door striker adjustment, anyone done it?

[steve.s]

Hi

my doors have to slam to shut, with new pjgrady seals.

however i think the driver side one striker is catching the door edge.

questions!.

1 if i take it off till i can work on it, will the door stay shut ok?.

2. am i likely to loose the captive nut behind the panel, which i believe is hard to get back?.

it is an early vin with no door guides

thankyou

Steve

[Guinney1971]

best have a word with Rich Hutchinson (RichH on here), he's got an
early vin car like yours and knows how to adjust the doors - his shut
beautifully

[stunned_monkey]

Steve - get yourself the door guides is the #1 priority. Houston will still have them.

Tke nut into which the striker is screwed is captive inside a little cage allowing it room to move around, so you won't lose it if you take the pin out. I remove the rear one and start with the front pin, always pushing down on the door roughly where you would pull it from the inside. You may well find you run out of adjustment on the pin itself and not get a satisfactory result.

The problem, esp with the early cars is the glue that was used to assemble the outer skin to the inner structure has degraded and the whole door twists differently depending on where you push/pull it and if the car's not sitting level on the ground.

Also the factory seem to have adjusted many of the early doors to strike on the front catch first, ie the doors point inwards slightly at the front. The only way to properly adjust this is to realign the door hinges.

Make sure both catches are catching correctly and not just holding on the safety. Apart from being potentially dangerous, they rattle like *%$£!

[steve.s]

hi Martin

thanx for the advice.

i think the drivers rear is catching and bending the edge of the door where the mechanism bolts. (could be wrong though)

i bought an extended 17mm socket which should fit ok so will loosen the rear pin and see if i can adjust.

car has new seals so thought it would be tight, but you really have to slam shut, and worried what damage this will do.

so difficult to shut from inside.

Chris N has also suggested i look at how many washers space the striker pin. i would remove the pin, but gather the rear is the most important!.

[Phil Peters]

Hi Steve,

I had this trouble on VIN# 4400 after changing the door seals many moons ago. Have you tried giving the seals a spray with door seal / rubber lubricant? It can really make a difference.

Best wishes,

Phil

[Darren C]

Hi Steve

STOP!

I had same problem after changing my door seals. First you need to check if its the seals before messing up the strikers.
Just slip off the inner seal and try the door.
Should close with no effort at all.
If it doesn't then ok you need to adjust.

If it is your seals (as in my case) you may need to spend some time seeing exactly where they are catching and remove a little bit of fibre glass lip to allow them to sit lower/clear the door.

You may be unluck and need a bit of both (seals and alignment)
The guy's are quite correct you wont loose the captive nut unless some muppet has been in there before. I had to shave a bit off the latch pin on my lathe as it hit the door guide before entering the door catch, this is easy to see as it'll leave a groove in the guide. You may also need to check any washers on the pins, as some cars use them to shim it out.

Not wanting to teach you to suck eggs, but while you carryout the adjustment you must press the door in the centre to close as even this can cause the door to flex and miss close.

Good Luck
D

[steve.s]

hi All

thanx for the info.

i'll try lubricant.

years ago i used to use glycerine on door seals and worked great.

the drivers is a sod to close, either inside or outside.

there are no door guides at the moment, and i feel as if the door lock catches the striker possibly doing damage.

i will investigate more at the weekend. perhaps try wrapping in masking tape and shutting to see where rubbing.

[SpudMurphy]

Don't you just hate it when threads just peter out like this :-(
I'm having a few problems on the passenger door myself.

[Rissy]

I hate gullwing doors. I hate striker pins. I hate trying to adjust striker pins. You can easily spend a day on one door, perfecting it... finally. Then the next time you move the car to a slightly different set of environmental circumstances, its like you've never bothered getting it right at all.

First off, you need to make sure your door is full dressed for the occasion. No half dressed doors please.
In my opinion, it's better to get the doors adjusted without your outer door seals on. So unless they're already fitted, then hold off on putting them on. If they're on, then i'd take them off. But that's just me.

1. Remove rear striker pin
2. Getting someone inside the car, using the pull handle or door strap, repeatedly bang your door, being as gentle as possible, yet strong enough to actually get the door down in the first place, adjusting the front pin upon each attempt using more/less spacer washers, and/or the position it sits in the square captive nut hole in the infill panel until:
A: Your door falls off
B: Other parts of your car start rattling loose
C: You get fed up and walk away cursing and swearing and sweating from the brow
D: You miraculously seem to manage to achieve the impossible and get the door to strike the pin as it was designed.

3. Reattach rear striker pin. Only adjusting this pin from now on, repeat step 2 and account for end result options A, B, C or D.
4. Practice repeatability of the door(s) in this condition now. Leave it several days like this to account for atmospheric changes, including anybody who might sneeze in the general direction of the car from 3 miles away. Learn how to close the door from the outside. Where to push it from, how hard etc. The more important one is from inside the car, this is why you have adjusted it by use of a poor sod in the car knackering their arm out all day long through steps 2. and 3.
5. Once you're about as happy as you'll ever get with such a poor result from these bloody stupid doors quoting "who the heck thought these stupid things were ever a good idea and design!? - stupid infernal machine!" and if you're feeling brave, then you're ready to refit your outer door seals again (presuming you removed them or hadn't fitted them yet). Glue them into place using your choice of adhesive (i use standard black silicone sealant from Wickes myself). While the glue is still allowing for maneuverability of the seals, you want to close yours down on them. Let the doors slide/squidge them into place natural for the doors to not foul on them. Let them slide in towards the centre of the car. Don't try to achieve some sort of air tight seal - it's not a submarine, it's a car. Once you're as happy as you'll ever be with them. Walk away! Let it all set over night or whatever.
6. Next time you reapproach the car after letting your glue set, you can try your doors again. In theory, hopefully, you'll still be where you were with wet glue. If you're not, then you have two choices:
A: Leave it as it is, and live with it
B: Start from Step 1. again.
7. Go out and "enjoy" the car. Noticing the next time you come to closing your doors with the car on a slightly different incline, or slope, or temperature difference, that all you have done up to now; all you have learned about your doors up to this point, accounts for nothing, as these "bloody stupid doors just don't work properly at all now - it's ridiculous!"
8. Now you're the same as about 80% of other owners out there. Welcome to the party pal.

NOTE: In the factory, the doors were the first things on the tub. They were fitted/botched into place, made to work perfectly, cause no surrounding panels or seals. Then the other panels were fitted around the doors to match them. So if you have panels which are out of kilter with the doors when you're finished, then you're into the other world of adjusting your body panels...and that subject is for another thread altogether.

I'm sorry for the cynicism, but after 11yrs of gullwing door crap, that's about as good as it gets with me. I think the correct sequence and instruction meat of the subject is still there though. So you can still use this to help you.

As a further point of note. You'll see plenty of owners cars and photographs of cars where the outer door seals aren't fitted. This is how their doors close beautifully. They've skipped step 5. because step 5. tends to ruin the results of completing step 4. Yes - they're cheating.

Good luck, and let us know if there is any other advice you need to help you out.

[er1c]

Lovely write up Chris, this is why we all take pics with the doors open... the bleeders wont close