Suburban Barn Door Alignment

[bkcole2]

I have pulled the barn doors off the back of my 86 Suburban due to two reasons. 1.) I am getting exhaust fumes in the cab and I think they might be coming in from the back and 2.) they leak water and rattle terribly bad. The seals were hard and brittle and currently have no sealing properties to them. The door gaps on all of my doors are terrible but the back doors were especially bad. The doors are nearly touching the left and right side of the body, just barely not rubbing. I removed the doors with the hinges still attached to doors. I really don't see a good way to shim the door out. There is no way I can see to get the shims in and bolt the door up at the same time. Nor can I find any shims that fit these hinges. My thought was to glue some washers on the hinge with some Gasga cinch and try to insert them with out knocking them off. Am I missing something here? Any help is appreciated.

 

[Wes Harden]

I have been struggling with mine as well. I really have to slam hard to get the right door to seal then the button is very hard to push. My passenger door was cut for 6x9 speaker, I put washers between the hinge and the door and it helped in my situation, I need to do the same to the driver's side. No hole on that side yet .

 

[CT-BLAZER]

Is it beyond adjustment issue..... Are the bodies flexing and the side posts losing structural support?

 

[flatland]

This is one of my next tasks.

In my case the hinges appear to be bent, possibly from overenthusiastic opening. This allows my doors to gap in the middle. I am going to remove the hinges and "de-bend" them with an anvil and hammer to adjust the gap.

If you need to shim, you may have an easier time cutting and drilling a shim plate out of appropriate metal, (20g,18g, 1/8 etc), matching the hinge profile and holes, and using a strong but removable adhesive or sealer to stick it to the hinge. This would seem easier than keeping separate washers from falling off on reassembly, and ease sealing the area as well.

Let us know how this goes for you, I am always looking for experience to borrow!
(Sometimes earning it myself is rough on me!)

 

[Barrman]

Those stupid doors! I had mine perfectly lined up on the outside, they closed solid, unlocked with barely a touch and were basically wonderful. Then, I added new weatherstripping. No matter what I did I couldn’t make them open and close correctly and be lined up panel gap wise. I tried and tried. Finally, I just accepted that 2 out of 3 was ok. Open/close and rain proof without looking like they are even closed from the outside. 7 years of no leaks or rattles later and they still look terrible from the outside. But, I’m not touching them again.

 

[imiceman44]

Is it beyond adjustment issue..... Are the bodies flexing and the side posts losing structural support?

That's what mine does.
I have plans for some bracing with a cage and get it as squared off as possible then fine tune with shims