Body Mount, Door Alignment Off
 

1970 Chevy C20 Custom Camper 350 / TH350

Replaced the body mounts with energy suspension poly mounts. New bolts and sleeves. Now the doors are not lining up correctly. They hit the striker, I have to pick up the doors to get them to close. The door frame is almost touching the A pillar. There is a decent sized gap at the top back of door. Sounds like I need to shim the front mount a bit? Should I just toss 1/8" thick washers in there until everything looks correct?

Thank you

Re: Body Mount, Door Alignment Off
 

You should be able to simply loosen bolts on the door or hinge to cowl and move the back up. Post a photo of the hinges, not sure how they work, haven't worked on one of those in years.

You also have to decide is the top back, or the rear forward, you now what I mean? Remove the striker, close the door stand back and look at the gap that the door has against the back of the cab, it sounds like the bottom is forward being the top gap looks normal as you have described. So you need to move the bottom of the door rearward to lift the back.

Brian

Re: Body Mount, Door Alignment Off
 

Hopefully these images upload correctly. Uploading from my phone.

Re: Body Mount, Door Alignment Off
 

Second attepmt...

Re: Body Mount, Door Alignment Off
 

I was wondering If I should be aligning the doors or trying to shim the mounts. I figure since this was working before I changed the mounts, if I shim it correctly, I should be able to get to back to how it was before I changed the mounts, or at least get it close. I am thinking the cab has actually flexed a bit, so even if I did try to align the door, I wouldn't be able to get an even gap all around.

Re: Body Mount, Door Alignment Off
 

That is very possible but it could be because the mounts were crushing thus changing the mounting height, now it's new and you don't want to make it wrong to make the doors right.

That isn't to say that it's wrong totally, just something to think about, what about the fender to cowl fit?

Are the strikers in and forcing the door into place, you do NOT want to do that.

Brian

Re: Body Mount, Door Alignment Off
 

Messing with it now. Trying to add shims. I added 3/8" of shims on the pass side and it is better, but still hitting the striker. I think if I raise it up more, it will throw things off even worse.

Cowl, fender, and hood look kind of off too. Not sure how right it was before.

I think the doors are not the originals, and that may be contributing to some of the issues / gaps. My truck is a 70, it came with an 'extra' set of doors. I notice the the gap at the top gets larger front to back. I measured the door and the frame gets smaller front to back. I measured the 'extra' set of door and it looks to stay the same height until the curve. Guess this means I need to ignore the top gap. Additionally, I think the doors have always been a bit far forward, contributing to hard closing with the new (5+ years old a this point) door seals. The strikers have 3 shims on the pass side and about 5 shims on the drivers side. I was trying to avoid re-aligning the door, but I think I may have to. I do have a 1970 Factory Service Manual with the door alignment procedure, but it isn't too in depth. Guess I will be doing more research on the subject.

In the pictures I have the striker in and the striker is aligning it. I just pulled it out so I can see what is going on better.

At this point I just want the doors to close correctly. I can deal with cowl, fenders, and hood later if necessary.

Re: Body Mount, Door Alignment Off
 

Here are some piratical I took of the hinges. 3 bolts on the door, 3 on the body.

Re: Body Mount, Door Alignment Off
 

Is there any trick with these hinges to move then just one axis at a time? Loosen up each bolt, but leave some tension on it, and try to move it into place just a tiny bit at a time? Trying to avoid loosening them up then having the door go completely out of alignment.

Re: Body Mount, Door Alignment Off
 

You are a thinking machine. :metal: You loosen up all the bolts but one on each hinge. Then you loosen the one on the hinge you plan on moving.

Those hinges on the doors you can move the door back and forth. Loosen the bolts and move the door forward or back there.

Brian

Re: Body Mount, Door Alignment Off
 

Thanks for all your help!

Re: Body Mount, Door Alignment Off
 

You got it?

