CrashMan82

The wind caught the driver's door while my wife had the car today and snapped it open.

She said "there's nothing wrong, it's just makes a little click now"

Well it's dark out and I went to take a look anyway... looks that 'click' is the door panel rubbing against the quarter panel and popping when it gets past...

Not being able to see the hinges/plate/post in the dark, is it something I'm going to be able to do on my own or is it body shop time? Has anyone tried to realign their door?

courthousedeb

I looked thru my pics to see if I had any of my car with the door open and hinges visible, but can't find any. I'll keep looking and see if I can find something.

stick

I would think that if it moved one way cause of the wind you should be able to move it back. Not a job you can probably do by yourself, but doable. Get a friend and make yourself a sizer, for lack of better word, to keep the door gap the same. Make it fit around you good door. Make it fit like you think it should and tighten snugly and shut the door carefully. If it needs adjusted again loosen and move. Be patient and careful and you should be okay. Look also at the bolts on the hinges, see if there is any paint scratched there. It may be easiest to just realign the bolts into their original location from the scratched paint. Good luck to ya

courthousedeb

Here's a picture I found of the back door open with the hinges showing. I have it on my hard drive and right clicked and zoomed in on it...not sure if thi will help, but worth a try.

guitarman

Nice lookin ride Deb hope to get a good look at it soon and i thank you for the help

chooch

I would pop into a bodyshop and see if somebody there can do you a little favor and pull the fender out for you (if thats the problem). I think if you attempt to do it yourself and/or just let it continue as is...your gonna chip your paint. Who knows, maybe a kind hearted bodyshop guy can just do a easy fix and you can flip him $10 for his lunch as a token of appreciation. (just saw the picture of deb's car...its the rear door! still..let the bodyshop do its thing)

Harpozep

Sorry to hear of this. Likely some tweaking at the body shop.

I had the door ripped out from my hand by the wind and slammed into a brick wall The wall stopped the kind of metal bending that likely occurred on your HHR but the door hitting the wall was not a good thing. Now we have a bit too much plastic chrome bordering all the doors. Looks like Tron, but it keeps the scrapes away.
I'm looking for some clear edge guards

CrashMan82

Thanks folks, I did go back out with a flashlight and it does look like the door's just shifted forward 1/4" or so. There's no gap between the front of the door and the quarter panel and about a 1/2" gap between the drivers door and the back door :)

The bolts on the top hinge plate look like a pain in the ass to get at though... we'll see how it goes.

CrashMan82

Stick, I was thinking the same about 'paint marks', and oddly enough I don't see any... for such an agressive move (easily 1/8" to 1/4" ) I was sure I'd see where they used to be.

That top hinge looks like a rel nuckle buster... I'm not looking forward to it but something so simple I'm not inclined to pay the dealer to do it for me either :)

CrashMan82

Well I did it and it wasn't too bad.

It is a 2 person job for sure...

It's very tight quarters so a 3/8" socket isn't possible for any of the hinge bolts, the tool of choice was a 13mm closed head ratchiting wrench.

Backed off all 4 bolts, set the gap at the bottom. My wife held the door in place while I tightened the bottom hinge bolts. Then we swapped.

Open the hood, close the door over and set the gap relative to the back door. TIghten the bolts through the opening you've got with the hood open.

In the end, my gap's better than the factor gap on the passenger side