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  • Sagging drivers side door...

    Why do so many flat fenders (including mine) have sagging drivers side doors? I have seen several where the previous owner moved to rocker panel down to accommodate the door. What is the fix?

  • #2
    The design of the door mounting basically leads to the door having to flex on it's hinges if not perfectly aligned, and the hinges are the weak point on the door. In fact at some point Dodge started adding some extra bracing around the door hinges to reduce the flex and cracking they would experience. There's also the fact that the cab will flex, which means the doors have to flex in the openings too and again the part that flexes are the doors.

    As for fixing it the biggest one would be to make sure the door is properly aligned in the opening, so that it's not flexing every time you open and close it. I'm sure you can also look at beefing up the metal around the hinges on the door. I'd also make sure the body side of the hinges are securely tightened down so they don't shift either.

    I know for mine I had the doors fitting quite well with the cab off the frame on my cart, but once it was mounted back on the truck I essentially had to do it again which is much harder once everything is painted.

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    • #3
      I did replace metal on the door at the lower hinge, as it was cracked and damaged. I have also adjusted the hinges the best I could. The door fits better and doesn’t catch, however, the body lines still don’t match up. I can tell by looking at the space between the door and the cab from the other side when the door is closed, that it probably never will. The bolts and rivets are touching each other when the door is closed, so there is no more room for adjustment.

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      • Doc Dave
        Doc Dave commented
        Editing a comment
        There has been considerable discussion over the years that there was probably a defect in the die that stamped out the cab metal. This resulted in the very common misalignment in the body lines on the driver side, especially. My truck also shows this issue, even though the door closes well. As a matter of fact, most PW’s I have seen show this, especially on the driver side.
        I believe it is probably a combination of a little sag along with a production die problem.
        So, it might be something to “accept” as “it is was it is” as they say. I am somewhat of a perfectionist and it bothered me until I noted it in so many PW’s, and read of the flawed stamping die theory.

    • #4
      It's not uncommon, I have similar issues. These are the reasons those award winning show cars cost huge $$$$ restored, perfection is slow and complicated. If you want perfect lines and gaps you'd need to look at potentially rebuilding everything (door openings if the cab is out of square, the door side hinges can also be bent or tweaked, and it's not unusual to need to modify the door itself by grinding or welding up door edges for instance).

      You can tell the factory wasn't too worried about it though just by looking at the door mounting hardware with the rubbing blocks that were attached to the top and bottom of the door and in the cab to align the door in the opening when it closed.

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      • #5
        I am pretty anal about the vehicles I work on. Hard to overlook a body line that is off this far. Door closes fine though. Guess I’ll change the cab mounting pads and see what that does...

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        • #6
          My Drivers side door doesn't align nearly as well as the passenger side. In addition, I have to use a spacer on the striker so the latch can even reach the teeth. Dodge wasn't too concerned about the fit. Our shop manuals tell us to use 2x4 blocks in the door to slightly spring the hinge. Probably what I would need to do to get the door closer to the latch, but it's hard on new paint! Good luck!
          Tim Ellis

          1953 B4 PW
          2013 Dodge 2500 Diesel

          Clean fingernails, free weekends, intact knuckles and financial stability are totally overrated.

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          • #7
            As stated, this is a long standing discussion. My driver's door closes perfectly and the gaps around the door are pretty decent so I don't believe my door is sagged.....However, body lines don't line up well, at all. I'm in agreement with Doc Dave in believing "it is what it is". I'm thinking that possibly some 'creative' pinstriping could camouflage the situation, a bit.

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