Brian

Re: Body Mount, Door Alignment Off
 

Not yet. Went out and got some S shaped wrenches the other night to get at the hinge bolts. Need to focus on other higher priority things right now - daily driver needs tires and brakes, daughter has girl scouts, maintaining the house. The truck is more of a fun vehicle, so it's repairs tend to be lower on the priority list. Just wanted to be sure to thank you for your comments. Reading through your write up "Basics of Basics" in another thread. Lots of really good information.

Re: Body Mount, Door Alignment Off
 

Right on and GO SCOUTS! Have done a lot with Scouting, good stuff!

Brian

Re: Body Mount, Door Alignment Off
 

Wanted to post a follow up in the event someone finds this thread in the future. I managed to get the doors aligned. I did end up using 1/4" worth of shims (fender washers) on each side between the top washer and the body.

Process I used:

Remove striker.
Loosen up the 6 bolts on the pillar.
Jack up the door near the hinges to get the door up as high as it will go. Rock it back and forth a bit to make sure it is all the way up.
Tighten one bolt on the bottom. Remove jack. Pull the back of the door down to move the top hinge back.
Tighten one bolt on the top. Loosen the tight bolt on the bottom. Pull the door up to pull the bottom mount back.
Tighten up one bottom bolt.
Close the door. Look at gaps and body lines.
Repeat the last 3 steps making tiny adjustments until it looks right.
Install the striker. Adjust up / down to get it to close without moving the door or hitting the latch on the door. Adjust in/out to get it flush with the cab.

I decided I needed to shim the front cab mounts because the the door was aligned with the body lines, but it was close / hitting in the bottom back and at the top of the wing window. With the shim, the gap is better. Maybe not prefect, but it is not hitting anywhere.

Overall, I think the doors close better than they ever have. They have been really hard to close since I installed new door seals ~5 years ago. The doors were a bit far forward, so I moved them back. This makes closing on the door seal easier.

Re: Body Mount, Door Alignment Off
 

RIGHT ON! You had a good plan and it worked, awesome!

Brian

Re: Body Mount, Door Alignment Off
 

Something that may help door closure even easier is to take a look at your door latch star wheel that engages the striker plate. By that I mean grab wheel and try to move it towards the inside and then outside on the shaft it pivots on. We've seen a lot of trucks with difficulty closing doors with new seals have a 1/8" or more play at the star wheel due to 40+ years of wear which means when you try to close the door it requires you to push it 1/8"=1/4" further in to get the door to latch resulting in you having to compress the seal more than you should have to with a good door latch without any play in star wheel. So many things affect the door closure with new seals.
Glad to see you got your doors adjusted properly they can be a real pain to learn to do properly but you had a excellent guide in MARTINSR it appears.
Paul Jr @ GMCPauls

Re: Body Mount, Door Alignment Off
 

Thank you for the suggestion. I played with the latching mechanism a while back. I think the passenger's side does have the issue you are describing, as well as it being hard to push the button to open the door, and lock / unlock, unless I push the door inward a bit. They have been on my long list of things to replace.

Re: Body Mount, Door Alignment Off
 

i've got a 71 C10, how do i remove the striker? the striker is the one by the hinge?

Re: Body Mount, Door Alignment Off
 

Striker is at the opposite end of the door from the hinges...and mounted on the cab
To remove the striker you'll need a allen wrench...if it's the post type..
https://www.usautoparts.net/details/...hoCQgsQAvD_BwE

Re: Body Mount, Door Alignment Off
 

Ok, I am confused, never had a C10. I wanted to say the striker is where the latch grabs the cab, and post a photo but I am seeing two different ones, weird.

Brian

https://www.tuckersparts.com/images/...067-702340.jpg

https://www.partsgeek.com/assets/per...20-1880756.jpg

Re: Body Mount, Door Alignment Off
 

Correction Top left is 67-72 outer striker, top right 67-72 inside striker that sits on cab side when installed, bottom is the later model series style. The 1960-66 although looks like 67-72 but has a rectangular opening above the door striker plates door latch opening assistor that's located inside the plate to help push door open.

Re: Body Mount, Door Alignment Off
 

Been along time since I've owned a 67-72 and couldn't remember what the striker looked like...I was surprised they showed the pin type for a 71....thanks for clearing that up gmcpaul...