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"Basics of Basics" Sprung door repair.

183K views 110 replies 26 participants last post by  MARTINSR 
#1 · (Edited)
"Basics of Basics" Sprung door.
By Brian Martin

This is one of those tricks that after you see it in action, you just can't believe you can get such a huge result from such a little action.

First off, what is "Sprung"? This is when the door is opened beyond it's normal operation bending the hinges and or mounting. It usually results in the door being too far forward. It will also put the door up or down in the back depending on if one of the hinges was effect more when the door was pushed too far open ("sprung").

So after this happens you can have a door that is hitting the front fender (or the front door in the case of the rear door in a four door being sprung) or it can be much less with the door being simply a little further forward or up or down in the back if it wasn't sprung that hard. It can happen when the door is opened as the car comes to a stop, or someone simply pushes on the door opening it further than it is designed to open. Or in extreme cases it is bent badly being sprung by driving the car backwards with the door open and the door hits a post, garage wall, fence or another car.

I have seen doors that were bent so bad you couldn't even think of closing them, with the door WAY forward or WAY high or low in the rear being fixed with this little trick. I have also seen them where they are folded over the front fender with the hinges ripped in two so it isn't going to work every time. :)

Here is goes, look at "Fig # 1" and you will see where the door has opened "E" and the stop built into the hinge ("1") and did it's job stopping hinge from swinging too far. One problem, the door bent at "B" and "D" and the hinge/cowl pillar bent at "A" and "C". At "A" it bent into the hinge/cowl and at "B" it bent into the door. And at "C" and "D" it bent pulling the metal away from the hinge/cowl and away from the door.


In "Fig # 2" you can see how if you put something into the hinge to block the movement of the hinge from closing at #2 and pull the door onto it, applying pressure "E", you are going to bend the door IN at "B", IN at "A", and OUT at "C" and OUT at "D", exactly opposite what happened when the hinge was held from opening too far. Is that cool or what? Remember the hinge is VERY strong and you are not going to damage it by doing this, at least not before the metal on the door and cowl bend first.


This can be done with something like a socket as in photo #1 on this Ford Windstar. There is very little room so something like this works well.


Or it can be done with a piece of wood or what ever else you can find if you have a little more room like on this 65 GM A body, Photo #2. In this case, the wood still is a little big and if I were to close the door on it, the 2x4 would be resting on the cowl it's self right next to the hinge. This would likely cause some damage at that point on the cowl being the forces created by all that leverage would be localized right there. But sometimes this works to your advantage because the cowl IS pushed out right there. But most of the time you are going to want the item you put there to be touching nothing but the hinge so it is focusing the forces on exactly the same points the hinge did when the door was sprung.


You would be surprised how often you can make minor adjustments on door fit when the door hasn't even been sprung. If you are fitting a door and it is at the end of the adjustment holes on the hinge and won't go back any further, a little "tweek" like this can do the trick.

Now, is this "hack" work or something, not on your life. It is no different than "massaging" metal in any other way to get it to do what you want it to do. And how do you like this, this exact method is used at the factory every day! Yep, right on the line over at the NUMMI plant where they build Toyotas and Pontiac Vibes in Fremont California there are people doing this very thing as the car is on it's last few stations before it rolls out of the plant. I have to assume it happens at many other assembly plants.

Of course, if your car uses a "Check strap" of some kind to limit door travel then that check strap is likely damaged. Some cars have this limit built into the hinge as the two I have provided photos of. But many cars don't have this limit built into the hinge, or at least it not designed to limit the travel as well and the door would hit the fender before the hinge stopped it. The check strap is usually on lighter cars where the hinges are made lighter. These were first found on early cars in the form of a strap of leather or something screwed to the door and to the hinge/cowl panel, hints the name "Check STRAP". Of course these days it is in the form of a metal or plastic piece that sticks out of the front of the door and bolts to a pivot on the hinge/cowl pillar right in the middle between the hinges. Many times a door will be "sprung" and this strap will get damaged inside the door. So you want to be sure to check to see if the strap is still working properly restricting the movement of the door. If not, it needs to be replaced.

