Hi all,

The doors on my 72 Delta 88 two door take a lot of momentum to close & latch the whole way. They are not sagging at all. Am I just not used to this car, I've always had 4 door cars. Shorter doors.

Maybe time to hit the gym???

Any thoughts?

Thanks,
Kensey
Pittsburgh, PA

 

Try checking for wear around the lower door pins and hinge wear by having someone watch for movement in that area while you try with all your might,to lift the back part of the door up then down while door is fully opened . If no wear is detected and they are properly adjusted to match the latches ,they should not be that hard to shut. Hope that helps,Larry

 

When I was the body shop manager at the Olds dealer here in town, we had many latches and hinges get really crusty with dirt and grim. We would clean them with a degreaser and hose them off then use wd-40 and irrigate them. then a later of spray lithium. made a huge difference.

Just my 2 cents
Larry

 

The doors may have gotten replacement weatherstrip before your purchase. Some manufacturers make their weatherstrip too firm and it becomes difficult to close the door.

 

I just put new soft seal weather strips on my 66 442 and the doors are quite a bit stiffer to close than the old ones. I suppose they will compress some as they age.

 

Might help if you clarify, are they hard to swing on the hinge or hard to shut to the car?

 

They swing just fine, and really don't seem to be sagging at all. You just have to slam them to shut the whole way. Gonna start by cleaning the latches out, and lubing. Hopefully it's that easy, usually not when it's me though.

 

X10 on the clean and lube trick. 46 years worth of grit grime and old hard grease needs some service. Pull the assemblies out of the door, soak in parts cleaner, brass wire brush, compressed air dry, re-lube, reinstall. Slight adjustment of the jamb pin could be required.
Check for play in the hinge bushings with the door fully open and almost parallel with the rear quarter.

 

I had to adjust the driver's door a lot and the pass door not so much. The driver's door had to be slammed to get it to latch, so much so the upper door jam bump rubber had cracked the metal around it on the door, and had to be straightened and welded. The striker bolt was poorly adjusted, worn and the sleeve missing.
Like yours, my hinges and pins were also ok with no movement.

To fix the problem I replaced the two inexpensive door striker bolts (Dorman 38420 Door Striker Bolt) and adjusted them until the door latched easily. Then using the trial and error method, adjusted them until the door closed inline with the body. I remember there was some CRCbrakeclean sprayed liberally in the latches and WD40 or similar after they were freed up. I didn't take the latches out of the doors to do it. Just make sure you have the windows up before you spray anything in the latch..

I also replaced the cheap little door jam bump rubbers as they were hard and cracked, broken. Nearly all GM cars of the era use them so they're easy to find but there are two thicknesses. Our 88's take the thicker one.
The new door seals made them a little firmer to close, but the weight of the door does the job for you really.

Your doors shouldn't be hard to close.