Passenger door fitment - Its messing with my head

[raKnizek]

After a windy ride on the highway I discovered that my passenger front door does not lay on the upper rubber seal properly, making it noisier than it needs to be when there is a crosswind.

I have tried everything to solve it. Adjust the door striker every which way, the door hinges themselves by replacing the centering bolts with standard fasteners. Of course I can change the alignment of the door with these methods but nothing corrected this gap. As of now I put the centering bolts back in the hinges to return it to where it was and set the striker in towards the center of the vehicle as much as possible.

I measured the gaps around every other part of the door and they are as expected. Other than this one area.

I have a 2nd 4runner so I can swap the doors and see how it fits. But before I go through that trouble I figured I would see if anyone has any other ideas.

My best guess is that the door frame itself is bent outwards at the top. It is the original door, no idea how this would happen. But you can see from the pics that the back edge is pretty flush with the rear door. If I push the door in (simulating it closing further), the gap shrinks but does not go away. If I push on the upper frame of the door only I can get it to pretty much close the gap.

You can also see that the gap along the a-pillar looks good too. This has clearly been eating away at my soul.

edit: Also I took the seal off and it is in great shape.

Looking at the door from over the hood

From the rear

A-pillar

Door gaps

Top-down showing flushness between front/rear doors.

 

[Bad Luck]

Open the door, brace the door from the inside with you knee, grab the top of the door, bend the top of the door back, check fitment and repeat as necessary.

 

[HiLife]

Also I took the seal off and it is in great shape.

Bad Luck's way would be my way of also trying to close the gap on the door.

But we are dealing with a 20+ year door seals on our rigs. And even though they may look good they may be not. I would try swapping door seals (if you can) with another rig since that is easiest to do than trying to bend metal.
If it's the same result using a different seal then I would say it's bend the door time.

 

[raKnizek]

Appreciate the feedback!

I was hoping to not have to bend the door (or ideally learn that it’s not bent) but that may be the way.

I will definitely put the seal from my other truck on just to try it out. But from what I can tell the gap itself (metal to metal) is larger in that area.

 

[phattyduck]

Bending the door that way is in the repair manual (at least, it I have seen it in other places). One good hard close with something in the way could have bent it out and otherwise not damaged it.

You can also try putting a small vacuum hose somewhere in/through one of the door seals to fatten up the seal for a better fit. First get the door to body clearance to match left to right...

-Charlie

 

[3bears]

also if a lock shop has ever had to get into the car, thye often use wedges or inflatable wedges and pry the door open enough so they can get a tool in to hit lock buttons. Im sure that bends the door a bit.

 

[Bad Luck]

also if a lock shop has ever had to get into the car, thye often use wedges or inflatable wedges and pry the door open enough so they can get a tool in to hit lock buttons. Im sure that bends the door a bit.

That's the preferred method of entry if you call a pop a lock, etc. It's the easiest way as most of them either don't know how to pick locks or it takes them awhile. I had a friend who was constantly locking his keys in his beater truck so he kept a couple door wedges and an extra antenna in his truck bed. He got really quick at it lol

 

[raKnizek]

Bending the door that way is in the repair manual (at least, it I have seen it in other places). One good hard close with something in the way could have bent it out and otherwise not damaged it.

You can also try putting a small vacuum hose somewhere in/through one of the door seals to fatten up the seal for a better fit. First get the door to body clearance to match left to right...

-Charlie

That is pretty fascinating and as a square who likes to do things "by the book" I would love to see this. I only found the striker/hinge adjustment methods in the FSM.

 

[raKnizek]

also if a lock shop has ever had to get into the car, thye often use wedges or inflatable wedges and pry the door open enough so they can get a tool in to hit lock buttons. Im sure that bends the door a bit.

Excellent point. I had not considered this but it seems totally plausible.

 

[photoleif]

i'd roll down the window first. maybe that wouldn't have any bearing on things, but it'd be random bravado-related damage i can afford to avoid.

 

[raKnizek]

after an hour of bend, check, bend, check, etc. etc. I was able to get it to this point.

Not 100% but much much better.

 

[photoleif]

hey that's great. good work on that.

 

[T4R2014]

One of my 4Runners had exactly that issue when I bought it. Keys got locked in it and they used wedges to pry the top edge to get in. Just a matter of bending it back.

 

[raKnizek]

One of my 4Runners had exactly that issue when I bought it. Keys got locked in it and they used wedges to pry the top edge to get in. Just a matter of bending it back.

Yeah it felt "wrong" to do it but it makes sense. You can see in the 1st picture of the corrected door that there is still one localized area with a gap. Probably right where the wedge was placed.