I am stuck... I put new door trim on my '63 and now the doors won't close completely. I can push them in and they will "set" where they should be, but bounce back out as soon as I let go. How do I adjust them so they will close? and...she is almost ready to fire up...this week I hope. Here's a few pics of the progress.
You probably have new weather stripping in the door openings, right ? First make sure you left a V-gap in the rubber under the sill panels. The weather stripping should not be butted together end-to-end. Air needs to escape as the weather stripping collapses when the door closes. The gap should look like an upside-down V under the door sill. If you have that done correctly, the next is to dial in the door striker. No quick answer here, it's just adjust, close door, adjust again... I think my doors averaged 45 minutes each when I adjusted the strikers... dv
Thanks... no, i didn't leave a V gap under the sills. I followed the instructions in the assembly manual. To be honest, I am not sure what you mean by a V gap. should the sill plates cover the rubber entirely? or leave just a small portion of rubber sticking out? any pics of a proper installation by chance?
Sorry,, no pics. Yes, some of the rubber sticks out from the sill. I learned the V cut thing from the assembly manual I had.. (?) V Cut explained: At the bottom of the door opening, where one end of the door seal meets the other end, only the top of the seal should butt up against the other. The ends of the seal should be cut to allow the air being compressed to escape out the bottom by cutting the ends to resemble an upside down " V ". The door should close easier once the door seals can let the air escape.. But there may still need to be adjusments made to the door striker to get it all working easily. dv
Great advice...again... I cut a notch for the air to escape ( I know, READ the service manual), and closed the doors for 3 days. They are still a little tight, but are closing MUCH better.. THANKS dvalentine...you saved me..again!
Yeah, thanks Dennis! I learned something new today! I'm bone'n'-up for re-assembly! That is after I put this '89 front end back together, paint the new cab & all of the 'new' panels, doors & hood, tear down the truck, clean & POR15 everything, plumb in my new brake lines and install my new power steering box!
Drill little holes in the rubber The V notch is to let the air out of the rubber which has a continuous channel in it. Using the V notch method the air has to rush around the door to escape on the bottom at the V notch. Some of the air just can't make it that far as fast as the door closes. Look at several of the late model vehicles. You will see that there are small holes around the door seal. This is so the air doesn't have to travel to the bottom of the door to escape. This same method can be used on our "old" trucks. A drill bit is NOT the best method for drilling these. The bit will grab the rubber and go completely through. You only want a hole on one side. The best method is to use a dremel type tool with a small diamater grinding bit. Mine are round but some of the cone ones would work. I am having closing problems with my truck too. I have not had time for the above modification yet. On a previous truck the only solution was to buy a thinner door seal. Door alignment is also very critical. I think that is where my current truck's problem is. I made the door fit the hole but it isn't happy there. My rockers were replaced prior to my purchase. They are often put in out of alignment. If you make the door fit in an out of aligned hole it doesn't hit the striker/latch area correctly. My doors did close well before the new rubber.
thinner rubber It was just a fluke finding thinner rubber. Some of the reproduction mfg quality is not so hot so things are made slightly bigger or smaller. I just happend across a thinner set. I have no idea where they came from anymore.
Just wanted to throw this in the mix as a helpful suggestion: I used 67-72 push on style door seals on my '65. They are larger than the stock seals. To get them to "take a set" I rolled down the windows and used a couple Stanley "Quick-Clamps" http://www.acehardware.com/product/index.jsp?productId=1290702 to hold the doors closed the first few months when the truck was in my garage. This made the seals usable, but still not to my liking. You can see the clamp in the lower right hand corner of the hpoto below.
