Door gaps?

I have fighting with the fitting the doors on my truck, trying to check the fit before I tear everything down for media blasting.
The more I look at it, it seems that somebody at somepoint in my truck's gentle life backed into something with the driver's door? After inspecting the hinge, it looks like it was bent! I don't know how you bend the hinge without destroying the door but somebody figured out how. Anyway, I flame-wrenched the hinge back into shape. Now, I am trying to figure out how the door should look.
Here's my request - I hope a few of you can help me out.
I was wondering what the typical gap (yes, I know this is late 60's Jeep quality for a govmnt contract...) between the door and body is at the front and back of the door?
My door isn't very square in the opening yet but it may show about 1/4" typically. I can get it pretty close but then I start to hit the fender when I open the door. Do you think a few of you guys could measure the door gaps on your trucks for me?
http://img296.imageshack.us/img296/5...4134ao2.th.jpghttp://img296.imageshack.us/images/thpix.gif
http://img511.imageshack.us/img511/3...4137si6.th.jpghttp://img511.imageshack.us/images/thpix.gif

Thanks,
Brian (and Angry)

mine are all out of whack. i played with the drivers door till it shut the best i could get it to. the passenger shut good from the start. neither of them have even gaps. sorry i am of no help
Ryan

The door gaps will drive you goofy. I change out my doors for the roadster doors and back again every year. I am now happy if the door opens and closes without taking paint off.

No matter how well I mark it, what worked for a door 6 months ago isn't good when I put it back on. I think use, flex and just plain age are all part of the problem. Just remember that these trucks were built by the lowest bidder and a door that opens, closes and doesn't hit anything was the standard they were built to. Anything more and you are really just wasting your time.

Also keep in mind that the dimensions will change when the top frame is on or off. When I put the door frames back on, there is a 1/2" gap between the windshield frame and front mount. It pulls it all back together when I install everything, but the door gaps change considerably.

The back of the cab really isn't supported by anything except the sheetmetal its made of, so it will change with different conditions. Also when I drive my truck up on a stump or rock, the door gaps will change signficantly. All my body mounts are new and tight too.

Thanks for the input.

At this point, I am not trying to make the gaps equal. My real problem is that if I have about a 1/4" gap at the front, I have about 0" at the back (i.e. the door is only about 1/4" shorter than the opening.
So now I am trying to figure out what most people have for gaps, because I think I am to the point of cutting down the door to make it fit (gulp). If I can understand what a few other trucks have, I can figure out how much I need to trim out of the door.

Thanks again for your help.
-Brian (and Angry)

Are you sure that the issue is the gap front to rear? If the hinge is not set to the right depth inside the framing, it will cause clearance issues when you open the door. Is the outside door skin even with the fender, with the ridges in the same place?. . .I know what you mean by odd shaping, My doors are fine, but they don't match the shape of the door openings in my fiberglass hard top, . .

I have thought about making a tube reinforcement to go from the back of the cab, along side the seat, ..kind of like what deuces and 5-tons have inside the door opening, to reinforce the back of the cab. By running along the outside of the seat, but low enough not to interfere with getting in and out, . .it seems like it would improve the door fit, . ..anybody done anything like this?. . .any thoughts?

I looked at mine last night, . .gap on the front is about 1/8", back just slightly more. Mine open and close easily and the body lines line up nicely, .. .

Thanks for looking into this. I would like to keep 1/8" but that may be a little tight with my body work skills.
Thanks again,
Brian (and Angry)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by randyscycle

Also keep in mind that the dimensions will change when the top frame is on or off. When I put the door frames back on, there is a 1/2" gap between the windshield frame and front mount. It pulls it all back together when I install everything, but the door gaps change considerably.

The back of the cab really isn't supported by anything except the sheetmetal its made of, so it will change with different conditions. Also when I drive my truck up on a stump or rock, the door gaps will change signficantly. All my body mounts are new and tight too.

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Randy is correct. What mainly supports the back of the cab is the rockers when the inners are present. The inner and outer rockers make a box channel that supports the rear of the cab. Crawl under and take a look. Many folks don't replace the inners but without them, not much support. When we took out the rusted rockers, the rear of the cab was very flexible. We supported and aligned it and then welded in the new inners and outers.

You guys are right - I was also worried about the cab rigidity as well.
Before I started tearing out the old rockers, I welded in some supports (see pic).
I then replaced the inner and outer rockers. At one point, I was worried that maybe the cab was already out of whack before I even welded in the supports. (It was really rusted out). But, when I measure the door opening, it is still square (front and rear are parrallel). It doesn't really rule out it being bad from the start but pretty unlikely that it would be square.
http://img73.imageshack.us/img73/958...ug04020zu9.jpg
I still don't have a big enough opening to really fit to door in right, so it looks like I may be into trimming the door a bit.
Thanks again for the input.
Brian (and Angry)

I can't remember for sure if the M715 is different from all other civvy vehicles, but why cant you just shim out the front fenders? thats what the factory does to align the doors and fenders in the first place. My guess is that the hinge was bent when it got hit and then the door was replaced but they used the bent hinge with the new door.