Door adjustment

[Claude]

The 411 is now running, taking short drives on our rural roads to begin sorting it out.

One problem never fixed was the misalignment of the driver's door. It drops, so when it closes, it has to use the latch to bump upward which over time promises to destroy something. The phillips screws for the door hinges are chewed up, so I do not want to start loosening them until I know what will work.

a) Can I adjust the door by loosening the screws, raising the door to the right height and tightening them, or
b) Do I need to remove and replace the pins and if so, how? And are the pins common, or something I need to source from Bristol in England (I am in NZ and would like to do this over the Christmas holiday when the world of commerce and international shipping closes).
c) Do the hinges need to come off, and if so is this straight forward or is there some trick to it?
d) Anyone know what size and hardness the phillips screws are? It might be a good time to replace them.

Claude

Hello Claud.

What little I know...

The hinges are attached by bolts with cross screw heads. To remove them access the nuts from inside the wing cubbies.

If there is excessive play in the hinge then this is likely to be wear in the eyes more than the pin. New pin with spacers may be a solution from a local engineering shop.

Bristol Cars well worth a try for new hinges.

Rehanging the doors on other cars requires logic and a bucket of patience. Use wedges to get the gaps even. Running an apprpriate size drill bit around the gaps helps to gauge same. Tighten bolts and pray! Goog luck.

[pasini s]

Hello,


if it can be of any help I can send you some pictures of the door sill
without the hinges, as we have removed them for the complete
restoration/respray of my 409. Some pics can be seen in this page:

http://www.stefanopasini.it/Bristol_...estoration.htm


If you want, I can take some more detailed pics, but measuring the screws
in Imperial threads is not so easy for me!

Cheers

Stefano

[408Berlin]

Dear STefano,
my 408 looks quite similar to your 409 - is in the stripping process in
the moment.
Where will you buy the window rubbers for front and rear screen?
Thanks Hans

[peter dowdle]

what a great set of pictures this is the sort of content this forum needs

great photos

will be interesting to follow through to completion

[Peter.Kent]

Claude, I tried to start a thread about door adjustment last month but didn't receive any response at all! My query was slightly different. However, the problem you describe is one I can help you with.
When I took the car to Brian Morelli a year or two ago he said that the trailing edge of the doors often dropped because people lent on the window frame and bent the metal frame by the hinge. He gave the back of the door a good heave and all was well .... but not permanently. He said that the hinges do not generally wear very much. But, there is a tendency for the area around the bottom hinge to rust. It just gets too weak to take the weight properly. Have a look at it. If that is the problem, the door has to come off and there is some quite simple welding to be done to repair.
On the 412 the hinges are secured by counter sunk bolts with a hexagon socket in the middle. I think you have Philips headed bolts instead. I found it was easier to get at the bolts securing the hinges onto the door rather than onto the A a pillar. Having broken several hexagon tools, used huge quantities of WD 40 and so on, the solution was to weld nuts on to the counter sunk heads and shift them with a big mole wrench. (That`s why the A piller is difficult: no room for handle of the wrench to be turned.) Surprisingly, perhaps, these threads inside the door were fine and, as I say, the welding job quite simple. New countersunk bolts seem readily availabele.
My thread asked for some help in adjusting the door once solid and sound. I don't believe there are any small adjusters and I wonder if there are any ideas out there.P

[GREG]

I don't know the "correct" way to tackle this but I would have thought some sort of shim would work to adjust maybe in the form of washers at the car interior side of the nuts under the hinges.

Good luck

[GREG]

Originally Posted by 408Berlin

Dear STefano,
my 408 looks quite similar to your 409 - is in the stripping process in
the moment.
Where will you buy the window rubbers for front and rear screen?
Thanks Hans

Bristol have the rubbers. About £150 for front and back