Door Hinges - Hinge Pins - What A Pain!

5.0 Ford Guy

Founding Member
Nov 29, 1999
423
35
39
Brownsburg, Indiana
Just a heads up for anyone contemplating replacing their door hinges on 94-04 Mustangs... they don't make a replacement hinge pin / bushing kit for these cars. You have to replace the entire hinge. I was told you can do this without removing the fender, and I don't doubt that you can. But with the tools I had I could not get to the bolts at the rear of the hinges with anything.

I ended up removing the entire door which was (just as I was told) a BIG BIG BIG mistake. My initial thought was to remove the fender. Which as it turns out wasn't that bad to do. I should have done that from the get go. Then I could have kept the door shut and easily got to the door side bolts and the body side bolts with ease.

I got so frustrated after d##king with the passenger side all day that I am putting the driver side off for a later date. I still don't have the passenger door aligned good enough for my standards, but my wife is happy with it. Standing and looking at the door it needs to rotate counter-clockwise just a smidge. The front sits a tad too low. But the back is perfect. It's just that the door gap at the front and rear are not the same from top to bottom. And it is driving me nuts, because now that I have the fender back on the only way for me to adjust it would be to remove the fender again!

I have removed and reinstalled just about every part on a Mustang. I can yank a tranny and reinstall it in less than an hour. Today was by far the worst day I have ever had working on a Mustang. I really hope this information helps someone. Or at least prepares them for the job they have ahead of them. The only plus to this is knowing some day soon I will have to replace the hinges on my '94 and I will have a better understanding of what not to do.
 
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Oh, and the hinges are $39.99 for the uppers and $67.99 for the lowers from Ford. Don't buy anything else but OEM. They are very nice hinges. I called the guy on the phone and was able to get him to sell them to me for $30 and $60. So it was like $195 or so for all 4 hinges.
 
I went to 4 different auto parts stores. I could find pins that fit. But not the bushings. I could have taken the hinge to work and opened the holes up so the larger bushings fit. But I opened all of the packages at the auto parts store and none of the bushings were close to fitting the hinge and the correct pin. Even if I did find one that fit, the wall thickness of the bushing would be so thin I didn't see it lasting very long. I could have just machined all new hardware. But in the end after talking to a couple guys and the Ford dealership here the best way to fix this was with the new hinges.
 
K grasshopper.
For the bolts at the front that seem impossible to get to with the door open... crows foot socket with long extension. No fender off, no fender liner, etc.

Here is what to do. Get a towel and fold it until it is 4 layers thick. Set it on the door sill so that it will hold the door up when everything is loose. (It will be jammed under the door holdong the door up.). You may have thick ass towels, so your mileage may vary. Loosen everything attached to the car, except the BIG nut at the bottom inside. You know which one I'm talking about.

Close the door and loosen that big nut from the inside. The door will settle/even out. Tighten the nut and gingerly open the door and check alignment/feel. You want it to be SLIGHTLY high, like one penny width high, so that it can settle down. Get it to where you like it, and tighten everything down. Use the bolts attached to the DOOR to bring the door in or out.

My doors open like :leghump:ing butter.