Ok I need some help with my door gaps and alignment. I have a 1950 cab and 53 doors and am having trouble positioning the doors. My door gaps are tough to keep consistant and quite franky are rater small in spots especially around the front of the door right at the belt line. I am also having an issue with the top-back of the door being in from the body line where as the back and bottom are right. What can I do to rectify these problems?
Well ; You're in for a tough row to hoe ~ GM was selling these trucks faster than they could be built in three shifts so quality control went right out the window during the AD era ~ leaks abound too . the most important thing is to align it so the latch works correctly without slamming the bejeebers out of it . One of the mechanics in my shop went so far as to remove the outer door skin and bend & tweak everything so the door fit as well as could be then he re-attached the skin , it still doesn't line up Just So ........ I've had good luck in making up shims out aluminum stock (beer cans) to help move it further aft and to tilt it a bit too , same with the latch striker plate : I cut up and old worn out one and used it to shim the striker away from the jamb so it fully engauged the latch .
welcome to the nightmare. i had to use a floor jack just to get the bodypanels to align. then break out the grinder to adjust the gaps. i had to reweld the door skin in many places. i stil have large gaps at the botom of the doors but as my body shop guys says thats why they invented bondo!!! GT
Dours (How's THAT for speeling, Steve?) Like Nate said... Shimm shimminy, shimm shimminy, shimmshimm sharoo, what a load of hard work~ when nothing will dooo. Shimm shimminy shimm shimminy, shimm shimm sharoo, And after it's fixed she backed into you- AND AFTER IT'S FIXED... (come on, EVERYONE!) SHE BACKED INTOoooooo YOU!!!!!! thank ya~ thankyaverymuchh!
P.s. About those beer can shims. To make sure the job goes as smoothly as it can, be sure that the empties are _old_ empties! Do not feel that you have to make fresh empties to do this job. It will not help!
It's just a great day! I don't have my glass of wine until nightfall. BUT! Is the song stuck in your head yet? Mission accomplished!
Ken's time to rant! With all due respect to Mr. Nathan Hall, I must interject and give my 3 cents worth. (Those who know me know that I adjust my 2 cents worth for inflation!) First, let me say that I worked in a plant through college, building Holley carbs and worked every shift imaginable every summer. Regular shift, afternoon shift and graveyard shift. We put out quality products, in spite of the union money grabbers who ultimately were the demise of this plant. Point 1. 24-7 work shifts are not a bad thing. It depends on the people you have working and the supervisory roles associated with them. Point 2. You are only as good as your quality control inspectors. With that said, let me just say this! Albiet, Chevy AD's were massed produced post war 47-54 but they were not massed produced pieces of wind collecting crap that fell apart in 5 years, much like what GM produced in the '80's. We were a society of over worked, under paid people who were driven to defeat a fundamental evil that had a strangle hold on our very existence, and by God, we overcame it. The same people who built the Flying Fortresses that helped liberate Europe, built the AD's we love so much today. They were built to exacting standards that have been used and abused for almost 60 years. The reason the parts don't fit now is because the average "Joe" used them until they fell apart and couldn't afford the 20 bucks that it would take to fix them right! So they improvised and kept them running for years on bailing wire and guts and grit. That's why if 20 people talk about their 20 AD trucks, you'll hear 20 different stories and see 20 different versions of the same truck. I for one, am damned proud to own my '50 and when I get it put back together, it will have it's own character, it's own quirks when i start it up, and every time I show it to someone, they might say, man, that's cool, or that's not the way it was, or whatever, but all i'll know and love till I croak is, that it's a part of me, my dad, my uncles, and my grandfather, who all drove them, kept them together any way they could and kept this nation together. Thanks for letting me rant and Nate, you know I love you man (And OBTW, Busch Beer cans make the best shims!) i
Well guys I appreciate the words of encouragement. It looks like I am in for a long hall and a big battle. I think I am going to have to go ask a local hot rod builder to give me a hand as I know he has done a couple of cabs and at least one pannel van before. maybe his skills and knowledge will come in handy in addition to your guys advice, because I know he has to get then straight before altering them. Thanks again
Ken's Rant Whoa there Ken old boy ! I'm a proud Union worker , you'd better believe it . That facts are : body build quality on the AD's was terrible and GM knew it from the jump , ALL American autos built during this immediate postwar period were fairly shoddy ~ the Ford ' Shoebox ' in '49 was incredibly bad , look in the trade magazines from the day . (leaks & rattles) Same with AD cabs ~ they had very bad water leak and wind whistle problems espcially on the right door , I dunno why the right more than the left but that's how it was and is . I didn't say the AD's were poorly designed , just that GM ran it's truck plants flat out and never was able to make as many trucks as they could sell for many many years including past the AD era ~ ask anyone in the GM hierarchy Triple shift plants are a win-win for America ~ they keep productivity up and costs down , more people employed and the list goes on.... Don't get wound up over simple facts , whilst you were writing this post , I was tooling up the Harbor Freeway in South Central Los Angeles , in my beloved 1949 Chevy 3100 series AD pickup , window down , news softly babbling on the radio , open exhaust pipe rumbling off the cement fences.... Life is good ! in part because I have a reliable time machine to drive in when the pain gets so bad I cannot sleep.... Ranting is good , lets the pressure out so one doesn't fart so much ! Take your truck out for a drive and as you said : it's yours so if anyone doesn't like how it looks , sounds or drives , screw 'em !
