alright i got the new door on and it works fine. problem is the edge of the fender where it is closest to the door got bent by the old door so that i cant open the new door more than a few inches.there is barely any contact but its enough not to let it open. if i pull it past that it when warp the door. guy at the advance said to unbolt the fender and pull it forward a bit. i was gonna do that but theres no room to pull it forward. then i thought about going in through the wheel well but i would have to pull the tire to get it out i think, and i'm not quite ready to do that. i cant take the door back off and do it that way either. did i mention its 9 days overdue for inspection and i still have to drive it? any help would be very much appreciated.

 

this should be plan F
can u access the rear/inside of the fender? and can u bondo and paint? if so then u can drill a 3/8" hole in the center of the area on the fender and pull it out. if u dont have a puller dont threat.get a long bolt and some wide washers, a nut. and a few small pieces of wood. create a wide frame in the shape of an upsidedown "U" with the three pieces of wood. drill a hole in the center of the topside of the frame. start the bolt with a washer through the frame and into the hole in the fender. start the nut and another washer on the bolt/ on the inside of the fender. then take a ratchet and tighten the bolt untill u reach enough clearance to fully open the door. and if the frame is built well enough u just got urself a nice homemade dentpuller!

now u just have to bondo the hole and paint
or there is always Billy Mays, hahaha

 

How does the gap look from the outside? We have had to massage the gaps on my dad's truck due to someone running into things. Anyway, we've always been able to pull the fender out with a prybar and some thin wood to protect the paint... But this was on a farm truck were the paint is the least of our concerns...

 

What about shimming the door hinges, is that a possibility?

 

ok with a little yanking on the fender i got a quick fix. the door will open but it makes a loud pooping. kinda embarrassing but i dont really care. anyways sometime soon i'm gonna fix it completely . thanks for the suggestions.
got it inspected today. it passed but the guy said they had to finnagle some stuff. he also said that i have a leaky right rear wheel cylinder. he said its not really an urgent problem but lubricants and brake pads dont mix. i asked and he said i might be able to fix it myself.have yall ever done that? can i and how would i?

 

wheel cyliners aren't hard at all, get urself a haynes manuel to guide urself through the process.

 

Wheel cylindars aint bad.
They are like $10 each. The hardest part is the brake line attached to it. 9/10 the line is rusted in place and will break off. No big deal. Most autoparts stores carry straight brake line and you can bend up a new one by hand. Buy a brake line clamp and put it on the rubber brake line running down to the rear axle. This will stop the brake fluid from draining out while you do the repairs. Do NOT use vise grips or any other type of pliers, the teeth and the jaws will colapse the inside of the brake line and then you will be replacing it too.

Buy the Hanyes manual.
I'll skip all the steps, should be in the repair manual.
Here's some tips for ya, they aint in the manual.
You may have to beat the tire off the drum, use a hammer and block of wood on the back side of the rim, leave one lug nut on loosely so the wheel doesn' go flying across the garage. Bigger the hammer the better.

Spray PB Blaster around the center section of the drum, and around all the lug nuts. turn the drum as you spray. This will help free up the rust bond between the drum and axle face. Put your lug nuts on the very end of hte lug studs. You want to protect the threads for the next step. Take a ball peen hammer and use the peen end to pound on the drum. Beat the crap out of it between all the lug nuts. You will know when the rust bond has been broken, the drum will pop back at you. Slide it off. Sometimes it takes a heck of a beating, protect those lug studs and dont bogger up those threads. Altough replaceing a lug stud isn't hard, jsut another expense. Couple bucks each.

Use brake cleaner to clean all the brake dust off the brake parts. Do you need new pads? If so replace all the hardare too. Get plenty of brake grease.

Spray the heck out ot hte bolts holding the wheel cylindar in place, and the hard brake line. Tap them with a hammer and spray again. Wouldn't hur tto spray them before you beat on the drum. Everytime you spray the drum, spray the wheel clyindar too.

Now comes the monent of truth. Slowely work the hard brake line fitting out. unscrew, screw, spray PB Blaster. Your eating the rust off the threads and under the nut by the flare. The nut should turn while the line stays put. If your extrmely carefull you can get a rusted one off and salvage it. however for $5 you can buy a new hard line at the autoparts store.Take the old line with you, if the closest one is longer, no big deal. I use a liquid laundry detergent bottle cap and wrpa the extra around the cap. Makes nice 3" circles. Put hte circles just before the wheel cylindar. You can roll the circle by hand if your carefull. By roll it I mena you cna make itmove up and down the hard line. If you kink the line, scrap it and buy a new one. Practice bending on the old hardline. Try to make a few 90degree bends, and a loop or two. The line is pretty soft and pliable.

If your brake hard ware is new, reuse it. If not, replace it. Might as well do a complete brake job while your there. Like the inspector said, brake fluid and brake pads are not friends. No doubt you will have a squek fi you dont clena everything up well. One can of brake cleaner per wheel.

Dont foget to bleed the brakes.

And for the cost of wheel cylindars and hard line. I do both sides of the axle at the same time.

If oyu have problems or have questions post up. if you let me know in advange I can give you my cell number and you can call me the day of.

 

first of all thanks a lot.
second, my dad was saying that the brake lines are metal tubing and relatively fragile. he said thats the tricky part is not messing up the brake line. is that the same thing you were talking about?? i've been doing front brakes for years but i've never doner rear brakes so i'm not very comfortable jumping in over my head there. plus we had the rear brakes rebuilt a little while back if that makes a difference.
thanks again.

 

Yes, if things are corroded together, you can very easily twist the brake line. I would recommend that you soak down the area where the brake line goes into the wheel cylinder once or twice a day for a week before doing the replacement with some penetrating oil.

You may also want to invest in a set of line wrenches.

 

Yep, that's what I was talking about.
The hardest part about rear brakes is getting the springs on.
Do one side at a time, the drivers side is oppostie of the passengers side. When you forget how everything goes back togehter, go look at the other side. Just remeber its backwards. Look at them both before you take anything apart. You'll see what I mean. Plus if your dad knows that about brake lines, he no doubt can help you.