68-69 glove box door hard to open?

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Old January 10th, 2020, 07:40 PM
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68-69 glove box door hard to open?

What’s the secret to glove box door adjustment? My door has never fit well, and requires 2 hands to open; one to push the latch button, the other to pull the door open. I have done a little brainstorming, I have considered adding a spring to either the dash or the door limiting arm to help pop the door open. But before I attempt to re-engineer things, I’m curious if this is typical of the 68-69 cars, or just my adjustment
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Old January 11th, 2020, 08:57 AM
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My parents bought a brand new 1968 Vista, and to this day I remember how difficult it was to open that glovebox. My dad complained about it constantly, especially as compared to the glove box in the 65 F85 that we also owned at the time. Just a poor design.
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Old January 11th, 2020, 08:00 PM
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Kinda what I figured. As innovative and talented Olds engineers were, they really dropped the ball with that design.
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Old January 12th, 2020, 08:50 AM
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I used to have trouble with mine as well. I corrected it by realigning the door in the dash. There are lateral (fore and aft, not side to side) and vertical adjustments that can be made. Lateral adjustment is accomplished with the screws on the hinge/dash side. Vertical on the hinge/door side. When in the right position - you push the button, and as you release the button, the door just follows, smooth as silk. Admittedly it took a few iterations to get it just right. But once done - Voila! and Serenity One other thing, the lock cylinder must perform flawlessly for this to work correctly.
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Old January 12th, 2020, 06:56 PM
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When I’m ready to put the dash back together I’ll play around with it again. I suppose taking apart the lock for a through cleaning and lube isn’t a bad idea.
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Old January 12th, 2020, 07:00 PM
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The one in my '68 has always fit fine and opened fine. My '69 is a bit of another story. It opens fine but the fit is lousy - the upper left edge sticks out and there doesn't seem to be any way to make it fit more uniformly to the dash at that corner.

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Old January 13th, 2020, 04:06 AM
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Originally Posted by rcorrigan5
The one in my '68 has always fit fine and opened fine. My '69 is a bit of another story. It opens fine but the fit is lousy - the upper left edge sticks out and there doesn't seem to be any way to make it fit more uniformly to the dash at that corner.

Randy C.

this is exactly the way my car is! I’m pretty sure the dash and glove box door is the same, with the exception of the ignition key in the dash. There is a hole in the metal reinforcement for the ignition switch on my dash. If this is the case, what is different with the 68 cars?? I have several glove box doors, some from vista cruiser, cutlass and F85 parts cars. I’m going to try them all and paint whatever seems to fit best.
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Old January 13th, 2020, 05:13 AM
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Mine does the same thing. Not sure if it's a lock thing or misalignment, or combination of the two. I'm not even going to worry about it anymore.

Only difference I've noticed between 68 and 69 glovebox doors is the molded indentation around the lock. IIRC, it's a small indentation around the 68, and the 69 version has a wider indentation. The locks along with everything else appears to be the same, though. Look carefully at the lock area here and you can see what I can't explain very well. If there are any other differences, I'm not aware of them.

1968:


1969:


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