND YOU WILL MOVE IT TOO MUCH, GUARANTEED.
Get the hood laying flat first, then move the hood forward or back on each side to make the hood fit the hole between the fenders. If the gap is large on the front right and small on the front left, then the hood needs to me moved back on the right side. As you move the hood back on a side it will close up the gap in the front of that side and open it at the rear of that side.


Pretty interesting, here is the link I found it at:
http://www.hotrodders.com/forum/adjusting-door-fender-gaps-60s-ford-140290.html
Might help others, I'm going to give it a shot tonight.
Josh

 

So I read and read what the guy said in the above information and I figured after mowed part of my yard I would give the hood another shot. So i grabbed some extra fender spacers, went to the passenger side, loosened the bolt on the hood/hood hinge that was closest to the front of the car, slide one of the fender spacers in and let the hood down. Sure enough the hood on the passenger back side went down a little. Hmmmmmm, so I raised it back up loosened the bolt again and installed another one in the same place, lowered it and I'll be darn if it didn't drop the passenger rear corner down almost perfect:happy0030:. I'm about a 1/8" off, so just a little bit more of spacing and it will be good.
I do have a question, what is the gap between the cowl and the hood suppose to be?
The above instructions were good, I'm going to try my fenders and doors tonight:tu.
Josh

 

Josh, Seems like it is one thing after another don't it. Can't help but can sympathize with you. I did save that article that David put the link up on though.:moddhappychevelle22
Don

 

sorry your having all theses gap problems josh. sounds like your on the right path now :five:. .........................:anim_25:

 

This is why most people set their gaps and count the shims everywhere BEFORE painting the car.

This is the most frustrating part of building a car, IMO. It sounds like you're getting there. To me it looks like you need to LOWER the body mount at the cowl/firewall to push the a-pillar forward. If you don't have any shims there, try shimming the next (#2) body mount a little. That will in effect lower the cowl mount. Then adjust the door to the opening. There is no reason you should have to slot your original hinges by 1/4". I wonder if you're really at the back of the adjustment, or if something is just hanging up.

On my car I had the opposite problem. I couldn't get the door forward far enough. Shimming the #2 mount a little helped, but I ended up very slightly elongating the hinge holes. These were not the hinges that came on the car, and I did some mods to them for routing wires so they could have been re-shaped a little by welding. Since they're shaped like a "V", you can flatten the hinge a little and get the holes to move back. But I'd try shimming the mounts first.

 

Laszlo, I have been playing with shims on #2 body mount for a while. It got to the point that I cut the down piece of the brace and slide it up a little because it was requiring so many shims (I re-built the brace myself so I have it too low). I now only have 2 shims on it and none on #1 and none on #3. I may try a couple more shims on #2.
I also think something is hanging up because it is sitting right as far as alignment to the roof and rocker but it is way to far forward (I say "way to far" but it is more like a 1/4").

I also have a thought as to what the problem is. When I installed the doors the driver side bolts stripped out in the door nuts. I drilled out the hinges and door and tapped the doors. I think what happened is I undersized the hole for the bolts in the hinges. The bolts almost have to be threaded into the hinges then the door. I'm going to pull the bolts out and redrill slightly larger. That should give me a better adjustment.
Some of the other problems will have to be addressed by removing the door, and straightening the edges of the door and will require a repaint. That will be later.
I'll give the redrilling the hinges a try because I think the bolts ar binding between the top and the bottom when the door is in the correct position.
This is one of those "lesson learned" deals, won't happen again.
Josh

 

I drilled out the hinges and door and tapped the doors. I think what happened is I undersized the hole for the bolts in the hinges. The bolts almost have to be threaded into the hinges then the door. I'm going to pull the bolts out and redrill slightly larger. That should give me a better adjustment.

If you re-drill the holes larger, it will require a larger bolt. That will limit your adjustment. The nut plate in the door that moves around is normally threaded. I removed mine because I had a stipped nut, and I replaced it. It wasn't that hard to do, I just drilled out a couple of spot welds and took the plate out of the 'cage'.

 

I bent the bracket the nuts are welded to and could not get the bolt to grab it so I bent the bracket out even further and installed a nut. I did not find it difficult to install and thought about removing the stock nuts bracket and installing regular nuts. I just didn't know it was spot welded on. I need to add a nut to another bolt so I may remove the bracket now that I know how to do it.
I installed larger bolts when I had to redrill and tap after stripping the stock nuts. I'll enlarge the new holes a couple of bits larger.
Josh

 

Josh, I have the same door gap at the "A" pillar as you do. It is also off a tad on the rocker but my gap at the roof line and down the "B" pillar are excellent. I too have tried everything but it is still tight at the top of the "A" pillar and gets wider as it goes down. It got a little better when I shimmed the cowl mount but not much better. I,am wondering if maybe one of the rear mounts needs shimmed, In effect lifting the rear of the body and pushing the roof line forward so the top of the "A" pillar goes forward. I know the top of the "B" pillar would also move forward but then readjusting the door would solve the issues ( I dont know just trying to run the idea by anyone ). I know this is causing us extra grief because like you I was in a hurry to get my car done to a certain point and should have got all the gaps to fit before painting. Keep us posted if you get the door gap thing figured out.

 

Stan, you may be right about shimming towards the rear.
I have finally gotten a better gap by enlarging the holes a little to allow more adjustment but I would like about a 1/16th of an inch more. It is alittle aggrevaiting but it is part of the restoration. Hopefully I can get it lined out. I'll be working on the passenger side tonight as I stripped a couple of the nuts out.
Josh

 

Here is my front passenger door gap, same as yours Josh, maybe worse. Can not figure out how to get it strait.

But the back "B" pillar and roof line look good.

 

Have you thought about slotting the door hinges a little? that helped me some.
Of all the information I have looked at, none talks about the issue me and you are having. Most talk about the crowding at the sill or the top but don't say anything about the A pillar crowding at the top. If you find out before me let me know and I'll do the same for you.
It is almost like the door needs modified, I don't know. Surely someone on here has had the same problem and has found a solution.
I never cut the complete rocker out of mine so I know it isn't something I did when I was doing metal work. I may try to draw it up so I can understand it a little better. Hopefully we can figure it out.
Josh

 

Josh, I had thought about slotting the holes a little but the rear and top gap are good, so even if I get more adjustment and move the door for a better "A" pillar gap it will through the other gaps off. That is why I think it must be the body that needs adjusted and not the door. I think the twisting of the body, by shimming, will fix this problem. I just cant figure out which mounts need shimmed to correct this. I agree with you, we cant be the only two that have ever had this kind of door fit, someone has to have some good ideas.

 

Your right guys. I've had issues with mine too. It gets very tight at the top front corner. I do think it is a shimming issue we have to deal with. It's a matter of finding the right one area to shim. My doors are off again, but I'll put them on a third time to get it correct after I do some metal work to them.

 

gaps

just a thought, did you replace any of the floor or rockers without the door hanging in the opening to check the fit? what about the hinge pins and bushings? had similar fitment issues and welded a rod onto the door to make up the diff. REALLY like the idea of counting all the shims and locations before paint keep sluggin.