Door hinge adjustment
 

It appears the adjustment for the door hinges are to only allow the door to be adjusted in or out. By this I mean to allow the door to be in the same plane as the front fender. Is there a way to adjust the door front to back so it can be centered in the door opening? My drivers door has an overly large gap at the front of the door and is tight at the rear. I have the door panel off and I don't see any adjustments for the hinges inside the door. Before I grind the hinges and make a shim I thought I'd see it there is something I am missing.

Don't grind your hinges. You'll only make it worse. If anything, see if there are any shims under the fender that move it forward. If there are, remove them and see if the fender can slide back to close the gap.

I have the door off and there are no shims. The hinges fit into a slot on the door post that is a tight fit. The side of the hinge I grind away will be used for additional room in the slot. I will fit the shims on the side of the hinge that isn't ground. I need about an 1/8 of an inch more gap at the back of the door so that it doesn't drag on the door seal.

I've had my doors off as well. Mine didn't have shims either. What you can try is to go and get some body shims at the parts store, Put the door back on the car, leave the bolts loose, and then slide in different size shims between the hinge and the mounting point to see if it makes a difference. Whatever you do, don't use a grinder.

Door Hinge Adjustment
 

My doors are scruffing on the lower (outer) door sill plate, as if the doors are sagging from the hinge end. Aluminum is being laid down on the narrow black sill plate. The effect is equal on both sides. When I grab the door and wiggle it up-down, I don't feel any unusual play in the hinges. Is this a problem to worry about and if so, how is this best corrected? Any and all advice appreciated. (92 ROW GTS ex-Japan, AT) Thx/Tim

The doors are long enough that a small amount of wear translates into clearance issueslike the ones you see. Start by measuring the gaps front and rear, upper and lower, and decide if the door really is sagging in the hinge. You might get away with just adding a small shim to the front of the bottom hinge. But wear is usually distributed, to the point where you need new hinges.

For those playing along at home, here's a reminder to lubricate your door, hood and hatch hinges regularly. With a real lubricant, something well north of WD-40. I use a blend of lithium and Teflon grease in a spray can with a plastic tube. It's long off the market, but you can find similar products from CRC and others at better auto parts places.

928 Hinge shims
 

When this issue, or one like it, came up a few years ago I made this small gob of shims to solve a similar problem in the 928. By virtue of the way the hinges are mounted the shims can only move the door, or the top or bottom of it, foreward, but not aft.

These shims are available for gratis and come in the following thicknesses:

.020
.025
.032
.040
.050
.080

If you will measure just how much movement you need in one or the other or both hinges I can send you the correct shims to do the adjustment.

I got your PM, Tim, and will send you the requested shims in the mail tomorrow. However, my own mental calculation suggests that although the .020 shims will likely lift both doors enough to clear the door sill, that may not be enough to set the gaps all around the doors like they should be.

I will have to go out later and do some measurements myself to see, in thousandths, just what the correct gaps should be, but lets say about an eighth of an inch, for purposes of this discussion, or .125 inches.

If the spacing of the two hinges on the door is 15 inches, center to center, and I'll have to check that, too, later, and that the distance fron the hinge plane to the bottom corner of the door is say 45 inches, and that the door gap at the bottom rear as shown by your picture is zero, a .020 shim under the top hinge will lift the door only .060, or about a sixteenth of an inch, or in other words only about half enough. It will not drag any more, but will still be a little low.

I find it interesting that your doors both sag just about the same amount. That suggersts that the problem is not due to hinge pin wear, but something else. I have no idea what that might be; and it may be that your car came from the factory that way, which I doubt. In an earlier thread someone suggested that there were two guys at the factory doing final fitting of the doors and that they often spent a whole day on just one car getting the doors to fit correctly. I am pretty sure that story is not true, because without the use of shims there is almost no adjustment in the door fit, probably only in and out, and I can't see anyone needing more than a few minutes to set that correctly. I am also pretty sure that the factory did not use any shims.

My offer of some shims is still open to the OP in this thread, and anyone else who is suffering the need to move either door foreward or to lift or lower the back of the door(s). I am going to send Tim968 a set of shims including a pair of each of the 20, 25, 32, and 40 thousandths shims which will give him the flexibility to select a single shim of his choice or to combine shims for up to the total of those thicknesses for his needs.

It would be nice to have Tim post a picture of his door straight on from the side so that we can see just what all the gaps look like with the door closed.

Door shims
 

Hi Jerry,

I have a 91 928 both doors are dragging on the sill and need shimming. Right door is requiring a slam.

Would it be possible to get a some shims from you?

They are pretty small, could you put a few in an envelope and mail to me perhaps.

Thanks,

Dean

dean@graphique.co.nz

Yes, Dean, I will. Send me your mailing address and I will put some in the mail.

Thats very kind of you.

My address is

8 Montcalm Close
Orewa, Auckland
New Zealand

Should be around $2.00-$3.00 regular 1st class mail to nz. Also no customs doc needed.

I can mail you a few US $1.00 I have for your trouble. (American living in NZ longtime)

Oh name is Dean Tatro

Got it all. I'll put in the mail in the morning. My treat.

What I am going to send Glenn, (and will send to anyone needing some), is a set of these shims consisting of two each of the following thicknesses: .020 .025, .032, and .040. With those one can move a given hinge, (or two of them) by just about any amount up to a combination of all four sizes.

Roughly speaking I think a given shim, or combination of them, put in the top hinge, will raise the back of the door about twice the thickness installed, maybe a little more. And now that I think about it a bit, probably about three times the thickness. I haven't done the measurements yet.

Dean, I put your shims in the mail about noon today. It will probably take about a week to get there. Let me know how they work out.