And to figure out which hinge to do if the door is up or down, this "Basics" on panel alignment will spell it all out. http://autobodystore.com/ms1.shtml
 
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#3 ·
You can do this on most of the older designs but watch out on some of the newer designs where the intrusion beam attaches to the lower hinge reinforcement. The newer Ford trucks are one example as Ford recomends a full door replacement any time the intrusion beam mounting area is damaged and they do bend everytime the door goes a little past it's designed travel limit. It just amazes me how the engineers can design a door that reacts so well in a crash but needs to be replaced when the wind catches it and flings it open....
 
#4 ·
Yep Brian, that worked really well on my truck door as well. Just as you said it would. :thumbup: Simple block of wood (that second shot actually looked just like when I did mine. Less than 3 minutes, might have been even less time had my truck been closer to the garage. You are THE MAN!


In a while, Chet.
 
#7 ·
Will this work for my hinge?

Hi,

I know that this is an old post but I just did a majorly moronic thing today and sprung my drivers side hinge on my 2002 Chevy Malibu. I found your post, and thought that there was hope that I wouldn't have to spend a fortune to have this fixed, but when I looked at my hinge I couldn't figure out where to put the piece of wood. I'm sorry, I am not a hotrodder by any means I'm just a home alone army wife looking to catch a break. I'm attaching pictures of my hinges. Any help would be greatly appriciated. Thanks, Amanda
 

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#8 ·
I'm thinking a block of wood would be best being you can't really put something between the hinge. But be careful not to bend the jamb with the wood. Take it SLOW and check progress often.

What I want to know from you is how the hell do you load such HUGE photos? I have tried to load photos no where near that big and it tells me they are too big and won't even let me do it. You REALLY need to make them smaller next time, I can't even get a good look at it because you have to scroll thru the photo it's so big.

Brian
 
#9 ·
thanks

Thanks for the quick reply. I'm sorry about the huge photos, I just loaded the JPGs that saved from my camera using the attach option on the posting page. I tried the wood, but it didn't do anything, I guess I'm just gonna have to take her to a body shop and hope for the best. Thanks again.
Amanda
 
#11 ·
Oh heck yeah it works. I have did some fixes that simply blew me away. I thought "I don't think I will be able to do this but what the heck" and give it a try and wham, door fits like a fridge.

Brian
 
#12 ·
worked like a charm

Thanks out to Brian for the advice & especially the photo with the socket in the hinge. I bent a hinge in a rental with no insurance and the socket trick was perfect! Gotta say I was a skeptic but your thread convinced me. Great to see there is a forum for stuff like this. You Guys Rock!
 
#13 ·
CannaKarma said:
Thanks out to Brian for the advice & especially the photo with the socket in the hinge. I bent a hinge in a rental with no insurance and the socket trick was perfect! Gotta say I was a skeptic but your thread convinced me. Great to see there is a forum for stuff like this. You Guys Rock!

Awesome! I love it when a plan falls together!

Brian
 
#14 ·
Good info, Brian. I learned this one when I was a kid in Minnesota. Hard hit winters with snowbanks 5 foot tall on both sides of the driveway, trying to back out, a couple of school buddies every year would snag a door. If I remember right ( I didn't read all the way through) lower hinge would raise the door, upper hinge would lower the door. Thanks for sharing this stuff. Dan
 
#48 ·
If I remember right lower hinge would raise the door, upper hinge would lower the door. Dan
I came across this thread from a Google search because I backed out and bent my driver door backwards a little, it being open, & caught on edge of garage opening. I want to try "the trick" but am hesitant until I am certain which hinge to do it to. My door is too low at the right side (when facing the driver's side), so I do the trick to the lower hinge?
Also, the door's upper right (when looking at the driver's side) is sticking out a little and the lower left is in a little too far.
It still shuts, but hard. There is also a gap in upper weather stripping now where I can see light through it.
Thanks if you can help.
 
#15 ·
Yes that's correct Dan. And it doesn't take a "sprung" door to use this trick. During a simple door alignment you can fine tune, or move a door past where the alignment movement is little you. And it works on hoods and trunks as well.

