Diabolical

i just got the complete door hinge repair kit from topdown solutions. i just finished the drivers side door today. it took me a hell of a lot longer than expected, but i blame that on lack of the right tools for removal of old bushing/pins. my problem is, even after repairing the upper and lower hinges, the front part of the door still sits right on the rocker gfx, and drags across while the door is being shut. the repair kit definately took all the play out of the door like it's supposed to (i can't lift it 6 inches anymore), but the door doesn't even look like it's line up right any more. the gap between the door and fender is about 1/4-1/2 inch at the top, but there is no gap on the bottom. what do i need to do to fix this?

Briansz28

I just did my passenger door on Sunday- replaced the whole door due to rot and damage by the mirror. The pin in the bottom hinge was tougher to get out than the top hinge rivets. Eastwood sells a tool to take that out-I'll get one if I ever have to do the d/s
The bolts that hold the hinges to the body can be loosened and the door raised up to correct the line-up- look behind the trim panel. Mine is slightly outta whack but I'm not ready to work on it a gain- took 3 +hours tyo get that door off & on again.

Diabolical

i had no problem getting the bottom pin out. what did you use to grind off the rivets on the upper hinges? how would you move the hinge up? on my car, there are 3 bolts in the upper hinge. the 2 that are towards the rear of the car appear to be adjustable, but the frontmost one does not. can you remove the front bolt and just use the rear two?

btw, where in CT do you live?

Briansz28

I used a Dremel- actually two- I burnt out the first one and the second doesn't have much life left! I used some small grinding wheels- not the ones that came with it but some I got from MSC Industrial Supply.
I think you can just loosen them up- use a jack or better a strong volunteer to pull the rear of the door up. Then tighten them down. Might take some trial and error, but thats how its done, according to my local body man.

I'm in Southington.

lonsal

iTrader: (2)

I bought a special tool that is used by Auto Body shops to solve that problem of the hinge alignment. It was from MAC tools, p/n DHA7554 $57.99. Several other auto body tool suppliers make a variation of it. The tool consists of a large bar that has hooks onto the door striker bolt and a piece that slides down the bar and latches onto the door latch with the door open. Then you just yank up on the bar repeatedly until you have the door sprung back to where it needs to be. I'll take a picture and post it when I get a chance. For some reason the p/n doesn't come up on the MAC tools web site.

Lon Salgren
Top-Down Solutions

Briansz28

Lon- I've seen that tool too- but I think loosening up the bolts before using that tool would be the best way- without stressing his newly repaired hinge pins and the rest of the hinge parts.
Someone used that tool on my Datsun and it worked great, but there was no other way to do it--no adj.

GMTech

The reason lonsal reccomended that is because the hinges probably were not out of adjustment to begin with. After years of the door hanging on those hinges, they slowly bend and the tool bends them back into shape. It doesn't take much movement at all. As long as the doors on these cars are, a millimeter of movement at the hinge can equal like a half inch at the striker.

Briansz28

Good point- But from Diabolical's first post, the top of the door has the bigger gap and there is no gap at the bottom of the door- doesn't sound like its sagging. But maybe I misunderstood.