ok when i got my car the driver side door swings open waaay farther than it should. the little metal rod that should stop is there but the holder in the door jam is broken. what would be the best way to fix this. i have a 91 sedan could i take both to a body shop and have them cut the one out of the sedan and weld it into my car. or is there a good chance the door wont close right after this? any other ideas on what to do?

 

The only fix I can think of is rewelding it. It's pretty common problem. That joint wasn't designed for the weight of the seat belts and reinforcements added later.

 

oh ha mine broke because the door got caught on a tree when my friend had it. i replaced the door and it is fine just catches the messed up fender. but im trying to fix it up from the pos it looks like now ha and dont want the door to open up and mess up a new fender i have. and when you say weld it you mean like what i said about cutting that section of the door jams out off my parts car and putting it in this one. or do i just need the 2 little prongs that come out?

 

cutting the whole section seems a lot more difficult than rewelding the tab.

post a picture to show your damage.

but really, take it to a welder or body shop and they'll have best first hand suggestion.

there's no TSB on this or anything...

 

It commonly bends and breaks away in the door jam.
Welding it back into the jam offers less than expected positive results.
Usually it just weakens and breaks again.

Cutting the area of the jam out and welding from the backside is the way to go about it.
Then you can strengthen it with more material that would look terrible/not be possible on the front side.

 

ok thanks i think i will be doing the whole section. my car already has the tabs rewelded from before he caught the door on the tree so re rewelding them would just seem like im asking for it to break. also the whole section i think will look better. ha but damn i am guessing i will be paying an arm and a leg for this... and i have taken it to a body shop and the suggested finding a car to cut it out of. but said it could get expencive with work like that. and what is TSB tyson? sorry ha not good with the short hand stuff

 

If you do a section cut, have them reinforce the area around the "hinge" before installing it.

 

I haven't done this yet but plan on it as one of my crx's has this issue, but my idea is to just cut a plate and notchbit to slide into place and weld it around. It seems like it will work and would be a lot easier. Just basically cut a small square and cut a notch from one side partially throufh so that the hinge part is centered and weld it in. I'll let you know how mine goes but probably gonna be a week or two befote i get to it. I have so many projects on these cars.

 

alright ya let me knw what you end up doing and how it turns out. when you say the "hinge" where do you mean. like the whole party of the unibody that the hinges go into? or are you just saying make sure they reinforce it behind the new section?

 

My idea is just dmooth off the old weld ans slide a small notched plate onto the yellow part of the hinge in your pic up against the fender side (hole its ripping out). If yours is like mine it stays in place to a point and that point is plenty wide to get a mig gun in. Im gonna try to get it done by next weekend and ill take acouple of step by step pics to make it more understandable.