Were Fox body doors in fact much lighter than the MN-12 doors? They have to be, I've never seen a Fox with sagging doors. I tell ya, my 90's was so jacked up, the metal around the latch broke off inside the door as well as the striker rod loosening up as well from the PO being a total moron and slamming the out of the door.
I have had six Fox Cougars/Tbirds and none have had sagging doors. The 90 SC I had for a while though was exactly as you described your car.
The mn12 seemed to be built with pier materials compared to the foxbody. Rocker panels, doors, suspension parts, odd offset rims etc. seems to me Ford was not very confident in keeping those cars around very long even though they built them from 89-97.
You know what, you are right on, now that I remember, I did think the interior plastic parts did feel rather cheap. The armrest/door pull commonly break on those. Exterior hands broke too from what I remember. The separate door pull on foxes was a much more durable design.
I've had sagging doors a lot with high mileage cars. almost always droves side.
Sagging doors are usually just the brass bushings you can buy new pins and bushings for a few bucks on egay
hardware store and help section (dormant parts) have rebuilding kits as well.
I may be wrong but the sagging mn12 doors get fixed by replacing the hinges
Yeah, I knew the problem lied in the hinge pin bushings. Also, if the door was not completely closed, the seatbelt wouldn't go to the b pilar. Oh and that was another problem, the seat belt tracks would get stripped and had to be moved to the b pillar manually, then the chime would ding constantly!! Yeah...mn-12's sucked!! Lol
My Thunderbird's door hinges are tight as can be. No sagging and no wiggle when the door is lifted from the bottom. It's got about 130K miles as well.
Now the door hinges on the 95 Thunderbird I used to own were a different story. The driver's side went bad at around 87K and 16 years old. They were somewhat of a PITA to change.
The black 88 XR7 is fine....my dad's red car needed the upper driver's hinge. Bushings were cracked apart and beaten. The door didn't have a huge amount of play, but enough to piss me off. I went to great lengths to find a take-off hinge, I think I actually *returned* one to an ebay seller because I got it and holding it in my hand I could move it just a little. Felt a little asinine to do but I reminded myself that with a probably 100+ lb door on it, with the amount of leverage they have, it would have been junk. But I can't stand the thought of one of those Dorman/HELP kits with a pin you shove in and secure with a cotter pin or snap ring. I was thankful to be able to find a hinge, so it all still looks correct.