Struggle with door

[J Boyte]

Hey Guys,

My son and recently came into a 1969 ......... pretty badly rusted, but drive train and frame seem be be good.
We welded in a tube support frame and then commenced replacing the floor pans ......... ended up using the pre-welded front pan from JBC and now we are just getting into the front door posts. So - here is our first BIG problem :
The driver side door opening seems to be about an inch to narrow. When I set the post where it needs to be for the door to engage the strike, the front of the door is too far forward and hits the windshield frame/dash.

This vehicle has obviously seen some hard use, but I can't figure out what could cause the rear door post to be too far forward ? Best I can tell, the posts are original. Any thoughts or help would be greatly appreciated !

JB

 

[70_Steve]

I don't do bodywork (yet), but I saved this pic just in case. This is a compilation of measurements from several Broncos. Hope it helps.

 

[DirtDonk]

Hey J Boyte, welcome to CB!
That is a pretty extreme amount of "off" even for one of these things. How is it hitting the dash though? Wouldn't it have to be inward as well as forward to do that? I mean, the doors are already forward of the dash edge even when perfect.
As for the windshield frame though, if it was less than an inch, it could easily be the windshield frame itself being too far rearward. But you're probably talking about the actual hinging point of the frame anyway, and an inch is a mile!

Are the door openings equal, and one is just farther forward? Or is it not quite right in the overall size department as well?

Good luck. Sounds like it's going to be either something really simple, or something really complex and a royal pain.

Paul

 

[sp71eb]

Could you post some pictures. I had a simular problem and I had to cut my braces loose to actually get everything fitting correctly.

 

[J Boyte]

Thanks to everyone for the quick replies-
and happy to be part of the forum.

I have the driver post off - when I prop the door
Up in the opening with the strike engaged, I can
get the rear and top margins pretty good, but the
windshield margin is nonexistent at the bottom
and opens up at the top. Also , this door position
places the post 3/4 farther forward than the
passenger post - relative to the dash.
Passenger opening is larger than the driver
by about 3/4. Weird thing is that the measuent
from the inner edge If the tailgate to the rear
pillar is the same in both sides ! I'll try to post a few
pics . Thanks again , JB

 

[sp71eb]

Try raising the cowl on the side in question. When the hinge post is removed the cowl/firewall tends to sag down. If you can picture it this way it is like your windshield frame and cowl has moved back and down causing your gaps to be off. When I did mine I used visegrips and steck mighty midget clamps to attach the hinge post. With temporarily attaching everything in this way you can put a small bottle jack or friction jack on the cowl to lift it and see what it does to your door gap. I have also found on broncos your important part of the windshield frame alignment is the lower portion. If the bottom gap is good you can shim or tweak the upper part to fit the door as needed. Hope this helps and like I said if you post some pictures I can get a better idea what is going on. Good luck!

 

[cldonley]

When I replaced the door post on my 69 the problem I had was the #1 floor support sagging at the between the body mount and the inner rocker. Once I got that straight everything lined up fine. Just like sp71 said, you probably need to look at something other than the door opening to find the problem that is messing up your door opening. Did the doors fit before you started taking it apart? Pictures will help! Oh, and welcome to the addiction! Tons of answers available on this board!

 

[J Boyte]

Picture of door post/windshield -door fits
but post seems too far forward ?

http://s1067.photobucket.com/user/j...Uploads/image_zps04188f98.jpg.html?sort=3&o=0

 

[J Boyte]

Broken link

 

[J Boyte]

Photo link broken

 

[sp71eb]

If you door to the qt panel gap is good I would tack the front of the door post to the front of the cowl and leave the back part loose then with your windshield frame bolted to the cowl try to hyperextend the windshield frame forward. You would have to unhook the hardtop from the windshield frame to do this. It looks like your cowl has rolled back and down as suspected. You could also try a bottle jack with a 2x4 from the bottom corner of the striker post up to the cowl to try to force the cowl and windshield frame forward.

 

[J Boyte]

OK - will try that. I thought we had that area braced adequately before cutting. So does the steering column 'float' independently of the cowl ? Seems that connection would prevent me from 'jacking' it forward ?

JB

 

[J Boyte]

Another thought : to jack the cowl/windshield forward ....... wouldn't I need the kick panel bolted to the dash bracket, but otherwise loose ? Seems like that bracket is going to move forward with the dash - taking the kick panel with it ? If that is the case, seems like I would need to do this jacking to get the cowl and kick panel forward and THEN weld to door post to the kick panel ?

 

[J Boyte]

CL, doing a little backtracking ............. thank you for the reply. The front floor pans are not currently connected to the cowl or tunnel, so I guess I'll have to try jacking the cowl around to see how that affects things. Whew ! these doors are TROUBLE .... but it's all fun. And no the doors really did not fit right when we got her ........ all sagging and would not latch. I can see hammer marks on the driver door rear pillar where it looks like someone tried to bang the piller backwards to create door clearance.

 

[sp71eb]

Yeah the door post was the toughest part of the bronco when I did mine. One thing to think about is if your rear door gap is good and if your rocker to door gap is good your front post is good front to back. When I did mine I centered the hinge bolts and then got everything fitting from there. That way you have fine tune adjustment after you are done. The left to right of the front post is somewhat set off of your kick panels but can still be adjusted with some tweaking of the panels. Just be patient and you will figure it out. Here are a few things to think about. Don't be too worried about the bracing, its just a starting point, if your door fit wasn't great to start with then you will most likely have to cut some braces loose to get it fitting right. Also is your new floor section bolted down with the body mounts? If not and you weld it up it won't be in the correct spot when it is bolted down. And finally there is a brace under your dash where the windshield frame knobs are, I would say that is the best spot to attempt to push on to move the cowl forward. Feel free to check out my build thread if that helps you out.

http://classicbroncos.com/forums/showthread.php?t=221082

 

[J Boyte]

SP, thanks for the tips and I will indeed look
at your build pics. We need all the help we
can get ! The floor pan set is bolted in with
new urethane bushings and all new hardware,
so hopefully that piece is good. I'll look for
that brace under the cowl - we're planning to
try the jacking approach over the weekend.
Rockers are not it yet - We were planning to fit
the doors/posts and do those last . Is that a
mistake ? Thx again , JB

 

[J Boyte]

Sam - your build is impressive ! What a great shop ........... envious ........ we're working in a small two car garage, with bikes, ATV, lawn mower ,etc constantly in the way. Your photos of the front door post position will be very helpful. Our build is more of a 'fix up' ............ hopefully some day we can do it 'right' as you obviously are !