[Tigers] Door Alignment

[Jay]

And another warning.  The hinges and doors were already assembled before the car was originally painted.  So if you have them all removed before your layers of primer and paint (and not just one layer, but 4 surfaces of layers and paint), you will effectively be pushing the doors backwards with all that added thickness.  Mine ended up so much that I had to sand it all down and redo it.

> On May 20, 2026, at 2:47 PM, Jay Laifman <jay.laifman at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> The hinge is a wedge.  So as you mount it sliding out it pushes the door back, and of course sliding in will push the door forward.  And if you do the top and bottom hinge differently, it will angle the door up or down depending on what you do.  Don’t bend anything!  Just need to slide them correctly.  
> 
>> On May 20, 2026, at 1:26 PM, Tom Witt via Tigers <tigers at autox.team.net> wrote:
>> 
>> 
>>  I'm dealing with the 101 final steps before I begin to primer my Tiger. The drivers door has always had decent alignment for a 60's British car when closed (picture 1). And closure took little effort.
>> 
>>  Today I removed the door latch and when I closed the door the alignment was significantly off, about 3/16" to 1/4" at the upper edge (picture 2). A secondary, possibly contributing issue is the window channel gap was inconsistent (picture 3) thus I had attempted to make the pieces parallel. After I had bent those then I noticed the elevated gap on the latch end. Assuming it was the parallel work on the door channel that was causing the problem I bent it back where it was. Predominantly the gap (upward elevation) at the door latch was still off. And putting pressure on the door gap to increase it (even beyond where it was) did not help. Therefore it is my assumption that trying to fix the window channel gap is not the greater cause. It was the removal of the latch that is causing the problem.
>> 
>>  Curious I re-installed the latch, closed the door and the alignment was the same, decent, closes relatively easy as it had been for the past 26 years. BTW, the car is on jackstands but they are under the axles (not the frame) so the car is and has been "loaded" as it would sit on the road the past 26 years.
>> 
>>  SOOOooo..., my question is, it this typical? Is the upward rise at the latch end of the door intentional (and corrected to alignment when closed at the latch) perhaps to help reduce door rattle? I had considered shims on the hinges for better alignment but the screws won't come loose even with an impact screwdriver. I'm willing to live with it because when the door is closed all is good. This is no show car. Just a basket case Tiger being made serviceable. But I wanted to know other peoples experience.
>> 
>> 
>> <GiAJjtv3DCCKjsNE.png>
>>  
>> <8nmRWT7U5I0EPuCL.png>
>> 
>> 
>> <u4M0amNGzrmJNdso.png>
>> 
>> _______________________________________________
>> 
>> tigers at autox.team.net
>> 
>> Donate: http://www.team.net/donate.html
>> Archive: http://www.team.net/pipermail/tigers http://autox.team.net/archive
>> 
>> Unsubscribe: http://autox.team.net/mailman/options/tigers/jay.laifman@gmail.com
>> 
>> 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://autox.team.net/pipermail/tigers/attachments/20260520/15c85f1c/attachment.htm>