Guest subdermal Posted June 27, 2005 Share Posted June 27, 2005 This worked great on my very stubborn passenger door. I and my girlfriend both thank you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
datsunlover Posted June 28, 2005 Author Share Posted June 28, 2005 Glad to help out. A bit of an update here, it's been a while.. a few hudred door closings I guess.. And the passenger door is still perfect. (The girl freind is quite happy) My drivers door is starting to get a little hard to close (a slight slam, but not near as hard as before the mod) although I think the lower hinge/pin is to blame for these new problems. It's been dying for a while, and now I can hear/feel a 'clunk' when I open the door. I assume that with that amount of slop and play in the hinge, it's only a matter of time before it wears more and becomes missaligned. so be it, I'll replace the door pins in a few years (maybe..) when I do another body job. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest dats240 Posted November 22, 2005 Share Posted November 22, 2005 I'm trying this tomorrow. I too shattered a window because of my "stubborn" doors. I've aligned them many times and I dont have new seals. I do have a nice dent on my passenger side door above the handle from slamming from the outside with a nice "follow through" technique i've developed over the years. If this works you are truly the man. I'll let you know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrayZee Posted November 22, 2005 Share Posted November 22, 2005 Funny, this is the first time I have noticed this thread.. I have a different kind of door slamming issue.. My bodyman does know his Z's.. and after he painted my car, the doors close so easily that EVERYBODY slams my door when all it needs is a gentle push. I find it rather annoying. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
afbrian13 Posted June 20, 2006 Share Posted June 20, 2006 dats240 I have that door dent on my pass. side - above and just behind the door handle, but they came that way on my 76. Plus it is a different door than factory on that side anyway. My car came without any door panels at all, so i was excited about my parts car. good doors, very little rust, no dents, nice panels, windows work great. Then when i went to swap i learned about the hinges parts car is a 78 if anyone wants some nice doors with all the parts for a 77 or 78 blue(paint faded of course) with black door panels, armrests and all PM and maybe we could work out a deal. I don't need'm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carl Beck Posted December 17, 2006 Share Posted December 17, 2006 ....snipped.... The door has a little round cylinder with two 'bumps' on it, about 90* apart. The lower one (pointing towards the ground) hits first on the body latch, causing the cylinder to rotate and pushing the second 'bump' around/into the latch on the body. Seams to me that the past 30 years of closing the door had worn down the metal so much that the second 'bump' wasn't rolling into it's proper spot, as it was hitting the 'point' where the cutout starts. I simply ground back the little radius with a dremel and WOW! The doors close like a new car! I don't know if this is any help to anyone, but I thought it was worth posting anyway.. I'll try to get a pic to describe what I've done.. Hi datsunlover: Just an interesting side note: That first "bump" on the "latch" when new (at least on the 72 240-Z) - had a nylon sleeve on it (kind of a horse shoe shape). Over time, they either wear out or get brittle with age - crack and fall off. At one point I attempted to find a plastics shop - that could reproduce the nylon sleeve ... but the cost of the molds needed for injection molding were just too high. In the process of attempting to remove that nylon sleeve from the one good latch I had, we managed to break the original sleeve. After that nylon bumper falls off - then the metal to metal contact between the latch and the catch start to take effect. At any rate, your solution should work fine... FWIW, Carl B. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rsicard Posted February 18, 2007 Share Posted February 18, 2007 Ok, so if you know what the door piece looks like (rotating cylinder with two bumps on it) you can figure out the first one hits the area marked in blue. This causes the cylinder to rotate, 'rolling' the second bump into the small radius, and latching the door closed. The yellow line points to the spot where mine was hitting, and causing that 'clunk' sound. This point was actually smashed really bad from years of abuse, and took a small amount of grinding to fix the peand/mushroomed metal. I then realized the root of the problem; The area marked in blue had been worn over the years and was not in the correct position anymore to allow full rotation of the door cylinder. (well, I guess the door piece could be slightly worn too.. seames to be stronger metal though..) So I used the dremel tool with a small grinding stone to grind back the area in red.. about 1/16" in the end. I just took a bit off at a time, blended it in to the original rad, and closed the door till I didn't hear/feel it hitting. I assume that the 3 or more body jobs this car had over the years didn't help, and a lot of folks probly tried to adjust the latch mechanism but did a poor job, or gave up and just slammed them. At one point I peared into the door while trying to close it and saw that even though it was hitting, you could still get the door to close.. it just took a lot of force, and would actually move the whole door UP as it scraped in to place, before finally latching. I feel like a fool for not realizing this sooner, but oh well.. live and learn. Hope this helps. This writeup is right on the mark. I have a 240Z with NEW striker plates and had to slam the drivers door many times to get it to fully latch. Used this article to trim the area in Red which is absolutely right. Took striker completely off and hand mated it to the door cylinder. Found that absolutely the area in Red needs to be cut back to clear the second button on the door cylinder. Also discovered that the first tab on the striker plate is TOO TALL and must be trimmed down. NOW after trimming the area in Red and the first tab, check final fit to door cylinder with striker plate against the two button door cylinder. When it bottoms properly and fit is proper then reassemble to door jam and carefully adjust. Then the door should shut much more positively. Did all of this and drivers door shuts much much better. Will do some fine tuning today. Then will rework the passengers door striker plate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capt_furious Posted March 19, 2007 Share Posted March 19, 2007 Just a quick something to add to this: I just replaced my driver's door handle and fixed the lock mechanisim that had fallen off into the inside of the door. while I was in there, I spray-lubed everything I could possibly get at. The door, lock and handles work GREAT now. Prior to lubing everything, I'd have to slam the thing 2 - 3 times to get it to shut, and the mechanisims were 'grunchy'. Try this before modding anything, it's an easy fix and the resulting smoothness of the handles and locks are really satisfying. