Misaligned Doors

[vridaw]

Hey all!

I've had my bug for 15 years and something that has bugged since the beginning, is how the doors don't line up at the bottom with rear panel. Every time I look at the car, I cringe.

Here's a reference of what I mean:

High Res: https://i.imgur.com/zjKH9aj.jpeg

This problem is consistent on both sides of the car, which puzzles me, because if it was an accident or bodywork that was not done right, why would they be the exact same.

I realize my door hinges definitely need to be replaced but even with that, I don't think it will make up for the 3/4" inch gap at the bottom.

Anyone have any insight on this? Thanks in advance!

A closer look:

Another recent pic for good measure:

[runamoc]

I made some stainless steel shim plates and installed them between the bottom hinge and the body to align the door better. There are more expensive ways of doing it. My method was cheap and easy
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[Dusty1]

I would have taken care of that a long time ago.

Doors were probably off for a re- paint.

You may want to replace the hinge pins while you're at it.

Loosen all the screws in the door jamb. You'll probably need an impact driver. I've fractured my big Phillips bits for my impact driver on this job so you may want extras.

Loosen the screws. Stick a board lengthwise under your door and gently lift it 10mm or so. A floor jack gives near micrometer adjustment albeit with tons of force. Make sure it moves easily. Don't "make it take it" or you'll replace one problem with several more.

Make sure your door clears your roof rack bracket. You could probably get 2mm more without the roof rack.

A 2mm mis- alignment is better than a 12mm mis- alignment.

When you get your alignment and gaps where you want them smack the machine screws home with your impact driver.


You may have to adjust your strikers (latches) as well. If you lift your door 10mm you'll likely have to adjust your strikers.


A few tips:

You're probably going to chew up a few of the Phillips machine screws that mount the door. I often put together the best set I can by "borrowing" a few from another of my VWs.

If you're good at sourcing hardware you can replace your mounting screws with stainless button head Allen screws.


You may just want to send it to a body shop. They set up door gaps every day.

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[VW_Jimbo]

I second the hinge pins. That top pin is going to be a bitch to get out! It has been wearing away for a long time and there are most likely horizontal grooves cut into the pin in 2 spots. The problem with that is there is a misalignment to be able to pull the pin straight out. So, you will need to find a way to realign the hinge leaves before trying to remove the pin, so that is much easier to get out! Worst case is you end up cutting and welding the barrels on one leaf!

Good luck! That’s no easy job.
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[jimdubs]

I would argue that the door may be sagging a bit, but it looks more like poor patching of the quarter panels. Moving the doors up 1/8 of an inch, which would align the contour above the handle, is not going to fix the issue at the bottom.

[Dusty1]

[challomoner]

No amount of adjustment is gonna fix the alignment to rear quarter, it's pretty clear the alignment at the trim line is only off by a small amount while the door bottom to quarter alignment is off by much more.

[Prawnabie]

I would pull the rear interior trim off to see if the lower quarter has been repaired badly, it doesn't look straight from that picture with the running board.

[EVfun]

With a quick glance at the pictures it does appear the bottom misalignment is worse than at the body line below the windows. I would generally go for getting the belt line correct and ignore the bottom corners (that may be from quarter panel replacement).

It appears that the where the door meets the A-pillar is already a pretty close fit. Shimming the hinge may result in door-body contact. Here is a previous thread where VWs instructions on door fit are covered.

One other thought I had is to loosen the body to pan bolts in front of the door except for the ones at the Napoleon's hat, then tighten down the front beam bolts in the trunk behind the spare tire. I idea being to encourage the front of the body to rotate down just a tiny bit, and so raise the back of the door because it is attached to the front of the body.
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[lgherb]

I'm not a body guy and I am only getting back into VWs after many years of life taking my focus elsewhere.

What is confounding to me is that looking at the door in isolation (without reference to the rear quarter panel) is that the door appears to be well within acceptable tolerances overall in terms of the alignment and gaps.

What I am wondering (and eager to learn from people who are more in the know than I am) is whether it is possible that either the door is from a different model year - causing the appearance of an incorrect fit - or if previous body work to the car resulted in someone do a less than stellar job of welding in a replacement rear quarter panel section.

Could someone have possibly welded in a rear quarter panel section that was cut slightly "too short" (for lack of a better description)?

Are the measurements exactly the same on each side from beneath the rain gutter to the bottom edge of the rear quarter panel?
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[Eric&Barb]

The workshop manual has quite a good section as to how to adjust the body to get the doors aligned up.
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[bcferrini]

My thoughts are that since the mid-height character line and molding are not nearly as bad as the door bottom, that maybe a rust repair was done to the door bottom, and not well done.

Also, the a-pillar (door hinge post) can take quite a beating if the check strap is worn or broken, allowing the door to sag clockwise, which the drivers door does.

So, a combination of things probably led to this.
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[sunroof]

This happened to me. I welded in the quarter without checking the door bottom alignment. I bet that's what some previous builder did on your car and either didn't notice or didn't care or, like me, realized his mistake too late.

I tried to correct it but didn't manage to make it much better.

Basically the whole panel needs to come apart to get it right

A ton of work to correct.

Don
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[Busstom]

^ ^ ^ I'm glad you posted this. I was going to hunt for your picture and say "Hey, look, it happens."
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