The Triumph Dolomite Club - Discussion Forum

The Number One Club for owners of Triumph's range of small saloons from the 1960s and 1970s.
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PostPosted: Sat Jun 05, 2021 6:59 pm 
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TDC Kent Area Organiser
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Joined: Thu Mar 07, 2019 6:00 am
Posts: 137
Location: Kent
For my next dumb question.

One of the biggest sticking points on my Sprint is the front and rear door gaps. They are ugly would be a fair description.

How much of a job is it and what type of adjustment can be obtained with the door hinges and are there any tricks of the trade relating to door alignment anyone can suggest.

I know QA/QC was not high up the list in the British Leyland factory when these cars were built so many suffer with inherent imperfections. (some of which I love).

Any advice welcome.

Cheers.

Richard.

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Sprint, ;- DBL 532V


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PostPosted: Sat Jun 05, 2021 10:31 pm 
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Joined: Tue Jan 31, 2017 4:30 pm
Posts: 58
Location: Sheffield, South Yorkshire
Hi Richard,
Door gaps is one of the things I have been trying to improve during lockdown!

If you have the original doors for your car, then you have a better chance than if not. However, as you can read on other posts, a lot of doors didn't fit right from the factory. If your doors are too big for the openings, it makes life very difficult.
Firstly you can move the hinge side up or down on the moveable plates in the hinge post, as well as inward and outward. this can make a lot of the defects less visible.If the hinge gap is parallel then you are lucky. If not it is possible to adjust that by inserting thin packers between one hinge and the hinge post. Of course this may move your door too far rearwards.
It is not easy to move a door nearer to the hinge post. I have found different hinges sometimes make a difference. It is possible to remove a hinge and bend it slightly, but it needs heat and/or a very rigid vice.
Adjusting the striker plate up/down or in/out can help to make things better overall.
It is said that at the factory doors would commonly be 'adjusted' by brute force.

It's difficult to do much more without some form of surgery.

On my car, the doors were all askew, and it has been hard work to make them fit. My doors are too big, and my sills had been fitted too high. My solution was to take a small amount off the bottoms. In addition, my nearside sill sloped upward near where it joins the rear wheel arch. I had to slit the sill and lower the sill a little towards the back. What a lot of effort for a few mm.
My rear nearside door curves didn't match my wheel arch, and I had to cut the door down to get a satisfactory result, and then reweld.
This has been a lot of hard work, and has needed cutting, welding filling and repainting, and it is still far from perfect.

If you read other members posts on the subject, most have had to resort to some sort of metalwork.

Don't get too downhearted, most dolomites have some door gap issues!

Peter.

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1978 Dolomite Sprint - Inca


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PostPosted: Sat Jun 05, 2021 10:38 pm 
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TDC Shropshire Area Organiser

Joined: Sun Aug 21, 2011 5:12 pm
Posts: 7013
Location: Highley, Shropshire
Front doors are pretty easy as they have 4 axes of adjustment, rear doors have only 3 and the missing one is that which controls the height of the rear end of the door. To get this right you may have to deploy a large hammer and a lump of timber to the fore and aft fit of the top hinge. At least, that's how I did it! A more technical solution would be to use shims but i've never seen any.

The fit of the rear door to the rear quarter panel is poor at best and tends to get worse the newer the car is. By the time the last few thousand cars were built, the press tools used on the panels were worn out, in fact, several years past their replacement date. But the car was nearly obsolete, SD2 was supposed to replace the Dolomite range in circa 1978, it's cancellation meant the car (and the knackered press tools) had to soldier on another 3 years, nobody was going to invest many thousands in tools to build what, in manufacturing terms, was a handful of panels/cars. Add in the possibility of (used) door replacement and wheel arch repair panels fitted and your chances of getting this gap spot on are negligible.

Even in the early days this shut line was problematic, see the production line pic below for an example of how NOT to do it!

Image

So take heart, bad shut lines was always a Triumph quirk, if the shut lines are perfect, it's 100% guaranteed not original!

And this was my own Vermillion Sprint, as bought in 2012. Rusty but unmolested and still with all 4 original doors.

Image

The gap was so awful I questioned the rigidity of the shell! And got told the same thing, "they're all like that mate!"

Steve

_________________
'73 2 door Toledo with Vauxhall Carlton 2.0 8v engine (The Carledo)
'78 Sprint Auto with Vauxhall Omega 2.2 16v engine (The Dolomega)
'72 Triumph 1500FWD in Slate Grey, Now with RWD and Carledo powertrain!

Maverick Triumph, Servicing, Repairs, Electrical, Recomissioning, MOT prep, Trackerjack brake fitting service.
Apprentice served Triumph Specialist for 50 years. PM for more info or quotes.


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PostPosted: Sat Jun 05, 2021 11:35 pm 
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Joined: Mon Dec 12, 2016 9:53 pm
Posts: 1699
Location: Harrow Middlesex
On my passengers front door i dont have any up and down adjustment from the latch,think it was made like that from day 1 :oops:


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PostPosted: Sun Jun 06, 2021 8:32 pm 
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TDC Shropshire Area Organiser

Joined: Sun Aug 21, 2011 5:12 pm
Posts: 7013
Location: Highley, Shropshire
Quote:
On my passengers front door i dont have any up and down adjustment from the latch,think it was made like that from day 1 :oops:
NAW! It's just the threaded catch plate corroded to the B post, try loosening the screws and shocking it free by clobbering the striker screws with a block of wood and a big Brumagem screwdriver. Or loosen the screws and use a big screwdriver through the loop of the striker to torque it free. I've a bucketful of spare striker plates if you wreck one!

Steve

_________________
'73 2 door Toledo with Vauxhall Carlton 2.0 8v engine (The Carledo)
'78 Sprint Auto with Vauxhall Omega 2.2 16v engine (The Dolomega)
'72 Triumph 1500FWD in Slate Grey, Now with RWD and Carledo powertrain!

Maverick Triumph, Servicing, Repairs, Electrical, Recomissioning, MOT prep, Trackerjack brake fitting service.
Apprentice served Triumph Specialist for 50 years. PM for more info or quotes.


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PostPosted: Sun Jun 06, 2021 9:36 pm 
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Joined: Mon Dec 12, 2016 9:53 pm
Posts: 1699
Location: Harrow Middlesex
Quote:
Quote:
On my passengers front door i dont have any up and down adjustment from the latch,think it was made like that from day 1 :oops:
NAW! It's just the threaded catch plate corroded to the B post, try loosening the screws and shocking it free by clobbering the striker screws with a block of wood and a big Brumagem screwdriver. Or loosen the screws and use a big screwdriver through the loop of the striker to torque it free. I've a bucketful of spare striker plates if you wreck one!

Steve
No the latch plate moves left,right and down,just wont go up,looks to me as if the back plate was fitted wrong from day one,all other doors move as they should,lucky for me the passenger door is aligned okay, its the rear door that will need trimming down by the wheel arch

Dave


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