Door Insert Install - Huge Gap - WTF?

[chuzie]

Check out these pics and tell me, is it my rig or the door inserts?
There is a significant amount of gap both fore and aft at the top between the insert and body as if my Bronco were saging both front and rear and the pivot point is the the doors.

I need suggestions please.

[70EB]

What are the measurement at the top and bottom of the door openings? I would start there. If the top is significantly wider than the bottom, I would look at your mid-body mounts and the body mounts in the footwells.

Sometimes you can also tweak the gaps with the bodymounts.

Bill

[chuzie]

Topmeasures larger than bottom. So body mounts are the fix? At least I don't have a frame issue.

So I either need to shim up the front and rear mounts or shave a bit off the mid-body and footwell mounts. Sounds like fun. I am sure it will be even more fun trying to get both the driver and passenger side tweaked to match correctly.

[Timstrk]

Measure the top and bottom of the insert, too. It is more likely the insert is tipped in at the top. You may be able to relieve some of that with a heat gun and pressure.

Tim

[70EB]

Are your body mounts old/original? That right there might be the issue and causing the sag. Might be time to get new ones (I used the WH ones with the integrated 1" BL)

[chuzie]

My body mounts are the blue ones from duffs and are not older than 10 years and I am somewhat confident i am pretty rust free (to my knowledge).

Tim called me last night and we talked it out for a while and came to a possible conclusion. As he mentioned previously, the fiberglass doors may be to blame. They have been sitting since 2005 mostly in the southern heat in the shed. Measured the body and the two posts are parallel +/- 1/8". Maybe I will try heating the inserts up but I have only a propane torch. I guess I could try a hair dryer.

[broncomatt]

I would start with washers as bushings to try and flex the body in the correct direction. With age these bodys seem to flex apart in the door area. I have braces welded to my cage to stiffen my failing tub. It is one of the reasons I am working on the replacement body.
Broncomatt

[chuzie]

My doors used to close, I think. They quickly got worse but I attributed it to the lack of windshield support with no top/doors for so long and worn hinges.

With both posts measuring parallel I can't see how my body is out of whack.

I tried using my little propane torch yesterday and it just does not soak the insert enough to work with for any amount of time. I think I need one of those directional propane space heaters on it for an hour or so.

I am not a body guy so there is going to be a rather large learning curve for this project which I thought was going to be a bolt on deal.

[chuzie]

Ok the measurements came out to 32 15/16" Frt, mid, and aft. So body is good to go.

Wildhorses 4x4 should put some good to know literature in their packaging regarding long term storage since I am a dummy and did not know fiberglass would creep over time. Heck it has only been 4 years

[chuzie]

Got one mostly installed. Managed to get rid of most of the gap on both sides and attached the backing plates to the fiberglass. Just need to secure them to the body and that is that.

If you look at the pics you can see how these inserts do not have straight sides. That is certainly not because they were stored for a few years. That is from the manufacturer. Pretty poor craftsmanship if you ask me. Look how it bows in towards the middle. Not too impressed WH4x4. You can do better than that for $650.00!!!