Thanks to a tip from one of you, my door is now perfectly aligned and
closing. The tip was to take off all that paint the body shop painted onto
the backs of the hinges and the door and door post. The cars were
originally painted by the factory with the doors already attached, which
the body shop of course did not know. With the paint removed from the four
surfaces, and a little bit of aggressive filing on the hinge backs to slim
them down a little, the doors lined up perfectly.
Unfortunately, though the door would close, the latch was still binding a
little. So, I pulled off the latch and compared four of them I have
sitting around. I found that they were not the exact same length. So, out
came the file to shorten one further. Voila! Perfect fit, perfect close.
Thanks to all.
I decided not to try to bend the hinges. After thinking about it, I was
worried that the hinge might not bend where I wanted it to, and there would
be no way for me to undo it - since it is so darn thick. Though, I still
would have done it if the paint removal was still not enough.
Thanks again for all the advice.
Jay
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