[2002Z4CSS]

Originally Posted by joelbentow

I was finally able to get the door striker loose with a vice grip and a pipe wrench. Unfortunately, adjusting the striker didn't do the trick, although it may have helped a little. I suppose my next step should be adjusting the hinges. Any thoughts?

Take the stricker out all together and see if the door will close all of the way. Might be the weather stripping is too hard and keeping the door from closing all of the way or you may need to file out the hole the striker goes thru for more adjustment.

[Greg Reid]

For one thing, we could use a few more pics without so much shadow and from different angles. It does look like the bottom is sticking out more than the top but hard to tell with the hard shadow on it.

[joelbentow]

Sorry for the bad pic - a little tough to diagnose the problem with that as a reference. Yeah the bottom is sticking out a little bit more. My friend had a look and thinks we can solve it if we tilt that side of the door up a bit. The striker is hitting the locking mechanism on the top and not going through cleanly, as far as we can tell. The locking mechanism has a slight dent on top caused by the striker. We also looked on the hinge side of the door and noticed it's a bit tighter to the fender at the bottom of the door. So we think lifting the other side a bit might solve it. Hope it does at least.

[shineybike]

If you lift up on the door from the bottom do you get any play in the hinges? I just rebuilt the driver side hinges on my '68. Getting the door lined up right when re-installing is not easy and I still am not completely happy with mine. If your hinges do not need to be rebuilt I would make sure you try moving the striker or doing other things to make it work first. If your hinges have some play then it might be time to rebuild anyway and you could do that at the same time.

[joelbentow]

The hinges don't seem to have any play in them from what I remember. I'll need to check again. I tried moving the striker around and tested it out, but to no avail. I've heard it's a pain to try to get the hinges aligned right, but right now it seems to be my next step. Thanks for the info. I'll keep you posted.