Brian
 
#16 ·
I thought I would post a few more photos with another hinge design. Same effect, but just an idea of how versatile this trick is. My Rambler passenger door needed to be aligned, it was hitting the cowl right at the bottom of the vent glass. The gape was closed up along the A pillar to just about nothing. The door was a little high so I lowered it, made things a little better but still the A pillar was real tight.

If you look at the photos you can see that these hinges are very odd, they fold against one an other like a house door hinge! You could go up and down and in and out a little but there is no way to bring the door back at the top like it needed. Not without shimming it of course and I didn't want to do that.

What I needed to do was bring the top back a little, leaving the bottom right were it was. The old block of wood in the hinge did just the trick, it bent the hinge and or mounting points just a little bit. I brought the striker down, and wham, door fit like a champ.

The first photo is of an old door I have so you can get a good understanding of how the hinge works. The second is off the door on my car taken from the front with the fender off. The third is where I put the wood on the top hinge. Last being finished fit.

Just another trick to door alignment.

Brian
 

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#17 · (Edited)
Question

Brian,

Thanks so much for posting, this site is great. I do have a question though: my rear passenger-side door is sprung, but based on how the door is lining up, it seems like the hinges are bent forward, not up or down. In other words, The door doesn't need to come up or down, but instead back towards the trunk. Will the trick work for this? It's bent so badly that I can't even close the door.

Thanks,
J.J.
 
#18 ·
JJNelson75 said:
Brian,

Thanks so much for posting, this site is great. I do have a question though: my rear passenger-side door is sprung, but based on how the door is lining up, it seems like the hinges are bent forward, not up or down. In other words, The door doesn't need to come up or down, but instead back towards the trunk. Will the trick work for this? It's bent so badly that I can't even close the door.

Thanks,
J.J.
If you have a normal front swinging door (not "suicide") then yes it should work. But look at the design, does it look like the hinge pin will move back if you block it like I show?

If it needs to go back, you simply bend the lower one, then the upper one, bringing it back.

Brian
 
#19 ·
doors on my 49 chevy

MARTINSR said:
Yes that's correct Dan. And it doesn't take a "sprung" door to use this trick. During a simple door alignment you can fine tune, or move a door past where the alignment movement is little you. And it works on hoods and trunks as well.

Brian
see what you can do with this brian. my doors are fine except about 4-6" from the bottom they stick out. check out the photos
 

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#20 ·
It looks like the front and rear of the cab had patch panels welded in wrong! What you can do, I am not sure but you may be out of luck alignment wise. Unless the top of the door is IN way too much, you are in for having a horrible gap or cutting and redoing those patch panels.

Brian
 
#21 ·
When dealing with door alignment the rotation or pivot point of the hinge is the main factor. When you adjust or bend a hinge, think about what that will do to the pivot point. If the whole door needs to be moved to the rear, figure out how to move both upper and lower pivot points to the rear.

The latch is the other factor. It affects the up/down and in/out on the latching end of the door. Two of the three dimensions. While the hinges work together in all three: up/down, in/out, front/rear.

Ideally, the door should not be raised or lowered by the latch as it is closed. It should just click shut. Most of the time, life is not ideal. :cool:
 
#23 ·
You are very welcome, it is one of those magic tricks isn't it! I of course can't take credit for it, it was taught to me just the same as I pass it on here.

Brian
 
#24 ·
MARTINSR said:
"Basics of Basics" Sprung door.
By Brian Martin

This is one of those tricks that after you see it in action, you just can't believe you can get such a huge result from such a little action.

First off, what is "Sprung"? This is when the door is opened beyond it's normal operation bending the hinges and or mounting. It usually results in the door being too far forward. It will also put the door up or down in the back depending on if one of the hinges was effect more when the door was pushed too far open ("sprung").

So after this happens you can have a door that is hitting the front fender (or the front door in the case of the rear door in a four door being sprung) or it can be much less with the door being simply a little further forward or up or down in the back if it wasn't sprung that hard. It can happen when the door is opened as the car comes to a stop, or someone simply pushes on the door opening it further than it is designed to open. Or in extreme cases it is bent badly being sprung by driving the car backwards with the door open and the door hits a post, garage wall, fence or another car.

