Sagging doors: where to start?

[Grit dog]

All great information. Agree with @bucket diagnosis 100%.
Short answer, looking at what you got. Yes the door has been hanging on the striker for a while. Like every single truck almost.
If the pins aren’t worn out or even if they have a little slop, looks like you can get the doors up off the strikers and help the fender gap a bit by just shimming the bottom hinges on the cab side. Doesn’t take much

 

[Broken85]

Open the door, grab the bottom corner and see if it moves up and down. Keep an eye on the hinge pins when you shake it. That is where you want to start.

You can replace the hinges one at a time. Open the door, put a jack stand under the corner and take the hinge all the way off the truck one at a time. Replace the hinge pins and bushings on the tool bench and then bolt it back in and doo the other.

 

[EastAustinSawdust]

But your fender gaps are absolutely terrible. Look at where the radiator/core support mounts on the frame, up near the front bumper. Check that the rubber isolator bushings are still in one piece, or there at all.

Update: @bucket for the win! At least that’s what it’s looking like right now.

The front cab mounts are in rough shape. They appear original and are badly cracked. At some point somebody shimmed them up.

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The rear cab mounts seem ok but I’m sure are also original.

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The front core supports (not pictured) are also cracked but not as badly as the front cab mounts.

Pic 4 shows cab/bed alignment, the cab is about 3/8” lower. Pic 5 shows cab/quarter alignment, the cab is about 3/8” higher. I assume the bottom of these panels should all be aligned. So, it seems like the front of the cab is too high, or the rear is too low, or both.

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My first inclination is to remove those shims from the front cab mounts and see what that does.

Thoughts?

PS - still replaced the hinge pins and bushings, which did help a little and makes the doors close like buttah. Was cheap and done in under an hr.

 

[PrairieDrifter]

Get a picture of the front clip to door gap. Removing the shims should help. But yes bushings should be replaced. Your main problem is the front clip alignment. Bad bushings with bad front clip alignment.

The rear of the fender has two bolts to the cab so changing body bushing stuff in itself won't fix it. You need to loosen the two core support mounts and loosen the two rear fender bolts. There is also the inner fender bolt, back of the inner fender into the firewall, remove for adjustment then slam it home after adjustment.

Really need a picture of the door and front clip gap.

Without the shims it should make the rear rocker alignment and fender gap better. Definitely recommend bushings before you start trying to do any in depth body alignment. I would try removing the shims in the meantime

 

[EastAustinSawdust]

Get a picture of the front clip to door gap.

These were taken pre hinge pin replacement, gaps are a little more even now but not much.

 

[PrairieDrifter]

It'd be helpful if you had afters. But looks like you should pull those shims out then adjust the front clip a little to see what it looks like. How do the core support bushings look?

 

[Strick]

I bought a new bushing & bolt kit from Holley/Brothers for $107 recently. They may still be on clearance.

HS

 

[bucket]

Update: @bucket for the win! At least that’s what it’s looking like right now.

The front cab mounts are in rough shape. They appear original and are badly cracked. At some point somebody shimmed them up.

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The rear cab mounts seem ok but I’m sure are also original.

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The front core supports (not pictured) are also cracked but not as badly as the front cab mounts.

Pic 4 shows cab/bed alignment, the cab is about 3/8” lower. Pic 5 shows cab/quarter alignment, the cab is about 3/8” higher. I assume the bottom of these panels should all be aligned. So, it seems like the front of the cab is too high, or the rear is too low, or both.

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My first inclination is to remove those shims from the front cab mounts and see what that does.

Thoughts?

PS - still replaced the hinge pins and bushings, which did help a little and makes the doors close like buttah. Was cheap and done in under an hr.

Yeah, if you don't want to jump right into replacing the full bushing set, just removing those shims should do a lot of good.

Just loosen most of the fender to cab bolts before doing so. You will want to loosen the lower fender bolts, the bolts that hold the fender liners to the cab and also the bolts that hold the tops of the fenders to the cowl. Just loosen, not remove. The bolt in the tops of the door jambs, you should be able to leave those tight since your top door gaps are ok. If you loosen everything, you may lose your top gap as well.

If that still doesn't get your gaps to where they need to be, you can always transfer those shims to the radiator support mounts.

And yes, I realize that the mount rubbers are not in the best shape. But, they are still there and functional (well, that front one pictured is functional-ish). There's no reason you can't have decent panel alignment without the time and expense of new mounts.

 

[legopnuematic]

When adjusting door and fender gaps on these trucks you want to start with the rear of the door to cab gap, as that is your datum. Can’t move the opening for the cab.

Loosen up the core support bolts, and fender bolts attaching to the cab and pull the front clip as forward as possible to open the gaps up as much as they can. It is possible to have the fender too close to the door to where the door will close but won’t open again. DAMHIK.

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