Help! door alignment issue on my 71 blazer.

[chevy111]

Im in the process of trying to align my doors on my 71 blazer and have found that my drivers side door wont line up. I have new hinges and have tried everything to align it. It is hitting on the top of the piller against the window frame. There is a large gap (about 1/2 inch) in the bottom corner against the qrtr panel. Its as if the body has sagged or twisted a little. The passanger side door lines up perfect. I have had the hard top and the doors removed for some time to restore it. Could this cause the body to sag? Any sugestions on getting the body aligned. Should I install the hard top. I have a set of poly body mount bushings. Could these help? Could I jack the body up a little? Any help appreciated.

 

[vtblazer]

Yes, put the hard top back on and start over from there.

The hard top will retain the correct placement for the firewall/windshield frame and give you a 'base' to work from.

Picks would help but if I were to guess I'd say the body mounts under the firewall may be the cause.

 

[chevy111]

Im going to try that probably next week. Its stormin right now so Im waiting for better weather. Im going to change out the body mounts and throw the top on before I try to allign them again. I know the body mounts are original. The truck was pretty much untouched when I bought it.

 

[bouncytruck]

I'm sure your body mounts are shot. The driver's side might be worse than the passenger. It would probably be best to put the top on and replace the body mounts, then see where the door alignment is at.

 

[chevy111]

Yeah I started doing the mounts today. Man what a hassle. All the bolts had some weld on the tops. Is this factory? The front cab bolts were down into the floor so I couldn't hit the welds with my grinder. So I have to leave them. They arent nearly as rusted as the other bolts. The others were missing about half their structure to rust so I have to order new ones. Good thing LMC has them. I also had to widen the holes on the new mount washers to fit them. That was fun seeing I didn't have a drill bit large enough so I had to use the sides of the bit to round them out enough. Im also in the middle of doing body work on the right rear qrtr so this is just a side track right now. I didn't plan on replacing the body mounts till it was painted.

 

[bouncytruck]

Sounds like fun. I'm dreading doing my body mounts. I'm pretty sure they need replacing.

 

[70jimmy]

Yep its a pain to do but sure nice when finished. Made mine ride a lot better and got rid of a ton of squeaks.

I cut mine from the bottom and hit the heads with a grinder held sideways on the welds. Still scarred the floor some but you cant tell with the spray in bedliner.

 

[chevy111]

I was thinking of using my rotary tool too get into the tight spot. Dont make sense to me why they slaped welds on them. I have purchased a new part for about anything you can unbolt. I have atleast 6k in parts out in the garage for it. I will be trying to put the top on probably this weekend if it doesn't rain. Thats if i get my bolts before then. I may have to put it off till next weekend. Now that I basically have all the mounts off im tempted to pull the frame out and restore it. only thing left on the truck is the tub. Everything else is removed (front clip, engine, doors, tail gate, all the interior).

 

[vtblazer]

Now that I basically have all the mounts off im tempted to pull the frame out and restore it. only thing left on the truck is the tub. Everything else is removed (front clip, engine, doors, tail gate, all the interior).

Yep, that's how it starts...

Alot of full blown restorations started out as "I'll just fix this"

 

[bp71k5]

If you happen to take any pics or learn how to line it up well, I've love to see them since I have the same problem and am getting to the point where I will be trying to fix it.

Plus I have about 3/4" of droop on one back corner of the bed. (one side is higher than the other in the back).

I have a new poly mount set too. I'd love to know how much shimming you end up doing to get it to sit level. Somehow I think my frame is tweaked since I doubt they ever needed to shim 3/4" in the factory.

 

[chevy111]

Yeah Ill have to post some when i get it done. I have alrady started doing on it. I ran into the bolts being really rusted so I orded some more. It might be a few weeks before I get the doors aligned because Im going to paint the jams and bed first. I dont think Ill need to shim any. The truck sat straight before and there is no shims on the old mounts. You may have a tweaked frame.