Droopy E Body doors

Have a 70 Challenger conv.. The doors line up perfect when they're closed but they drop down when you open them. Are the hinges gone or can the hinge pin be replaced. I'd hate to have to take the doors off again....any suggestions ??

You need to go your local parts store and look in the HELP section. There is a bushing and pin kit that will allow you to rebuild the hinges. The doors will have to come off though.

Your hinges likely need to be rebuilt. Look on Resto Rick's site for the kits, or send them in to him to have them done. You can also get fresh bushings in those Help packets sold at some auto parts stores and get acceptable results with those, but they are more of a bandaid approach.

That being said, you may be able to adjust your worn hinges to the point that the striker is not lifting the back of the door up when closed. That way once the handle is released and the door begins to open, the door won't drop.

This is what I've learned on this site, and it's how I did mine after rebuilding the hinges with Rick's kit. It still took a while, as door adjustment is somewhat of an art with these cars.

Adjust the back of the door to the 1/4 panel and the door sill, then the fenders to the front of the door, and finally the hood to the fenders.

mine sag too, but I think it's more of a door alignment issue that i'll correct as I do the body work.

the doors would sag once opened, but if you lift on the door, the hinges are solid, and you can rock the car back and forth with the door, no movement vertically at all in the hinges.

check that before you tear everything off and apart. could just be the slightest mis-alignment...which can be a real pain!

when I was working at the resto shop, I once took 4 hours to line up a door! it's a long and slow process to do it right and not mess up the fresh paint! make a small adjustment, close the door, check it. open the door, hold the door so it doens't "fall" when you loosen the bolts, make your admustment, tighten the bolts, close the door, check...over and over and over!

and yes, you start the panel alignment process where the sheet metal cannot be moved and move forward from there. sounds like common sense, but if you're not thinking about it, you might toss the fenders on, then the hood, eager to get the car "whole" again...thinking the doors last would be ok.

so on these cars...line the back of the door up with the quarter, the bottom with the sill, then line the fender to the front of the door, and finally the hood to the fenders.

now, on that 59 T-bird we did...the quarters were welded onto the unibody, and the fenders were welded onto the unibody! better hope the doors were on when the fenders were welded on! (in this case, it looked like the body shop that got fired, allowing us to finish the car correctly...did NOT have the doors on when welding the feners on!)

FWIW I typically adjust the door alignment with the strikers removed.. I set the door to match the body line knowing the striker isn't pulling it up or down... Furthermore if the regulator & glass isn't installed I intentionally set the door slightly high.. knowing the weight of the parts will cause it to settle slightly... After the door is set I'll install the striker, I use pieces of masking tape as referance points while aligning the stricker cause without referance points when you loosen the sticker it's easy to have it shift & you are basically starting from scratch...

Do you normally need to rebuild/bush both of the hinges, or is it just the bottom part.

My door also drops after being opened.

Thx

The bottom hinge is usually about 75%+ of the problem..

Thx,

So could I just remove the bottom hinge, while supporting door with jack or something else? Then put back in after rebuilding. I'm a little leary of the whole alignment issue. Would the above process eliminate the need to redo everything?

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Thx,

So could I just remove the bottom hinge, while supporting door with jack or something else? Then put back in after rebuilding. I'm a little leary of the whole alignment issue. Would the above process eliminate the need to redo everything?

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Nope.. You won't loose the adjustment up top.. but the bottom will need in/out & fore/aft adjustments set.. And really the top probably could be improved upon too... BTW The easy way to go would be just to pick up another pair of hinges & rebuild them.. Then swap them out & you'll have your old hinges to either resell & recoup the expense or keep around as spares...