I have seen doors that were bent so bad you couldn't even think of closing them, with the door WAY forward or WAY high or low in the rear being fixed with this little trick. I have also seen them where they are folded over the front fender with the hinges ripped in two so it isn't going to work every time. :)

Here is goes, look at "Fig # 1" and you will see where the door has opened "E" and the stop built into the hinge ("1") and did it's job stopping hinge from swinging too far. One problem, the door bent at "B" and "D" and the hinge/cowl pillar bent at "A" and "C". At "A" it bent into the hinge/cowl and at "B" it bent into the door. And at "C" and "D" it bent pulling the metal away from the hinge/cowl and away from the door.


In "Fig # 2" you can see how if you put something into the hinge to block the movement of the hinge from closing at #2 and pull the door onto it, applying pressure "E", you are going to bend the door IN at "B", IN at "A", and OUT at "C" and OUT at "D", exactly opposite what happened when the hinge was held from opening too far. Is that cool or what? Remember the hinge is VERY strong and you are not going to damage it by doing this, at least not before the metal on the door and cowl bend first.


This can be done with something like a socket as in photo #1 on this Ford Windstar. There is very little room so something like this works well.


Or it can be done with a piece of wood or what ever else you can find if you have a little more room like on this 65 GM A body, Photo #2. In this case, the wood still is a little big and if I were to close the door on it, the 2x4 would be resting on the cowl it's self right next to the hinge. This would likely cause some damage at that point on the cowl being the forces created by all that leverage would be localized right there. But sometimes this works to your advantage because the cowl IS pushed out right there. But most of the time you are going to want the item you put there to be touching nothing but the hinge so it is focusing the forces on exactly the same points the hinge did when the door was sprung.


You would be surprised how often you can make minor adjustments on door fit when the door hasn't even been sprung. If you are fitting a door and it is at the end of the adjustment holes on the hinge and won't go back any further, a little "tweek" like this can do the trick.

Now, is this "hack" work or something, not on your life. It is no different than "massaging" metal in any other way to get it to do what you want it to do. And how do you like this, this exact method is used at the factory every day! Yep, right on the line over at the NUMMI plant where they build Toyotas and Pontiac Vibes in Fremont California there are people doing this very thing as the car is on it's last few stations before it rolls out of the plant. I have to assume it happens at many other assembly plants.

Of course, if your car uses a "Check strap" of some kind to limit door travel then that check strap is likely damaged. Some cars have this limit built into the hinge as the two I have provided photos of. But many cars don't have this limit built into the hinge, or at least it not designed to limit the travel as well and the door would hit the fender before the hinge stopped it. The check strap is usually on lighter cars where the hinges are made lighter. These were first found on early cars in the form of a strap of leather or something screwed to the door and to the hinge/cowl panel, hints the name "Check STRAP". Of course these days it is in the form of a metal or plastic piece that sticks out of the front of the door and bolts to a pivot on the hinge/cowl pillar right in the middle between the hinges. Many times a door will be "sprung" and this strap will get damaged inside the door. So you want to be sure to check to see if the strap is still working properly restricting the movement of the door. If not, it needs to be replaced.

And to figure out which hinge to do if the door is up or down, this "Basics" on panel alignment will spell it all out. http://autobodystore.com/ms1.shtml
Nice one. I do the same thing with certain decklids to lower or raise the corners.
 
#26 ·
Surprised, I only found this help here at Hot Rodders

The wind caught the door on my 2005 Ford E-350 van, and the configuration is such that after shutting it and discovering it was jammed, I couldn't open it enough to see what got bent.

I 'just knew' that the fix should be simple, but would never have figured it to be this easy.

Thank you so much for the help.

(Strange that the help is only found here)
 
#27 ·
The wind caught the door on my 2005 Ford E-350 van, and the configuration is such that after shutting it and discovering it was jammed, I couldn't open it enough to see what got bent.

I 'just knew' that the fix should be simple, but would never have figured it to be this easy.

Thank you so much for the help.

(Strange that the help is only found here)
Isn't it great when a plan comes together! :thumbup:

Brian
 
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