I was wondering why everyhwere i find to buy the hinge pin and bushing kit on here they cost about $75 and when I called the local autoparts it cost $10 for the same kit. $5 for the upper kit and $5 for the lower kit

 

Lons kit here uses some pretty high end materials, and is supposedly superior.
The ones at local parts stores... are they universal, or meant for your car? I've only seen universal ones, so that's why i'll probably get the good one...

 

You won't find an upper and lower hinge repair kit for Thirdgen F-bodies at an auto parts store. Do a search on this web site for info regarding the kit I sell. If someone told you they had a kit to repair the upper hinge for $5 they were mistaken. They may have mistakenly thought the kit to repair the upper hinges on a Thirdgen is the same as on the earlier F-bodies. It's not.

Lon Salgren
Top-Down Solutions

 

i looked them up on the internet myself

http://www.partsamerica.com/ProductD...pe=713&ptset=A

and i did do a search on this and found that many people have bought $5 dollar kits which worked great and i could not find out why the more expensive kits are superior thats all i want to know, what makes the kits superior?

 

The hinge you posted a link to is the lower hinge pin and bushings only. The upper hinge pin and buahings are completely different. There are two solutions to repairing the upper door hinge pins. But before I get into that , you need to first determins if the upper door hinge pin and bushings need to be repaired, Open the door and have a friend grab hold of the bottom and lift it and release it while you inspect the upper and lower hinges with a flashlight. If you see movement in the pins and bushings then they need to be replaced.

Do a search on my username "lonsal" and "GM door hinge repair" I'd post the info again, but I'm headed to a meeting in 5 minutes.

Basically there are two repair methods. GM's requires grinding or drilling off the existing hinge from the door and bolting on a new repair hinge. My hinge repair kit is superior and far easier. Sorry I couldn't spend more time to explain at the moment.

Good luck,

Lon Salgren
Top-Down Solutions

 

so as i was examining your kit it appears to me that the upper pins are more like bolts than pin. If this is correct then you wouldnt have to mushroom them after installing them.

 

No. They are threaded and have an mil-spec aerospace thread-locking nut that threads onto it.

Lon

 

wow....I am very impressed....I ordered one of your kits last ight at like nine and I recieved an email already(noon the next day) that is was shipped...talk about great service

 

http://highperformancepontiac.com/te...2hpp_fristaid/


Sagging Door syndrome.

 

That PHP online article is old and contains some incorrect information. It's already been discussed here online, but I'll point out one glaring error.

The small pins shown in the picture are not for the upper hinge. Andy Sherrer (aka Andy Z28) can elaborate further on the discrepancies.

Lon Salgren
Top-Down Solutions

 

While we're on the subject of hinges and whatnot...My door used to sag a little bit. I told my dad about it and about the hinge kit, but he didn't want to hear about it and decided to "fix" it his own way. Basically he jacked up the door back into place or something and drilled a bigger hole to adjust the striker bolt (at this point I left the garage). Now my door creeks/croaks all the time, and it's really pissing me off. Would the hinge kits fix that problem. And I've tried cleaning, lubricating the hinges, but that didn't help.

 

Once the door has been "jacked up" and the hinges bent as a result, it will require the door to be "unjacked" into its' original position and then the hinges repaired properly. Lon selles a very nice tool to "unjack" the door.

Concerning the PHP article;
This article was authored by "Dr." Troy Avent in the December 2002 issue.

In the March 2003 issue he printed several corrections to the original article; "On third gen Birds (and Camaros) GM does not service the hinge pins and bushings on the upper door hinge seperately. You have to replace the hinge as an assembly. The pins shown in Dr. Troy's article are the ones that go through the check strap roller on the lower hinges. If you were to look at the uooer hinges, you can see there is no way you're going to replace ritet and bushing without a heavy press. I've been working at several GM dealers parts departments for 24 years and I run into this problem all the time.
For your information, the upper hinge is part# 12392848 and is the same for both doors and retail is $112.00. Since this is a robust part, and assuming the lower hinge is not totally worn out, you might be able to get away without replacing it. Hopfully nobody sues Dr. Troy for malpractice. (Eric Fisher, Deltona, FL)

Dr. Troy replies;"It appears Mr. Fisher is correct. I had ordered a complete door hinge repair kit, and just assumed that it included
all four hinges. I sincerely apologize to anyone out there who tried to fix his upper hinges with these parts. However, I have found a resource for the upper hinge parts necessary for repairs without cutting the old hinge off the door and welding on a new one. Go to www.andyz28.com for this kit."

This kit is also available from Lon.

I hope this helps to reduce any confusion, Andy

 

can you change the roller without having to remove the pin that goes the whole way trough(not the hinge pin but the pin the roller sits on)

 

No you can't replace the detent roller without replacing the entire detent roller pin. Andy told me it is better to replace the entire lower hinge.

Lon

 

The body half of the lower hinge.

 

what do i use on the nut for the top hinges.....a twelve point socket???

 

A 12 point wrench. One wrench holds the pin by the two flats. The second wrench tightens the nut.

Lon

 

Sorry for jumping in here so late but, I just went through the process of installing the upper hinge repair kit (I bought the greaseable kit) that Lon sells and at the same time also replaced the lower body side door hinges on both doors. The upper hinge repair kits and the new lower body side hinges made all the difference in the world! No more play or scuffed door jam paint.

The job start to finish, both doors, took me about 6 hours. The second door went faster than the first of course. The hardest part was getting the new bushing into the hinge without compressing it. The tip here is to slightly enlarge the hinge hole with a drimmel bit or carbide tip cutter just enough to allow the new brass bushing to be pressed into the hinge with your fingers. (I tapped the first one in and spent an hour polishing the new bushing so that the new pin would fit.)

Follow the instructions that come with the kit and have someone help you with the door. I used a engine hoist and sling to hold the door but the other set of hands will help guide it and adjust it when that time comes.

 

so it's 75$ per door? Seems a tad bit high. I agree the mil spec bolts are not cheap but 75$ per door seems high to me. Hopefully im wrong and it's 75$ for both doors.

 

its 75 per door but try and find the upeer hinge pins...i couldnt

 

Lon's kit and deluxe both include the upper hinge parts to rebuild the factory hinges. It just seems to me that 75$ per door is high.

 

An new upper hinge from YearOne costs $130. You could probably find a hinge at a junkyard, but then you have to go to the trouble of removing and replacing also...the door side of the hinge is welded on.

If they were selling thousands of the hinge repair kits every month the cost would be lower. It was worth the cost of the kit for me. My drivers side door works like new again, and it only took about 1 hour to do.

 

my door works great to
i used TDS's kit and it was a breeze to install
and getting hinges out of a junk yard with good pins and bushings is not as easy as it sounds it would be hard to find a good set or even a set that was close to being junk