Fitting a door to the body

[RickBrinker]

My 29 DeSoto,door doesn't conform too to the body there is no damage to the door I think the wood frame inside may have warped has anyone fixed a door like this.It sticks out about 1 inch on the bottom.

[hchris]

One of the challenges of a wood frame body is to try and get the panels aligned; there are many tricks such as little shims and packers strategically placed as they did way back when.

In your case the easiest way would be to play with the hinges, first have a look at the actual pivot pins to see how much wear is in them and repair as necessary, second you can actually lift the door off and reposition the hinges with a little wood working.

If the problem lies within the door frame structure you could work from the inside and glue support pieces in place to get it back into shape or ultimatley take the skin off the door and start again.

Frustrating - so good luck

[Guest DodgeKCL]

I've been working on a 'coach built' or 'composite ' body for some time now. In the end I found it faster and saner to just take off the different metal skins and start again. It's a delivery van and I repaired the 2 front doors but I completely rebuilt the 2 rear doors.

BUT that said, if the door is sticking out at the bottom there must be an equal gap on the inside at the sill?? Also you have another door to measure for thickness,height etc. If the door is truly distorted then you should be able to 'trammel' the door using a good door as a guide. Open the 2 doors and put in wood pieces to hold the doors at the same opening gap. The gap should be measured at the top because of the distortion at the bottom of the 'bad' door. Start measuring at different places all over the doors as you compare one to the other,to the body,side t side It should become obvious where the error is.

There is of course an outside chance the car is distorted. You will then have to jack up the frame so that it is level and the same distance from the floor all around and then start measuring at different parts of the door frames,from the floor up,left side to right side, to see if the body is straight.

But,as far as the actual repairs go, after much cursing and redoing I found it much better to use new wood and rebuild the doors. The door skins are nailed on and I found a Dremel tool with a grinding tip removed the tiny nail heads quickly. Then it was only a matter of carefully prying up at the cut off nails with a small screwdriver and the skins slid off.

[Guest 1930]

Not sure what a trammel is but you need a tram gauge, if you dont know what it looks like than just google it or I can send you a picture. It will allow you to take accurate comparative measurements anywhere practically on the body. You could make one yourself for less than 10 dollars if you decided to go cheap and awkward.

[Guest DodgeKCL]

Trammeling is the act or 'art' of resetting a damaged car/truck body back to original by measuring from a common 'way point' in front,in back, or to one side, outside the damaged body. A Bear Alignment jig uses trammeling measurements to twist and pull a body back to original in a 'cage' with pointers set to the different distances that the body will have to be pulled to come out to get back to it's original shape. I believe red HeNe lasers and a computer with the particular vehicles trammeling numbers already in it are now used in place of cords and measurement tapes.

[Guest 1930]

Ok thanks,I have heard of bear but never used it as it was popular before my time, I have used Dozer sytems but again they are outdated, I have used the shark, caroliner, genesis all three versions, spanizi, these are all computer controlled electronically read/laser measuring system, also used several dedicated bench systems which are by far the most accurate and my favorite is the UMS system which is not computer controlled. Either was no computer controlled measuring system or dediated bench system will give us what we are looking for as their is no data available for these cars, you can hang gauges from the bottom of any of any car and check for twist and sag and possibly get it close if its way off but it wont take most likely anyway and will just eventually settle where it wants again. Hes not dealing with collision damage anyway, I dont think he needs anything but a tram gauge and a tape measure and dont forget a whole lot of patience.

Edited November 28, 2009 by 1930 (see edit history)

[RickBrinker]

I just thought I could steam the wood and pull the door closed until it dried, there is no damage to the car or the door

[Guest 1930]

My guess is that it would do little good, prob. would be like putting a band-aid on an amputation. Most likely the wood framing is in need of repair/maintenance.