JH, I know exactly what you're talking about. I just put a set of '52-53 doors on my '50, and you'd a thought they were Studebaker doors! Gaps were way off from what the book said they were supposed to be, the latches wouldn't catch, it was terrible. I kept messing around with them, though, and finally got them acceptable. I found out that just changing one little thing, one little bit, made changes in places on the door that I didn't expect. Once I got it right, (or close) I drilled 1/8" holes from the inside of the door through the hinges so that I could take them off to paint. All I need to do is stick a piece of 1/8" welding rod in the holes to line it all up again. Also, be sure to tighten all the hinge bolts all the time when you change something. This info may or may not help your doors, but you should at least know that it's the doors, not you, that are causing the problem, and that you're not out there all by yourself.
You are all finding out what a bunch of us have known for a while. The doors espically the right side do not fit proper and are a pain in the as_ to adjust. Ha Ken step off your box-(3 cents Made me laugh) Find me a link to a old sheet I remember about adjusting the doors. Was on some web site I printed it out one day it helped me set up the doors. Still my right side has to have a pretty good slam to get closed. Shimming with beer cans that's a Great thought. I tried fancy stock shims and grind here grind there.
Guys it's not just our AD's that don't line up well. Try taking a door, hood, deck lid anything off of any car and get it to line back up exactly the way it came off. Almost impossible. I think of myself as a decent mechanic and I still can't get every little part to line up perfect on the cars that I work on daily. As far as squeeks and rattles go, hell our BMW's do that, and don't get me started on water leaks (mostly our convertibles). They all do it, it's a machine it's gonna make noises and look a little off. But they're our machines and we love them.
Blush... Gosh, I'm beaming... Now I KNOW it's 'cause I got a GMC and not that I'm a wizz kid with doors! (or AM I?) I took my doors off, ground them down to the most reflective of virgin "metal"~ got my _can_ of etching primer, then my _can_ of RED, then my _can_ of clear gloss, (let dry) then hung 'em back on there hinges, and it really is a finger push to get them to close with a beautiful "clunk". Not CLUNK, but clunk The belt line looks as good as mine, too! No sags or lap-overs. We're both meant for each other. Old, but good as new.
Okay! So I just looked at Ken's link AFTER I posted my post- (Wow, did that feel wierd to type...) I just read what I wrote on that post, and I'll stick with it 100%. I guess I need to get some digital pics to post here to show you. The driver side door was even bent back so far it creased the cowl(?). (The part of the cab just before the door.) Maybe I got a truck that was put together by a happy newly-wed that had a good night before coming to work. War's over, good job~ GREATwife...
Driver Side Cowl Crease That's also really , really common ~ it happened to my truck too and they kinda - sorta fixed it before laying on the white paint it still sports , the cowl looks fine but it's pushed in 1/8" ~ 1/4" so the crotch cooler doesn't quite close draft tight ~ good thing I live in Sunny So. Cal. and not Canada or the Michigan peninsula , eh ? I am extremely lucky in that my doors both close easily , and the passenger side door even has a fairly good belt line alignment . it's usualy easy to align the door so it closes without a slam but getting the belt line to line up is near impossible once it closes correctly and that pesky gap between the A pillar and the upper leading edge of the door is maddening , that's where they leak most too . BTW : I don't take offese at any Union comments , I've seen and been victim of , bad Union management but Unions are very important in America IMO .
The coachwork on these trucks is terrible, but they were bought as a TRUCK. If they kept you reasonably dry, reasonably warm, and the wind noise could be overcome by shouting--they did their job. There's a good chance in farm country that the new truck went from the show floor to the co-op and had several roles of barb wire and a bundle of steel fence posts chucked in it on the first trip home. It was not till 1955 that GM started the "pretty" truck craze with the Cameo. This was followed in 57 by Ford's Ranchero and Dodge's Sweptside.
A tip on keeping a good gap or spacing on a panel that you are satisfied with but need to remove is to drill one or two very small holes through the part and what it is attatched to. Some places are hood hinge bracket to cowl, door hinge strap to door, door hinge pocket to pillar post, etc. We use a 3/32 or 1/8 drill because these are very common welding rod sizes and the rod can be cut into 3 or 4 inch pieces and used as guide pins when reinstalling. On things like door strikers use a scratch awl and bear down when scribing around it; this will show through the new paint but be hidden when the striker is in place. It's a pain when the panels fit before but not after they have been removed for painting. After all is together the holes can have a dab of JB weld and brushed touched if the tiny holes bug you.
Evan Is Right But you can still makes these into very quiet trucks by adding plenty of insulation , inside the roof , back of cab , floors , firewall etc. ~ my truck is extremely quiet and has none of the usual old truck ' dumming ' noise in it.... Not very drafty either thanx to replacing the weather strips 'round the doors , if I replaced the Windlace it'd be even better... I don't think I've ever read the words ' coachwork ' and ' truck ' in the same sentance before ! Gotta go , see youse guys later .
