Hinge Rebuild

Ok, finally took the hinge off my drivers door to rebuild. How the heck do you get the old pin out? I tried heating, grinding the head off, even drilling (may need to get some better bits). I haven't used the new letter bits that Don recomended, saving them for the final drilling. Any suggestions?

Ok, I'll give that a try tonight.

Hey guys.... great info here, thanks.

I am about to embark on replacing pin(s) in the driver door. What should I use for replacement pins? I have seen other people recommend drilling out hinge to receive a bigger, more readily available pin and bushings, but would rather not have to do this if possible.

best,
Chris

Excellent instructions! Napa doesn't have the pins in stock, but I should have email by tues. Thanks a bunch - chris

Ok, here is a pretty dumb question. What is the best best method to remove the door stay (the thing that keeps the door open for lack of a propper term)? I removed one screw and heard the nut drop down into the door. duh.

There are no dumb questions, you think you are the only one that has wondered what that is? Probably everyone who takes that screw out hears something drop. It is the broken bracket that comes apart when it wears out. After you take both screws out, you have to reach in the door and pull the whole stop out anyways. I use these Jeep Cherokee rear door stops on my Chevy Van front doors.

Thanks Donivan..

Saw a pair of NOS stops go for $150 recently on eBay, which struck me as out of control. Found these and wonder if they will fit. They sure looks as if they would. The only thing missing is the piece that fits in the door frame.

I am blown away that grommets are going to cost me $40 per door (more than the bloody weather strip!). Is there another way?

You can use the one you found(link) ,but you have to use old link(long part). The one on the vans is longer than the one used on pickups

The problem is that on my driver side door the part that goes on the door frame is no longer part of the body. It's loose and looks pretty broken. I am thinking that my driver door just may not have a door stop in the future. What is the best way to get that pin out?

This van I had was a work van in prior lives and someone added some really ugly steel door stops on the side and back doors. I have taken them off, but would like to find something similar to the original stops. The stock hardware is missing. I am guessing the door stop straps were something like seat belt material. I may just forgo these stops and tell passengers to go easy on these doors.

I could not find R or H bits specifically at any of my local hardware stores, but I got an 11/32" and 17/64". Looks like they will work, but I want to make sure.. Where would one going about finding American Letter designated gauge bits?

(ps. I see now that I can knock out the stay pin with a hammer from below)

We get some of our shop stuff from Enco,, ENCO tools.com,
and MSC. MSC has a huge catalogue if ya get on the mailing list.

that's what I suspected. I will try to fined something better than OSH, or order online. There simply has to be a place to get them locally. I never expected such an epic process...

J&L industrial supply has them. I don't know if they have a branch near you (their server seems to be down - holiday?). There has to be a machine shop supply of some kind near you.

www.jlindustrial.co

Here's their stuff on amazon

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_hi?url=me%3DA3GWFGDE3FDRVJ&field-keywords=a-z+set+drill&x=0&y=0

I ended up having to go to a machine shop here where I live. They sold them individually and they were only a few bucks each if I remember correctly.

I have seen both the H & R bits on eBay recently, came in packs of 6 bits for under $15 shipped.
http://cgi.ebay.com/New-Irwin-Letter-H-Jobber-Length-Drill-Bits-1Pk-6Ea_W0QQitemZ160115985399QQihZ006QQcategoryZ25259QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD1VQQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp1638Q2em118Q2el1247
http://cgi.ebay.com/New-Irwin-Letter-R-Jobber-Length-Drill-Bits-1Pk-6Ea_W0QQitemZ160115985410QQihZ006QQcategoryZ25259QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD1VQQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp1638Q2em118Q2el1247
both are $6.95 and could get combined shipping, best part is you'll have more of these than you'd need, but have seen singles for sale as well , a suggestion if you dont mind waiting for items to ship and dont need right away.

Mark

Hey XMS.
I am in Oakland. I have bought the hinge pins but haven't installed them.

I may have an extra doorstop if you want to use the stock type? I bought some front doors(driver and passenger) awhile ago and they maybe still on there. Let me know.

Dave 510-436-0447

heres what i did to my door hinges. the holes and pins were both worn but the a-100 pins have a larger than normal head and i wanter to keep the "factory look". heat the crap out of the pin to remove from the hinge if seized. drill out the hinge and have pressed in a hardend valve guide and trim to length for both sides of hinge. then i bronze welded the bad spots on the pin and put them in a drill and filed them back to size. then you drill or ream out the valve guide to match the repaired pin and the job is done. total cost about $5.00 bucks for a couple valve guides from any machine shop a little welding and about an hour of time for each hinge and you keep the factory look.you should drill a lube hole on the part of the hinge that the pin turns in for service later. put the hole out of site when the door is closed so you can't see it. also drill through the guide to the pin so the lube gets right where it need to be.

donivan65 wrote:The holes in the hinges wear out , so even if you put the original pins and bushings in, the doors would still be loose and hard to close. If you let those bushings get too worn out, the door shakes a lot and next thing you see is the metal around the hinges and vent glass starts cracking. Thats why we drill the holes a little bigger to the proper size to use the bigger Chrysler pins and bushings in it.

Is it real critical to drill them hinges out perfectly straight, Is there a method for drilling those hinge pin holes straight so the holes line up perfectly when ya try to knock the pin through?? I am going to be attempting this on my 66 and can use all the tips I can Get. The Drivers side door is hangin pretty bad !!