Front door alignment

I am nearing the end of my rebuild (link) and have now fitted the doors so I am beginning the struggle of trying to get them aligned correctly.



I have managed to get the drivers door adjusted so that it closes nicely and sits flush with the side. It is not perfect but it is a good as can be expected form a defender in my opinion. The passenger door however I am having issues with. although it closes it required a fair amount of force to close enough to latch and then has a large gap at the rear edge where it is not even touching the seal. I have tried spacing the hinge out a little form the bulkhead and this improved it slightly but still has a large gap. Can anyone enlighten me for which direction i need to move or adjust to improve the fit?

How close is the front edge to the bulkhead, do you need to shim the bulkhead back a little?

Check out Mike's Britannica Restorations videos, there are a few on door alignment, the one I have attached below mentions adjustment brackets at front of tub about 1.55 mins in. They may bring tub out a bit to align with door.

Scooby22 said:

Check out Mike's Britannica Restorations videos, there are a few on door alignment, the one I have attached below mentions adjustment brackets at front of tub about 1.55 mins in. They may bring tub out a bit to align with door.

Click to expand...

thank you for the video, I will have a look at some of his others. I have good door gaps all around I did adjust and space the bulkhead to the tub (as mentioned in the video) when I fitted the bulkhead. It will just not close all the way. I am going to try it without the seal fitted next time I am with the vehicle

Definitely align doors without the seal off as they always push out when new. It's worth making sure there aren't other areas where the door is coming up "tight..." when closing. If you have the magical 34 3/4" top & bottom you may have to open up the door shut mounting holes on the B-pillar to enable the door to pull in correctly, and then fit the door seal and final tweak the lock-to-door shut and body alignment.

Always sport lining up a new door, more so if a pattern part. Agree with the above

v8250 said:

Definitely align doors without the seal off as they always push out when new. It's worth making sure there aren't other areas where the door is coming up "tight..." when closing. If you have the magical 34 3/4" top & bottom you may have to open up the door shut mounting holes on the B-pillar to enable the door to pull in correctly, and then fit the door seal and final tweak the lock-to-door shut and body alignment.

Click to expand...

I didn't measure it but I did fit the bulkhead and adjust everything using the door (all be it the old door) as a guide to ensure it was all square and evenly spaced. Since then I have new galv doors which is what i am refitting.

As you can see in the picture the alignment is not such an issue and the gap all around looks to be about right and is even but it just wont close that final 10mm without a lot of force. I will remove the seal and see if that makes a difference and I will also have a closer look at the bulkhead end as something is compressing/catching at the hinge end and means it stops short of fully closed.

@dag019 , are the door seals original Land Rover G-grade or lower cost pseudo-OEM/Britpart grade?

Yes, I've had that problem with a friend's Land Rover. The doors shut and latched properly without the weather seal but when we put it on they wouldn't latch on the second latch no matter how hard we slammed them. They just held themselves shut precariously on the outer latch. If one of us slammed the door, and the other nudged the door shut with his buttocks in a precisely coordinated fashion we could get it to stay shut.

Fortunately, the seals don't stay this bouncy forever, and soon develop an impression of the door so will shut satisfactorily. After a few months you'll even be able to see daylight and sufficient rain will get into water the moss in the footwells.

Brown said:

Yes, I've had that problem with a friend's Land Rover. The doors shut and latched properly without the weather seal but when we put it on they wouldn't latch on the second latch no matter how hard we slammed them. They just held themselves shut precariously on the outer latch. If one of us slammed the door, and the other nudged the door shut with his buttocks in a precisely coordinated fashion we could get it to stay shut.

Fortunately, the seals don't stay this bouncy forever, and soon develop an impression of the door so will shut satisfactorily. After a few months you'll even be able to see daylight and sufficient rain will get into water the moss in the footwells.

Click to expand...

This is my expectation having left it shut for 24h in its current position. It still won’t push further closed but it now does not need forcing to get it latched.

v8250 said:

@dag019 , are the door seals original Land Rover G-grade or lower cost pseudo-OEM/Britpart grade?

Click to expand...

They are oem not genuine. I can’t remember which brand they were.

I think I will try and move the whole door rearwards and see if that improves things. As the front seems to be catching on something as it closes. If that doesn’t work I will try spacing the hinge off the bulkhead another spacers worth.

If not binding at front, or top, or bottom...slightly ease off the hinges at both the wing and the door so that they're still holding, align/close/fit the rear of door to body an striker plate. Then return to the front and tighten up. This will push the door out where it's binding. The top front and rear corners can be a pain especially if the door tops are bolted down to far inbound. Also, have recheck of the sill alignment as if too far out and combined with the sill rubber they will play havoc with door alignment.

As note, I did not fit the early sill rubber seals, I fitted the later bottom of door seals. They make for a much better door fit and waterproofing bottom of door to sill/body.

eta: if still problematic remove door tops, align door bottoms and then re-install door tops taking care of their in/out position.

Well I had another go this opening and have something I am now happy with. I spaced out the hung by another spacer and reshaped the door with some brute force and twisting. I think part of the problem was the door top as mentioned above by @v8250 but just unbolting the top and loving out was not enough. Door not closes a lot tighter although still not fully flush it is better than it was before the rebuild. And the gaps all around are not too bad either.

Sorry to hijack your thread, just have a quick question. Having watched the videos I now understand the idea of moving/tilting the bulkhead forward to rectify the misalignment problem I have, but can this be done with a fully built vehicle or do I need to whip the roof off or loosen any other bits to make the bulkhead movable?? Sorry if is a stoopid question

Red Barney said:

Sorry to hijack your thread, just have a quick question. Having watched the videos I now understand the idea of moving/tilting the bulkhead forward to rectify the misalignment problem I have, but can this be done with a fully built vehicle or do I need to whip the roof off or loosen any other bits to make the bulkhead movable?? Sorry if is a stoopid question

Click to expand...

you can do it with a fully built vehicle I did mine as it was in the pictures but things still needed a fair amount of prying to get things to adjusted and add in the required washers etc.

A length of wood and a scissor jack from B post to A post to lightly take the strain with bulkhead brackets loosened a bit until you get near where you want to be

Thanks for the replies guys, so brute force and ignorance it is then... should have known

And don't forget to losen the front wing to bulkhead bolts, and the front wing to chassis bolts. You'll run the risk of buckling the outer wings if not loose.

okay then, do I need to remove any parts to get to these bolts (inner wing or plastic shroud thing) or is it just a case of loosening them enough for some movement. don't want trash my wing as I've only just repainted it

Red Barney said:

okay then, do I need to remove any parts to get to these bolts (inner wing or plastic shroud thing) or is it just a case of loosening them enough for some movement. don't want trash my wing as I've only just repainted it

Click to expand...

Just losen all wing to bulkhead and wing to chassis bolts. You don't need big flexibility, just enough to allow the inner and outer wings to move freely with the bulkhead. Once the door gaps are set and bulkhead re-tightened you can final align and tighten the wings. It sounds a faff but just work methodically, step by step, and you'll be finished in no time.

Other point, if already assembled, is to slacken the radiator to inner-front wings bolts too so there's no pressure to wing fronts.