The doors on the coupe just...
The doors on the coupe just didn't fit precisely.
It doesn't matter how beautiful your car is, how well it's built, or how fast it goes. If there's some tiny defect anywhere, that's what everybody-including you-is going to look at. It's not fair, but it's reality.
The all-steel, full-fendered, chopped '34 three-window coupe pictured on this page is the kind of street rod that should be drawing all kinds of attention with its beautiful black cherry paint. Unfortunately, the misaligned driver-side door had rubbed through the deep dark paint in a few places. They were small places, but they got your attention. A shot of touch-up paint would make those sheetmetal zits disappear, but only until the next time the door was opened and closed. The owner wanted to fix the problem once and for all, which is how the coupe ended up at Blundell Speed & Machine.
Chad Blundell traced the problem to the custom-fabricated door hinges, souvenirs from a previous buildup. The holes in the hinge plates were a tad too large for the bolts, causing vibration when the door was slammed. The hinges had loosened, causing the door to sag forward slightly, resulting in uneven gaps. The upper rear corner had pulled inward at the B-pillar, and stuck outward at the lower front corner.
There are so many variables involved in adjusting doors that it scares a lot of people away from the job. The only trick involved is trying to isolate the problem, making small changes-one at a time-until that problem is identified and solved.
The rubbed-off paint was most...
The rubbed-off paint was most obvious in three spots on the driver side: near the rear edge of the door, the lower front corner of the jamb, and the upper rear portion of the jamb between the window frame and the B-pillar.
He noticed that the driver-side...
He noticed that the driver-side door stuck out at the lower front corner and was recessed at the opposite end at the top rear corner.
Chad's hunch was that he could...
Chad's hunch was that he could solve the problem by modifying the upper hinge on the door-possibly cutting and welding it.
Flexing the driver-side door...
Flexing the driver-side door by hand, Chad discovered that pulling it out at the upper rear corner caused the door to pivot and pull in at the lower front corner.
The 3/32-inch welding rod...
The 3/32-inch welding rod is roughly .090-inch in diameter, so he stacked .030 and .060 shims to achieve that same thickness.
To protect the door from accidental...
To protect the door from accidental damage, he used a razor blade to make a length-wise slice in a section of rubber tubing, and applied it to the lip around the lower perimeter of the door.
A manual inspection of the...
A manual inspection of the door's inside revealed a welded-in window channel, which is what prevented the previous builder from using more than two bolts to secure the hinge plate.
A dab of weatherstrip adhesive...
A dab of weatherstrip adhesive was used to hold together the paired .030 and .060 shims, making them easier to install.
Three pairs of shims were...
Three pairs of shims were then attached with another dab of adhesive to the door behind the hinge plate.