Where to place shims?

[Berky]

Im looking for help on how / where to place shims to fix my issues.

Long back story so i will try to make it quick. I replaced the door post, inner, and outer rocker. Everything was square and the door fit in the opening with decent gaps. Later on I replaced the body mounts with WH +1" and the alignments went haywire.

Current situation is it appears the entire front half of the driver side needs to rotate up a lot. The back of the door sticks up 3/8" from the quarter. I originally shimmed the top hinge and that fixed the problem, but I had a huge gap at the windshield frame so i pulled them out. I already have about 1/2" of shims on the rear driver quarter. Without those the gap is twice as bad as it is now.

Also, the grill is 1/2" lower on the driver side. If i just add shims at the grill mount it binds the fender at the rocker panel. I was thinking to start with several shims at the front and half as many at the driver floor pan, but I wanted suggestions from experienced people first.

Where would you start placing shims to correct this?

 

[Hopstr]

Look underneath it at the body supports, especially the ones under the front floor, and see which ones seem to be crushed/collapsed where the bolts run through them. That should give you a good idea where to start shimming.

Sorry to say, but it would have been best to replace the body mounts first.

 

[AZ73]

Try using a jack to "shim" points to see what happens. It's faster than putting shims in and taking them out. As an FYI, putting shims in the BACK instead of the front might work too, raising the bed up to close the gap.

 

[Broncobowsher]

Check the body mount by the steering box. I have seen the sheetmetal fail and separate from the body dropping that corner. Second is make sure the rubber body bushing has not rotted out.

Now if everything is good and it really is just a shim issue. You are correct, adding a shim to the grill body mount will fix that door fit issue.

The key to shimming the body is to think of the body as two boxes with a floppy link of a rocker panel making the door opening. Which way do you need to shim each of the boxes to flex the rocker panel? Bring up the grill will pivot the front box at the bottom of the door hinge striker. Since the door is attached to the front box it will rock back as the front box is rotated.

Don't shim the bed. Shimming the B-pillar body mount to level the door line will cause a nasty V-gap at the striker. Which will require a mountain of shims at the tailgate to fix. This will end with the body having a nasty twist in it. The fix is in the front.