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twoeightythreez Posted March 19, 2007 Share Posted March 19, 2007 I was able to adjust mine so you don't have to slam them too hard, but they're still hard to open once shut. (and the doors still don't shut flush with the 1/4 panel...MSA weatherstip is way way too thick.) The 280z setup IMHO is the best one, with the GM-style striker bolt in the doorjamb. The only problem with the GM-style strikers is that once they wear you have to slam the doors hard just to get them to latch, and they still don't seat tight (so they rattle) My suburban is really bad in this matter, if you latch it on the primary latch you can't even get it to seat on the secondary..... But, at least once they latch they stay latched. I believe that once I get around to dissassembling and cleaning the latches and replacing the striker pins I'll be back in business. (I believe there is a rubber bumper inside the latch that usually wears away, the datman.co.uk site details on this...this will make doors hard to close also) For now I have to carefully make sure the doors latch (if you slam them hard the latches won't catch and the door bounces back open! It's funny to see it when someone gets a ride and then slams the door shut upon getting out, only to be hit by the door!) I also lock the doors once inside, since the stiker pins are worn the there is not enough tension on the handle and the latch can disengage on a bumpy road going fast if it's not locked. (It's happened only once, and that passenger will NEVER ride with me again..I guess the right door opening on you in a hard left can do that to a passenger already white-knuckled....) Yes, datsun door hinges are very strong. The door stayed with the car, a quick right and door latched. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rsicard Posted April 9, 2007 Share Posted April 9, 2007 I came across the Datsunlovers Door Latch recommendations. They are RIGHT ON THE MARK. I actually took off too much material on NEW latches in the area in RED. Then took off too much material off the top of the latch between the BLUE and RED areas. Carefully studied and welded back the material removed and in fact elongated the area between the two colored areas. Then very carefully formed the area in RED. Now the door latches much like it is supposed to. Just finished up today completely dissassembling the door, welding a cracking mounting area, and insulating the outer skin. Then lubed the front glass guide and reassembled the glass. Also installed NEW rubber/felt strips in the window channel removed from the door. Now the door shuts properly and the window tracks and moves rather easily up and down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goose52 Posted May 27, 2007 Share Posted May 27, 2007 Came across this thread while browsing the board and had to register so I could say thanks. I put on new Precision 1-piece door seals about 18 months ago and have been slamming the driver door so hard that my outside rearview mirror kept moving and losing adjustment. Per the photo in this thread, I checked out the striker plate and saw a small burr at the top, front corner of the tab in the blue area. Took the dremel and removed the burr, lowered the top of the tab in the blue area by just a bit, and then pushed back the red area just a tad. Door now closes almost like new ... considering 35 years of hinge wear, etc. Thanks ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pop N Wood Posted May 28, 2007 Share Posted May 28, 2007 Seems to me that extending the area in Blue OUT will do the same thing the missing nylon piece was suppose to do: Trip the latch mechanisim before the back hits the area in red. Great to know there is a fix. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NismoZ Posted November 5, 2007 Share Posted November 5, 2007 I know this sounds ghetto but you can also use some duck tape, just cut a very skinny piece about 5" long and rap it very tightly around the area the nylon piece went. worked great for me, shuts and opens like new. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikenycz Posted November 5, 2007 Share Posted November 5, 2007 Or, you can but a new latch plate!... I bought one from MSA for ~$18... solved the problem and the part was an original nissan part. Mike Nycz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terrycoxusa Posted December 11, 2007 Share Posted December 11, 2007 I followed this griding advice on my z, it made it worse. Luckily, I had a spare latch to put on. I haven't seen the nylon insert, does anyone have a photo of the latch with the insert? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NismoZ Posted December 13, 2007 Share Posted December 13, 2007 Yea you can only grind so much..The best thing to do is probably find something to replace the nylon or just buy a new latch all together. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZDreamin72 Posted May 1, 2008 Share Posted May 1, 2008 how about an issue i have with my passenger side door. it doesnt open unless you push down on the door while opening? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrumpetRhapsody Posted June 26, 2008 Share Posted June 26, 2008 Have to re-resurrect this thread, should be a sticky. This fixed my passenger door crazy-slamming issue, and tidied up my drivers door. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest imperial562@yahoo.com Posted July 8, 2008 Share Posted July 8, 2008 i love you! thank you for this.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zeerari Posted April 22, 2009 Share Posted April 22, 2009 Any long term results on this? Both my doors are now rattling badly and I like cheap fixes (if they work) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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