since she came back from the body shop I can't get the passenger door to close flush. I've tried adjusting the catch but no joy. I'm a bit wary of fiddling with the hinges but it looks like that's what's needed. Anyone else had this problem and if so how did you go about it? Many thanks in advance.

 

It is the hinge, I am afraid, Brinny. The hinge nuts on the chassis, not the door, are the ones you need to loosen. There are three per hinge and they are accessible though long slotted holes in the A pillar under the ankle trim. When I had to do this, I placed a jack under the door open end and had a helper. Loosen the nuts (3 per hinge, 6 in total) just enough to be able to move their position with a bonk from the heel of your hand. In your case, on the door bottom inside, for example. If you need to adjust up and down as well as in and out, get one orientation right before doing the other.
It is trial and error and nipping up one nut on each hinge when you close the door to try it.
If it makes you feel any better after an hour's struggle to get the door right, herewith a genuine quotation from a Jagur XJS assembly line employee:
"It takes 10 minutes to fit a door properly (editor's note, ie a lifetime in car assembly terms) and then they put in the electrics and I have to do it again!"

Good luck
Greg

 

Thanks Greg. Already get the feeling this is beyond me.

 

My 1979 coupe has a slight problem, you can never quite get the door trailing edges to sit flush with the body.
They protrude maybe 2 to 3mm, not much but no matter how you try it is not possible to eliminate.
If the door seal was removed it may be possible to adjust the latch so it closes flush.
Not a good idea of course.
Kirby Palm mentions this in his XJS Book. He had a 1983 coupe and it was repainted in a body shop.
He says he asked the body shop if they could fix that door problem. They did fix it I believe by building up the panel aft of the door by the requisite amount. After painting it apparently looked the way it should have out of the factory.
My 1988 convertible does not have that problem, doors are flush all around.
It looks as though Jaguar took care of this problem some time after 1983, probably with a small change to the tooling of the body panel at the rear of the door.

 

Hi, I've got it to a point I can live with now. Not perfect but it's more to do with the rear panel than anything else.

 

I have and have always had the same issue. There was a member who had disassembled a Hess car and I looked at the photos wondering how the heck one might adjust the door on the vertical by lossening hindge bolts... I got scared and backed away. Seems on mine its the bottom of the door needs to be pushed IN. Even on house type doors I am always BEAT by door hindge mechanics, lol. I am always surprised at how THIS doesn't give me THAT. And the door ends up funny (not so funny). I want and need to make this tweak. I think my issues with window leaks might have something to do with this...?

 

JJJ
You adjust the door on the vertical by instaling shims under the hinges.

 

I see, I see... Does that mean something one rigs up, or is there actual manufactured part out there somewhere? Ok. I'm in the hunt!

 

Jay,

Post a pic of your door misalignment. Someone may be able to suggest how best to approach the problem.

Paul

 

Jay,
I think I have a door hinge and some shims from my 94.
Let me know if I can help.
Steve

 

I have never seen a factory part, but they are easy to make from steel shimstock. Just trace round a hinge and make some holes. The shim to control the vertical must be under the A pillar side of the hinge. A proud door bottom, for example is adjusted by moving the hinge's position on the A pillar or the door's position on its side of the hinge, the holes are large to accommodate such adjustment. Just loosen the hinge enough so you can whack (eg) the bottom of the door with the heel of the hand to shift it. This is a trial and error process to get it right, and when one bit is right you may well have to adjust the other one!
Note that the door catch shutting loop on the B pillar is also adjustable, in and out and up and down. Just loosen but do not undo the torx bolts on it. This adjustment controls the door shut line in and out. It also often happens that the door moves its vertical position on being shut. This is because the door catch is not aligned with the loop it fits into and the loop is forcing the door's vertical shut position. If you look carefully at the catch/loop alignment as you shut the door slowly, you can see if it is misaligned.
Finally, the pins in the hinge - the actual fulcrum in the hinge, can get worn allowing the hinge itself to have undesigned looseness.

 

Hello Paul and Steve... Good morning.

I will post a picture. This town has me going in 20 different directions at the moment (and I'm looking at a less than 4G 89xjs in Methuen Ma) but I will get to this. Basically, my door looks (or seems to look) EXACTLY like brinnys. Maybe I'll let him take the dive, first, lol...

And for the shim. Brother, I'll take ya up on that should it come to it.

Greg, I'm going to go into Google and see if I can get some pictures of these bits, parts, pieces, their angles and positions. In my minds eye I can imagine what you are saying. I FEAR the idea that it is the actual PINS in the hinge... Hmm.

I have a LOT of work to do on my door, especially the driver's side. From door card, to the hinge and positioning issue, to a failed captive nut for window adjustment (hard idea on approaching that) - then treating the inside bottom to prevent rust and,,,

BRINNY!!! Do something, would ya, lololol...

I'll be watching this thread.

BTW - the installation of the dreaded white wire seems to have gone well - it's a dreaded RED wire now... And solved (fingers crossed) the stalling and hesitation issue. Thanks y'all!

 

All I ended up doing was removing the doorcard , undo 2 of the 3 nuts on the hinges in the door. (Top and bottom) Ithen just slackened the final nut and tweaked it on the bottom hinge. I completely removed the bottom nut so I could see there was no adjustment left on the hinge. The rest I got on the door catch. I am also having trouble with my doorcard. It is the wrong one I think for a convertible and the bottom of the carpeted area is binding on the treadplate and holding the door off. Other doorcards I have seen are notched out here.

 

This is what I mean about being notched out. Mine arnt and they are binding. Haven't pursued this yet, suffice to say the ones I'm using aren't the originals and have been retrimmed. Back to nightshift for me so this will need to wait. Let us know how you get on.

 

Wow. Them are PRETTY... Is this a manufacturer?

As of late, I actually have some "private property" I can work on stuff in. Home! A beautiful thing. Sitting waiting to start a new job today - so finding new "normal" is going to be a while... But I'll get on it.

So,,,, did the method of loosing nuts inside the door as you described produce the results you were after? Did the door move, and if so, in which ways? I'm dieing to know more...