ottondeb

Been lurking and have made a bunch of TLC corrections to my car with the help of the folks' energy here.

Here goes

I am the 3rd owner.

70K miles on the car. It spent 9 years and 28K in WI so most likely garaged and summer driven only. Another 4 years and 40K miles in GA. Best I can tell it was garaged and driven year around in GA.

Driver door had the slightest sag. I could notice the difference relative to the passenger door. When bringing the door slowly to the closed position I could feel the door latch "climbing" up on the strike plate. When opening slowly, I could feel the door falling off the strike plate.

Maybe 1/8" of sag.

Pulling up on the door when open I could not see any movement in the upper or lower hinge. The hinges had no sign of corrosion and I could not feel or see any sign of slop.

Positioned a floor jack under the end of the bottom of the door. Not under the outer skin but under the main part of the door and the inner door panel. Used some cardboard between the jack and the door bottom to prevent damage. Elevated the jack just enough to snug against the bottom of the door.

Moved to the upper door hinge at the pillar. That is the inboard side of the hinge. Loosened the two 13 MM upper hinge bolts at the pillar. Do not remove the hinge bolts. Just loosen them. Once they break free maybe one rotation at most.

At this point I used a 2 foot long piece of 2 x 2 lumber and a rubber mallet to tap the upper hinge forward. You need to set the inboard edge of the 2 x 2 against against the inboard plate of the hinge which is adjacent to the pillar. Tap it enough to move it ever so slightly. Then snug the hinge bolt closest to you. Lower the jack and SLOWLY close the door to check closure. As the door latch approaches the striker plate slowly bring them together and use your ears and eyes and hands to sense if the latch in the door is dead on the striker plate or climbing or descending. You can hear and feel and see it if you do it slowly.

Rinse and repeat until you get it perfect. Hear and feel and see the door meeting perfectly. Once you find the perfect adjustment where the door does not climb or fall on the striker plate, then snug both upper hinge bolts just enough so the adjustment does not change.

Then torque to spec. 30 N/M or 22 ft/lb

You may also want to check the lower hinge bolts to make sure they are properly torqued.

One last check of the alignment and you are good to go.

Then lube the heck out of all your hinges with GM Super Lube. Lots of other options out there but I like the teflon based Super Lube stuff.

This maybe took me an hour and half of that was trying to figure out what was going on. If you have a good floor jack and some patience you can even do it alone. Give yourself lots of room, good light, patience, and quiet.

Thanks to all for your contributions here.

Cheers!

kabluie

Thanks for the write up. I need to look at my doors now.

old stingray

X2 Thanks.