Opened door and wind slammed it against the hinge stop. Now it won't seal right!!!!!

I opened the door on the new '07 Mega Cab today and a huge gust of wind pulled it out of my hand (wasn't ready for that much force) and slammed it into the hinge stop. After I was done cringing and cursing, I noticed that the hinge appears to be separated from the sheet metal it's mounted on. This has happened to me a few times with every vehicle I've ever owned.



This time though, when I went to drive home, I had a very loud wind noise from the top seal of the door. I'm sure it's because the hinge bent the thin sheet metal its mounted on and tweaked the door which now doesn't seal right. I can pull the top of the door in with my hand and make it seal while driving. This truck was quiet as a mouse before this, now I can't even hear the radio



Does anyone know if the sheet metal where the top hinge mounts to the truck can be bent back, or am I stuck having the dealer bend the top of the door into the truck to make it seal right? Man this is aggravating!



Here is a pic of the normal passenger door hinge and how it sits tightly against the sheet metal:

[/IMG]#ad




Another of the passenger side hinge:

[/IMG]#ad






Now here's the driver's side with the bent sheet metal. Notice how the rear edge of the hinge is pulled away from the mounting surface:

[/IMG]#ad




Here's another of the driver's side:

[/IMG]#ad




Hold onto your doors when it's windy!!!!

 

same thing happened to my dad the other day on his 01, he was able to make the door seal again by just loosening the bolts and adjusting the door, might try that

 

I had the same thing happen to me damn wind. I took it to body shop charged me $20 no more wind noise.

John:

 

The first time it happened to me was in Alaska. When the wind blew hard, the proceedure was to roll down the window, grasp the outside handle and the inside handle, open the door and hang on. I forgot once. That door was completely ripped from the truck. Last I saw of it, it was airborne, heading into the Bering Sea. That was 1977.

Then I did it again in 1989 while in Death Valley. Doh!!!!!!! got the door closed and could not open it again.



Your's doesn't look bad at all. A decent body shop can easily fix that for an hour or maybe two of labor.

 

Do you think they could actually fix the hinge or will they do the scary "bend the window frame back in" fix?



I ran my hand over the body panels where the fender meets the door at the forward edge of the door. Feels like the door has moved out a hair.



Thanks for the replies guys!

 

I learned after 31 yrs. on the windy north slope of Alaska to always point your truck into the wind when parking.

 

Spooled ,how of Are You From Noblesville Indiana . . just North of Indianapolis Off I-69 ,,, ITS A VERY EASY FIX

 

TGroves,



Just sent you a PM. I'm over 2 hours away? Is it easy enough to describe here? Does the door need to be removed?

 

Try wedging a piece of wood between the door and the hinge and gently push on the door until the hinge bends back in place.

 

It sort of looks like it puckered the metal outward on the truck side of the hinge. To adjust for that, you would have to loosen the door side of the hinge (hinge to door bolts)

I would first mark everything with a fine Sharpie then back off the bolts just enough to move the door inward a little, then tighten. Close the door SLOWLY making sure it's not out of whack worse someplace else. You dont want to bind the edge and booger the paint. It takes some patience, so a warm dry shop (out of the wind at least ) is nice if possible.

Work on one hinge at a time, and look at the whole door fit after each adjustment. If you get lost with it, you can go back to your marks and try later, or let a body man do it.

Good luck

The wind grabbed the door on my 94 when it was still pretty new and opened it up to 90* and maybe more. The door and fender were both wrinkled pretty good, and once I closed it, it wouldn't open again. I had to let a pro deal with it... :{

 

rwelkner ,, has the right idea piece wood or a socket with tape on it and use the door itself to bent it back flush with the body ( by closing it ) go slowly and check the outside of the door to make sure you are not benting the door shell it self . . alittle goes a long way ... if you need help i can walk you thew it just call you have my #

 

door does not have to come off

 

I tried the socket in the hinge trick. I was careful and didn't push too hard. I guess the sheet metal is too thin and all that happened was the door started riding up on the latch at the pillar. I think it just pulled the front of the hinge out. It probably would have worked if the mounting surface of the hinge was more stout.



I took it to a good body shop that has done some work for me in the past. He's really good at what he does. He loosened the door to hinge bolts and adjusted it, then he adjusted the striker loop on the pillar where the latch is and made it hit just right. Then came the scary part. He grabbed the top of the window frame (window was down) and gave it a few really good tugs. He stuck a dollar bill in the seal at the top of the door to make sure the seal was the same all the way around and we took it for a ride. We still had some wind noise and eventually did the window frame tug about 3 more times and it sealed up. The door closes a little tighter to the body now and you can see it where the rear edge of the front door meets the front edge of the rear door. If I space that out to level with the other door, I risk losing the seal at the top of the window.



I think it's something that only I'll notice, so I'm not going to mess with it anymore unless I really want to fix it the hard way.



Would it be possible someday to remove the door and take a block of wood and slowly hammer the hinge mount on the truck back in? I know this would be dicey and could be a recipie for disaster, but do you guys think it could be done?



Anyway, he only charged me $20 for the adjustment!



Thanks for all the replies and suggestions!

 

Good to hear you got things back to "normal" I had an 89 z-71 that the wind took my drivers door O - F - F! All that kept it attached to the truck was the sppeaker and power lock and window wire harness. the wind (During a Blizzard none the less) took the door and snapped the Pin on the lower hinge and the bolts for the top hinge. The door sailed into an older Toyota Fourrunner and took his passenger mirror off and creased his door pretty good.



The guy at the time come to find out worked for my seccond job boss (Office installation and snow plowing which I was getting the coffee to go to punch in. He came out and laughed his *** off while I cringed thinking of how bad duct taping the door back into place for the night was going to suck.

 

the sheetmetal where the hinge is now "oilcanned" (stretched). if you try to push it back it is only going to pop inward as much as it was outward and you care still going to have alignment issues. The only correct way to fix it is to get the metal to shrink back to original size and that is not something I would want to try.