So a while ago I removed all the panels from my car to have it repainted. When I put everything back together, right side door rubs against the fender when ever it is opened / closed. The left hand door is extremely close to rubbing as well but not as bad.
I know the fenders can be adjusted a bit so I have them as far forwards as i can get them but still having the same problem.

Is there any way I can adjust the doors? I was thinking worst case I throw a washer on the bolts that they go in to to give them some more clearance but this is not how it came from factory and is only really a bandaid fix.

Can the doors themselves be adjusted?

 

The door hinges are not adjustable.
The adjustment has to be at the fender.
Sounds to me the fender is probably not setting correctly. The fender is supposed to over hang the body on the front mount. And also over hang the rear near the door mounting tab.

If I had to guess I bet you have it sitting behind the front mount instead of overhanging it. You'll want I separate the front bumper, and fender to check the sandwhich order.

 

He never mentioned it, but the rubbing occurs without the front bumper installed...

J.

 

Well that will make checking the alignment of the fender as I said much easier.
The bumper isn't the issue, it's whether or not the fender is lined up over the front member or behind it. It needs to be up and over.

 

I'm way from my car at the moment and won't be back until the weekend but I'm almost positive it is in front of the front mount and behind the rear mount.
There has I be *some* play in the door though, no? Like obviously the bolts it goes on are fixed but there's gotta be clearance I just wonder if it's enough that an adjustment will fix the issue.

Before removing things, there were no issues what so ever.

 

As I said.

The door hinges are NOT adjustable.
That means there is no play to work with at the door.

 

There is play in the door hinges I can move mine forward/back and up/down. Also when the fender is on you can move it in and out at the bottom of the fender behind the tire. You can get more clearance between the door and fender when pushing it out.

 

The fender is very very close to the door, I took the passenger side fender out to run stuff out to the bay, and it is a bitch to line back up so the door doesn't rub against it when open/close. I thought I messed something up but when I check the driver side it is the same, it doesn't rub but there are maybe 1mm gap between the door and the fender when open/close.

 

I have always found that alignment of body panels is much easier if you pick up a box of tile flooring alignment spacers at home depot or lowes. They look like little plastic +'s. Just keep the panel bolts slightly loose and put some of the spacers in between the panels, tighten down and bingo! Even spacing on the seams. Might help ya

 

I checked mine yesterday, I had to rehang the drivers door since I had it off to put my dash back in. You can move the door around in the hole maybe 2mm or 3mm but that's about all your going to get or the holes won't line up.
Hopefully that will be enough for the OP.

 

Yes this will be plenty. I'll report back when I get to it but this should solve the issue.

 

This issue was resolved this past weekend as a result of door and fender adjustment. I never realized how adjustable the fenders actually are, but yeah everything is AOK

 

Glad to hear it worked out.

 

Bringing this thread back.

I have an issue with my drivers door not closing properly. When closing it I can feel much more resistance in the last few inches or so as the inside seal really squeezes near the hinges. Totally different feel than the passenger side.

When I compare the gaps on both sides it looks like I need to align the door back 1-2mm to allow for proper closing.

My question is does the fender need to come off to reach the adjustment bolts for the hinges on the body? Shop manual does does not mention the fenders so I thought I would ask. At this point I can’t see a way around it.

The fender bolts have never been removed from the looks of it. Paint on the bolts still look good so I hesitated before removing them in case there is a trick that I’m overlooking.

I already have the bumper off so It would be really quick to remove.

Thanks in advance!

 

I have seen FD's with sagging driver's side doors before. I remember AGES ago working on a car where the bottom of the door would scrape when closing, I put a jack and wood under the door, loosened the bolts, jacked up a bit, and tightened the bolts up. I know I didn't remove the fender.

Aligning doors is kind of a black art, it may be worth finding a good body shop in town and paying them to take a look at it.

Also FD door seals are stupid tight for no apparent reason so I don't know if that's a contributing factor.

Dale

 

i think if you removed the splash shield from the wheel well, the hinge bolts would be assessable

the gap specs are in the FSM, and its easier to do if the fender stays where Mazda put it (less to line up) also you will want to buy/make some shims in the right size, it turns it from black art, to really easy.
i have a couple pieces of a shingle, which taper so it starts small and gets bigger

 

Thanks for all the tips!

Update:
I removed the inner fender, side vent and the 2 lower bolts on the fender and was able to access the bolts on the body. I think with 2 people it would have worked out but since I was alone and did not want to fight with it too much I pulled the fender after adding several marks with tape. That way I can hold the door shut and tighten loosen the bolts on my own.

Here is what I did:
1) Open the door and support it on some blocks.
2) Remove the inside door latch
3) I taped 4 3/16 tile spacers on the door frame which pretty much is the FSM spec.
4) Loosened all 6 bolts.
5) Pulled the door slightly back while giving support (In my case I wanted to move the door back about 2mm).
6) Closed the door while lifting to first clear the lower spacers. The spacer on the side had to be pulled as the gap was a bit below spec.
7) Holding the door shut with one hand on the spacers, I tightened a couple of bolts to secure the door.
8) Let the door go and test/check gaps. It seems to move much better and only pinched the rubber when it was close to closing. Go back to step 4 if more adjusting is needed.
9) Put the latch back on and re-test. I was able to get to the first click on the door by closing with 1 finger. Much better than before! To fully close the door requires the usual slam.
10) Tighten everything up and re-test. Adjust latch if needed to pull a bit tighter.

This how I managed to correct the door and make it easier to close (like normal). I was worried that the door panel would eventually be destroyed by using excessive force.

There might be a better approach but this is how I did it. I'll update again if anything weird happens with the fender but first I want to clean all the caked on dirt from the last 30 years before I put it back!

 

Thanks for this! That is pretty much how a body shop would do it.

Question on #2 - I've half-*** tried to remove one of those inside latches before and the bolts were SUPER tight, did you have problems removing it? And I'm assuming this is the U-shaped thing bolted to the body that the door latch catches on.

Dale

 

Hi Dale,
I did not have any trouble with those torx bolts. I'm pretty sure I was the first to touch them and was surprised that it took a normal amount of effort. On some of my previous cars they were crazy tight but that was after a body shop messed with them. All the other bolts for the hinges on both the body and the door were fine as well.

I got the fender back on last night. Had to play around with it a bit to compensate for the door shifting so it took a little trial and error. Door/hood/fender line up quite well now so I'm happy.

Next is the bumper which I originally removed to improve the lines on the corner of the headlight covers/fenders. The passenger headlight cover mounting points are beyond saving so I'm probably going to buy a new one. Drivers one is fixable but I may just get a new pair. Mazda should have kept them in steel like the FC or at least aluminum! Plastic does not age well and feels cheap. . .

 

You can still get headlight covers new, they come in primer. I would get both since you'll have to have them painted and might as well have both done at the same time. New headlight covers will last you a VERY long time.

Dale