Greetings all, I have a driver’s door on my 96 that seems to be sagging a bit, or, perhaps it’s just not secured properly when closed IDK. What I’m experiencing are these oddities:

1) With the window up and the door closed, it is easy to open and sort of (pops) open with the release of the compressed weatherstripping. However, when the window is down, it takes effort to get the door open from a closed position. It almost feels and sounds like there is metal to metal scraping when opening.

2) When the window is down and door closed and driving, the door seems to be able to drift up and down. Hitting a bump feels like it lifts the door up (in its position) and then slams it down. It may only be a few thousands play, but it sounds like a diesel pile driver.

3) The driver’s door is starting to touch the front battery cover when opening. Not much, just light scrapping, but that has not always done that. It started a hundred miles ago, and iv driven the car for around 7 k total.

4) Despite new Corvette Rubber weather stripping, there is still a small leak in the top front corner somewhere that gets the sill carpet wet. No actual water droplets, just wetness on the sill in the front.

I fell like there is something wearing out, and needs relpacing, but what? IS this just an allignment issue? Thanks, Dude

 

With the door open, can you lift it up and down? Sounds like the hinge pins are worn. They make a kit to replace the pins and bushings if so.

 

I have tried and it doenst move much if at all, but there has to be movement, maybe ill try to get a feeler gauge in there?

 

Maybe open both doors and measure them to ground. See if one is sagging more than the other. Whats the gaps look like with door closed? Hinges look ok?

 

Hmm, ill do that now. The bottom rear tip of the drivers door is 11.5 inches to ground when fully opened, for the passenger side it is 11.75 inches.
The gaps look reasonablely uniform but the door lines dont match the body lines and are about 1/8th inch lower. The door has clearly been off before, unlike the pass door.

So, it looks like I need to raise the door about 1/16 or 1/8th or so... but i am not confident that this will not turn into a trip to the body shop. What would you all do?

 

Aligning the door isnt hard. Just need some help and patience

 

Good morning, I have determined that the door is loose at the latch side. IS there a way to tighten that side up? Thanks, Rich

 

If the door moves up and down with slop in the hinges, then new bushings. If no slop, then loosen hinge to body bolts, lift, and tighten. Can’t think of a better technical term than “slop” at the moment.

 

Greetings all, I have investgated my door issue more carefully and realized my description above was not that accurate. The door does not seem to have any movement at the hinges and pins, and was slighlty lower than it should have been. A C hair adjustment and closes better. However, there is the slightest play still at the strike bolt to latch point. Once the door is closed, there is still 1/16th of an inch play in and out, and that causes the door the make a "clunking" sound which is what im hearing on bad road surfaces.

I can visualize that a larger diameter stricker bolt would solve the problem but I know that is only masking the underlying problem. Any thoughts?

 

You could loosen the striker and tap it slightly up then re tighten. The FSM shows how to adjust it with putty.

 

YEs I saw that and used playdoe and a hammer, and got it close enough! Thanks!