Best way to adjust the GTM doors?

[KGTM]

Anyone has the good method/recommendation of adjusting the door to Body on GTM?

Thanks,
Mostafa

[LCD Gauges]

Contact Shane (VraptorSpeedworks), or Presto51 on this forum

[VRaptor SpeedWorks, LLC]

I've done several write-ups on both forums concerning this if you can find them. If you already have your door installed/hinged/latched.......the two 1/2" carriage bolts that hold the door frame to the hinge plate adjust your vertical and front-to-rear position and angle of the door. The two 5/16" carriage bolts at the very front of the door adjust your door in/out at the front. The door striker is used to adjust your vertical adjustment of the rear position of the door. The two 1/4" bolts that hold the door latch plate to the door shell adjust your in/out position of the rear of the door and you can also "twist" the rear of the door shell on these 2 bolts if you only need to move the top or bottom of the door in or out.

[KGTM]

Thanks Guys,

So hard to do this with one person..., you loose one thing everything moves.

using the sticker for rear height adjustment is crazy but may be for very small tuning will work, so the back door sort of seats on the sticker?

[VRaptor SpeedWorks, LLC]

Yes, the position of the rear of the door is completely dependent on the position of the latch striker. That is why there is a vertical slot in the striker bracket on the chassis....that is your vertical adjustment for the door. I use a ton of the large craft sticks (large wooden popsicle sticks) or wood paint sticks for stuff like this. With the two 1/2" carriage bolts that adjust the fore-aft/up down/angle of the door....yes, getting and keeping an adjustment or making small adjustments in only the direction you want to go is nearly impossible. Once I get the door close to where it needs to be, if I need to make an adjustment at the front of the door, I will wedge some sticks between the bottom edge of the door and the body at both the front and back of the door with the door closed and latched. Reach in thru the window or windshield opening to loosen those 2 bolts and the sticks will prevent the door from just falling down. Loosen the bolts just enough that you can make your adjustment. Many times I'll loosen them up just enough so I can take a hammer and punch and tap on the door frame right at the bolt location to slightly move the door frame in relation to the hinge plate. If you need to move the rear of the door up or down, get a helper and loosen up the bolts just enough to move and have your helper unlatch the door and open it just far enough to lift up on the rear of the door to move it and then reach in and tighten your bolts. Again....that's with the wooden sticks forced under the front of the door so you don't lose your vertical position and you are only having to worry about adjusting one thing at a time.

Another tip before you get too far. I always grind some of the square portion of the carriage bolts off. This is a requirement for every GTM door. If you do not grind off the top portion of the square part of the carriage bolt (the part closest to the threads), when you are tightening the nut, all you're really doing is tightening the slot in the door frame up against the square part of the carriage bolt....which means there is no tension holding the door frame to the hinge plate.....which means your door will constantly fall out of adjustment no matter how tight you tighten the nuts. Since the hinge plate and door frame slots are not at a 90 degree angle to each other, you're trying to put a square peg thru a diamond shaped hole....it simply doesn't work.

[Presto51]

Follow Shane's advice.

The only item/note to his procedure, is to not get too involved with the window post at the back of the doors. The ones that I've been involved in, needed to have some cutting and movement, to reshape it, to allow it to follow the body contour at the rear quarter glass area.

Ron

[VRaptor SpeedWorks, LLC]

Ron has an excellent point....and in my experience, whether the door B-pillar will match the profile of the body or not is very largely dependent on how the door shell was stored. For example, if the door was stored by laying the door down on a shelf or the floor with the outside of the door up....and the tip of the B-pillar bearing the weight of the door shell, the B-pillar will be warped out and will no longer match the profile of the body. The opposite is also true. We try to store the door shells standing up like they are on the car with nothing touching the B-pillar.

Also, when you are making your door adjustments....make sure that the door ONLY contacts the car at the latch/striker and the front hinges. If the door is making contact anywhere else, the fitment/adjustment that you achieve will all change once you properly gap the door to the body. Where the rear window regulator bolts up at the bottom of the door is a common problem area where the bolt you use will hit the body with the door closed and hold the bottom of the door out away from the body.

[KGTM]

Thanks Guy, great Hints, just need it close, there is so much more for me to get done VS small stuff, but right now is not good enough yet, need to get one more hand for a day.