Jerry Feather

It comes up every now and then that someone finds my old thread about the Door Hinge Shims that I have made in the past which I think are the only ones in existence. The shims have been used to either lift the rear of a 928 door by putting a shim under the top hinge or to move a door forward by shimming both.

I had finally run out of the thinner ones, that I have sent for free for anyone in need, and I finally got around to nearly completing a new batch. I will shortly have some fresh ones in .020, .025 (only a few), .032, and .040. I still have some of the thicker ones in .050 and even .080, but I think that is way more than anyone will ever need. The thinner ones can however be used in combination for various other thicknesses.

If anyone needs some of these let me know and I'll put some in the mail. However, I don't intend to send any free ones for anyone to simply put away until the need arises, nor do I intend to sell any of them. They are available worldwide, my treat

jfeather@bresnan.net

KermitGB

Hi Jerry. I have an '89 S4 with saggy doors - the driver's side much more so than the passenger's. Given that I'm in the UK, driver's side is on the right. It sounds like your shims will solve this problem. I'd really appreciate if you can send them. Please let me know how I can get my address to you and how I can pay for these.

ltoolio

Jerry - my doors don't like to fully close when the car is on lift bars. Might the shims you are offering fix that?

Jerry Feather

Send me your mailing address. PM or E-mail. See above.

Jerry Feather

When you figure out why that is we can determine if the shims will change that. It sounds like the shape of the door opening is changing some when you lift the car. That might be because the car so very rusted out, but otherwise I don't think the 928 will flex that much when lifted. What you need to do is let the car down on its tires and then check the gaps. They should be about 1/8 inch or 3mm all the way around and all the same. If they are not then that might be corrected with shims and then that might solve your problem when lifted.

Jerry Feather

The distance between the hinges is just over 12 inches, and the distance from the hinge axis to the bottom rear corner of the door is about 42 inches. That means to lift the rear of the door from touching the sill to about 3mm (.120 in) will take that divided by 3.5, or about .034 in shim under the top hinge. However, if the door is dragging on the sill there will be more shim needed to get it to just touch the sill and that will take some testing to determine just how much more than .034 will be needed.

I will be sending a set of three shims to adjust one dragging door. It will include .020, .032, and .040. With those one can shim the top hinge as follows:

.020
.032
.040
.052
.060
.072
.092

by using the shims individually or in various combinations. .092 will lift the rear of the door by 3.5 times that much, or .322, or 5/16 inch., or just over 8mm, and that is way more than anyone is likely to need.

The shims to move the door forward will be two sets of the same three shims. The shims cannot be used to move the door aft.

Jerry Feather

bump so one might be able to better decide what shims are needed.

Jerry Feather

Alex, I put two sets of shims in the mail for you today. It may take a week or two for them to arrive there in the U.K.

To refresh, a set consists of three shims, .020, .032, .and .040. One set should be more than sufficient to lift a given 928 door that is sagging in the rear, and two sets should be more than enough to move a single door forward by any amount equal to the thickness of the shim or any combination of the shims. Since it it hard to tell which thickness might be required in a given situation is why I send the whole set or sets, depending on which issue one might be dealing with.

Jerry Feather

Time to bump this thread. I have an inquiry from Sweden, I think, and will honor any need worldwide.

Speedtoys

Jerry, the issue I posted about was the door needing re aligned, the bottom was out more than it should be.

BUT..I have NO rust, and my doors don't easily open on a lift either..the body is every so slightly changing shape..

Jerry Feather

I mailed a set of shims to Sweden today to help cure the primary reason they are useful for, to lift the rear of a 928 door off of the sill.

AirtekHVAC

Hi Jerry!

my new to me 85 has draggy doors, pulls the lower carpet piece off constantly. I have loosened and adjusted the hinges as best I could to no avail! Perhaps your shims will help?

Regards,

Ron

Jerry Feather

Tell me more about your doors "dragging." What does adjusting the hinges have to do with your problem? Where are the doors dragging?

Jerry Feather

I shipped s couuple of sets of shims today the CT to try to move a door forward a bit and maybe lift the rear of it. I found that I am just about out of the .025 shims so I ordered a fresh sheet of aircraf aluminum to use to make some more of those. I will still honor any needs worldwide. Let me know.

jfeather@bresnan.net

drooman

Thanks Jerry!