sagging doors on 68 convertable

[pakrat]

The driver's door sags a little and I need to pull up on the handle while closing the door. Will new hinges correct this or are the several different things that could be wrong?

[68/70 Cutlass]

You may get away with just pins & bushings. Are new hinges available?

[pakrat]

Saw new hinges in Year one.

[Aron Nance]

Pakrat; nice "S"! We have one that looks very similiar, called Big Red. A good body shop man can probably readjust your driver's door fairly easily. I would strongly suggest (unless you have the experience to do so) to have it done; you can mess it up more so. Experience has taught me a lot over the years, needless to say.

[ThyPlumber]

Very easy job to in the driveway Have a buddy help you, easier with two people. I know the Parts Place in Elburn IL has a kit, I have bought it, think it was like 20 or 30 bucks.

[old98owner]

A fast way to tell if this is a big problem or a little one is to open the passenger door and see if it does the same thing. If it does then you might have a rusted through frame.

If the passenger door is OK then you need to replace or rebush the drivers' door hinges.

Be careful if you do this yourself. Doors are very heavy and clusmy when you are dealing with them off the car.

Replacing hinges and bushings on two door cars is a common thing as they have so much weight to support. Mercedes even made some 1960's two door cars with aluminum doors to make the hinges last longer.

[ThyPlumber]

Easy fix in the drive way, I got a kit from The Parts Place in Elburn, IL have a buddy help you with it. It only took us 20 minutes for both doors they line up perfect.

[pakrat]

Thanks for the info. It's just the driver's door that sags a bit, but it bothers the heck out of me.

[wolfman98]

Get a buddy to help by lifting up uo the bottom end of the door while it's open. You can look to see if it may just need just the kit as bushings are the most common reason. That would be why it is only the driver's door as it would have been open and closed 5 times as much as passenger side.

[bittersweet71]

Fusick has those kits for $8.50 per door!

[wolfman98]

Teah and it would be a cheap fix , but I learned the hard way that it is a 2 man job and that was on a small car.

[tpawlik]

If you mark the original location of the hinge with masking tape, at either the jamb or the door, which ever is easiest to get at, it will make reinstalling the door a LOT easier. I know because I have done it both ways, with and without the tape!

[Redog]

Just make sure that the door lines up then.

I did this to my 92 Cougar back in the day

[ijasond]

Originally Posted by old98owner

A fast way to tell if this is a big problem or a little one is to open the passenger door and see if it does the same thing. If it does then you might have a rusted through frame.

Sagging doors = rusted through frame?

Originally Posted by old98owner

If the passenger door is OK then you need to replace or rebush the drivers' door hinges.

I would not look at the passenger door to determine the best fix for a problem that exists on the driver door.

Originally Posted by old98owner

Doors are very heavy...

I'd say this is more likely to be the cause of the problem than a "rusted through frame"


Get the bushing kit, but in the mean time you can use a floor jack and a piece of 2x4 about 3 feet long to push that door up a bit(use the 2x4 under the bottom of the door to spread the load so you don't just bend the adge of the door). This may seem like a half-assed solution to the problem, but sometimes doors are so heavy that over time they sag, not necessarily as a result of bad parts. Anyone who has owned a chevy truck in the last 20 years probably knows about this. A door that's allowed to sag will end up damaging the latch, the striker, then it will start rubbing the top of the rocker.