Door hinge question?

[Rusty66coupe]

Just kicking around the idea of rebuilding my door hinges since the kits are not expensive.

Wondering if anyone has done this and how hard it is?

My drivers side in particular...it seems the bushings are worn out and the door closes much better if you lift up some on the door when you are closing it. Seems like my old '80 Trans Am years ago had the same problem that seems common to any two door cars with the longer doors.

I am guessing you can remove the hinges one at a time, repair and put them back on without taking half the car apart?

I have honestly never looked at them that close but need a project for this weekend and considering buying the parts local so that they will be here long before Friday.

 

[ForceFed70]

I rebuilt the hinges in my 70 last winter. Not sure how much the proces differs between the '70 and the 66 but I don't imagine a lot since the kits are advertised to fit all 65-70 mustangs.

Anyways, the rebuild wasn't too bad. It took me much more time just to remove and re-install the hinges.

The original pins are "mushroomed" on both ends so you can't remove them without drilling them out. For me, this ment removing the hinges (was hoping to do them 1 at a time with the door still on the car).

The replacement pins arn't mushroomed on 1 end so that you can put them in. Not sure if they need some sort of a retaining system since gravity should hold them in place. What I did is drill a small hole in the end and use a cotter pin just to be sure.

I did run into a bit of a problem with my driver's upper hinge. The bushing was long gone so the pin was rubbing on the bushing support. This elongated the hole for the bushing support and made it so that the new bushing would not sit in the proper spot and was loose. I fixed the problem by filling the hole using a mig welder, then drilling a new hole for the bushing support. Not really hard to do but require access to a mig welder. Chances are that your driver upper will be in the same shape. May be easier to buy the whole hinge and use the rebuild kit for the other hinges if you don't have access to a welder.

 

[zookeeper]

My '68 pins were not mushroomed. They just drove out easily with a punch, then I knocked out the bushings, tapped in the new ones, installed the pins, figured out I put the hinge together upside-down, cussed, took it back apart, reassembled the right way, cut the pins to length and called it good. BTW, don't laugh, but I put them together wrong on both sides. Yes..I am an idiot...

 

[Rusty66coupe]

I was checking out the hinges tonight and I figured out the first hurdle is going to be getting them off the car.

BTW, it doesn't appear that the pins on the hinges are mushroomed.

Stupid question, I haven't hand the Mustang for "that long" so I have never done it but it appears that front fenders are bolted on with about 10 + / - bolts?

If that is the case then I may wait till the weather isn't as nice as it is right now and do a couple of things. Thinking about taking off the front fenders to allow easier access to the door hinges and while I have them off clean up the backside of the fenders and inner fenders, etc.

 

[zookeeper]

You don't need to take the fenders off to get the door hinges off. It does make life easier, but you can get the hinges off (at least on my '68) with an air ratchet and patience. Put a floor jack covered in a pad or thick towel under the door to catch it. But if you do decide to take off the fenders, you need to get the bumper off, then the front valance, remove the bolts that hold the fender to the radiator support, then there are the bolts on top, one on the bottom near the door opening and one that's only visible if you open the door and use a long extension, it's at the top of the front fo the door opening. I also unbolted the splash gaurds (front and back), then they should lift right off. Also, regardless of whether you remove the fenders or not, be VERY carefull when removing the hinges from the body, the door jamb itself is not threaded, but there are plates that are VERY loosely held in place that the bolts go into and they can easily be knocked down inside the door jamb. It's not that big of a deal, but you have to remove the inner kick panel to get it back in place and it's just one more pain in the butt tha can be avoided. Make sure you clean all the bolts (they're always crusty) and seal the hinges to the jamb with some RTV sealant to prevent water from getting into the door jamb through the large, square openings the hinge bolts pass through.

 

[zookeeper]

I know it doesn't show very well, but if you look closely you might see a tab at the top of the cowl where the hidden bolt attaches to in this picture. You can also see how much stuff needs to come off, but if you're planning on detailing the fenderwells and such, it'll be a good project for bad weather.

 

[ForceFed70]

Some good advice there.

The plates fell down for me... bolts were so rusty that there was no chance of holding that plate in place.

Rebuilding the hinge was pretty easy, but getting the hinges off and back on was a real PITA.


Rusty: If your pins arn't mushroomed at the bottom, you might not have to completely remove the hinges. If you unbolt the hinges from the door, you should be able to do everything you need while the other side of the hinge is still bolted to the door jam. Doing this will also make re-aligning the door alot easier as the 1 side of the hinge should already be aligned.

 

[Rusty66coupe]

Thanks a ton for the info guys, this will be very useful.

I had a forehead slap moment this morning and figured out that if the wife's car is not sitting next to yours in the garage you can open the doors a lot wider and get a lot better access to the hinge bolts. Looks like you can get at a couple of them with and extension.

But I think eventually I am going to take the front fenders off anyway to clean up and paint the back side of the fenders and the other parts that are not normally accessable because of the fenders. Sounds like a good project for bad weather when I wouldn't want the car on the road anyway.

Today was way too nice to have the car off the road so I put off the hinge project for at least one week

 

[66 Restomod]

If you are taking the hood, fenders, and doors off, I'd suggest drilling 1/8" holes in the hood hinges and hood, in the fender seams along the engine bay (2 each side), and then 2 holes in each door hinge. Lining up the body panels later takes 10x longer if you don't. If your car hasn't been apart in a while and things are weathered you can probably see the outlines of where things go without the need for holes.