Remember the scene in "Tommy Boy" when Chris Farley back past the gas pump with the car door open? My kid just did that on his '81 RX7.
While driving back down from ramps while "working" on his car, had the driver's door wide-open, snagged the gutter downspout on my house (mangling that pretty well), and cranked his door.

Fortunately, he didn't bend the door backwards like in the movie. However, when closed, you can see that the door has moved about 5/16" forward and when he tries to open it, it grabs the front fender, taking off paint in the process. It's getting worse every time, and now you can't even open the door without it trying to completely buckle the fender.

How do we adjust this?
Is fender and or door removal required?

Thanks,
Mark

 

My guess is the door hinge has moved, (could be the hinge on the door or body, or both) it needs to be bent back to the right position somehow or adjusted.

How? I don't know.

Theories /few ideas that could fix it- (Im not an autobody mechanic, these are just educated guesses)


1.Metal bends easier when heated, if its possible to bend it back to where it needs to be it'd probably take some heat.
2. Cut off old hinge, get a new one fabricated then welded on.
3.replace the door if thats what has the bent hinge

 

The door is attached with a hinge that attaches via bolts to both the frame and the door. Both scenarios have "play" in them but the front/back play is in the attachment via bolts on the frame. You can loosen them (three each on top and bottom hinges) You will be able to shift the door back. The hinges may be trapped by the paint job but chances are the accident that shifted them forward will have loosened them so that they can be moved back as well.

 

Sounds right, i wasn't sure if they were bolted or welded on.

 

Not as optimistic as the others.
Not sure about the FB, but sometimes the hinges are usually attached to the door by bolts and welded to the hinge pillar...or vice-versa. Regardless, what may have sprung was the metal backing on the door or hinge pillar where the hinges attach. Usually it's the door. Once bent, that metal is weakened and that's why fitment tends to 'get worse'. If the hinge bolts to the door, you MAY be able to shim underneath to move the door backwards. But that also means closing the gap at the rear quarter and adjusting the latch.
Sometimes it's easiest to just get another door.

 

Thanks for all the input. I got more info on exactly what happened. Turns out that the door was only open about a foot to 18", so I'm thinking the following scenarios:

1. Since a post above stated the front/back adjustment is on the A-pillar, the hinges just got knocked forward at that attachment.

2. Since the metal on the door is thin, the rear attachment part of the hinges deformed the door, embossing themselves into the door.

3. A combination of options 1 & 2

Either way, looks like he'll be needing to remove the fender first to make the hinge bolts accessible. I'll give an update once things are underway, maybe with pix.

 

Did a Tommy boy to myself the other day at the pump in my FB, I caught it before it did majoy damage but now my door creeks a lil and dont feel the same in action as my other door now

 

Go to a panel beater before you make it worse. If your not handy in this area anything you do to "fix" the problem could make it more of a headache when the time comes to get it repaired by a pro.

Coming form a trained panelbeater. Just my opinion

 

Today my son decided to tackle the door/fender removal. I assisted at times when he ran into a bind.
Notes:
1.The only thing that clearly stood out is the A-pillar upper hinge area was displaced outward about 1/8-3/16". A few whacks with the 1lb sledge fixed that.

2. I'm guessing the hinges may have been distorted, but I don't have fresh hinges to compare them. I ended up elongating the hinge-to-car mounting holes about 1/8". That had a large effect and the door is now back in the normal position when closed.

3. When the door is opened, it drops downward as soon as it clears the latch. the hinge pins are in good shape. I'm thinking that the hinge-to-door interface has moved inward a bit, or that the lower hinge is distorted, so I'm going to try a shim between the at hinge and the door.

4. The fender is off. My son was unable to disconnect the marker light in the process, si I told him to just cut the wire and I'll add bullet connectors when we put it back together. I used a combination of a rubber mallet and pliers to re-shape the fender and it looks pretty good, aside from a few spots that look like they were hit by golf *****.

Tomorrow we'll weld on a new tab to replace the one that ripped of the fender under the front bumper area. I'll also drill out and weld a nut to another tab where a screw torqued off. Both of these were due to rust. After that, we'll do some rust abatement, sand, prime, spray the inner-side of the fender and door with "close-enough" paint and reassemble.

 

Well, got it all back together. Fit & function is good. We'll work on matching the paint later (U2 "Stardust Blue).