Doors fit K5 until I install the fenders?????

[71_K5]

What the hell!? I can get my doors to line up perfectly on my 72 K5 and then when I install the fenders back on, it all goes to hell! How can the fenders be throwing the doors out? Is it possible that tieing the fenders into the cab and core support could be tweaking the body to the point that the doors dont fit? I honestly hope the body is not that pathetically weak!

So, again. The doors fit until I install the fenders and then it all goes to hell!

Help, please!!!

Jim

 

[Greg72]

Sounds about right.

Look at a bare convertible tub sometime, there is almost NOTHING holding the firewall/cowl area in place. Without fenders or doors you can easily move the cowl by pulling on the windshield posts. Any movement here is going to affect how the door fits.

My guess is that you are over-shimmed at the bodymount in the front footwell area. (You don't describe it the door gap opens at the top of the door or the bottom when the fender is bolted up)

When the fender is bolted on, it creates a long lever to pull the cowl with. If you are trying to bolt it to the coresupport and it's not reaching....odds are that the front cab support mount has too many shims in it. Try removing those shims, or add some shims under the radiator support mounts.

The Factory Assembly manual has a good illustration that explains how to do the fine-tuning depending on what sort of gaps you have:

 

[71_K5]

Thanks! That actually makes me feel better. I need to find a copy of that manual!

Scenario: With fenders off, the doors line up perfectly. You can gently push them and they swing shut and latch. After install the fenders, the top rear gap of the door and bed closes and the rear of the door drops to the point that the latch hits the body.

It's like the door is shoved back and down. I would have thought the opposite would happen with the fenders installed, but it is what it is.

I'll keep my eyes open for a factory manual.

Jim

 

[AJs72K5]

Getting all of the door and fender gaps even and straight is a lot of trial and error work. Lots of slow tweaking. After enough times, you start to understand what happens to all the related parts when you add a shim here or there. It's a 2.5 ton jigsaw puzzle. Took me the better part of 3 weekends to get mine straight...and the hood still needs tweaking.

 

[bp71k5]

If your rear door gap is closing, you can try two things:
1. Add more shim at the #2 position in Gregs picture.
2. Get the door gap where you want and find something to push the windshield frame towards the front of the truck while you are bolting down the fender. When you release the support, the door will drop back down some.

 

[GRINCH]

Bringing this thread back for some clarification.

Since Greg's pics got toast. Can someone clarify a couple of questions?

Is the #1 body mount the Radiator support? #2 the front floor board and #3 right behind the seat and so on?

Also does it make any difference to taper the rear mounts when trying to straighten out the B pillar. In other words if I put 5 wahers behind the seat and 4 in the next and then 3 will it help to open the gap?

From what I can tell the rear portion of the blazer dosen't really move when adding washers. The one behind the seat and the one in the floor board are the only two that make a difference.

 

[Greg72]

Check the LMC catalog for a good photo of the body mount positions....

Radiator support is NOT one of the numbered locations.

#1 = Footwell mount
#2 = Mount at edge of step up into rear seat area
#3 = Mount approx 12" back from step area
#4 = Mount approx 12" from tailgate
#5 = Mount approx 4" from tailgate


I still can't find that photo....not sure why. I've sent the "paperclip" looking for it a couple of times across my entire HDD and it comes up empty. Maybe someone else saved the image and can repost it?