Paint and Body replacing door hinges and pins

[Bsimps]

Hello, On my 1991 GT convertible, the driver door sags a little, took it to a body shop that had done great work for me before..not so good this time. replaced pins and put epoxy or jb weld on bottom of top pin.
Do I need to remove the fender to replace door hinge that attaches to the car body? old one has gap of 1/4 inch bottom one is okay.
Took it to a couple other shops and estimate $500 to remove door and replace hinge, pins, door striker bushing and hinge striker pins (I have all these parts). Shop says could take 2 hours or 12 hours @$46. hour and second shop just said $500. Is this a DYI job?

 

[jrichker]

This may or may not be helpful, but here it is...

Hinge pin & bushing kits are available at many auto parts stores. Or see http://www.texasmustang.com/ or http://www.mustang-unl.com/. Usually less than $8 for the kit with one pin & 2 bushings.

The hard part is to get the old pin out. Some were spot welded in, others were hammered so that the end mushroomed. Either way, it takes a grinder or cutter bit in a drill or Dremel tool to cut the pin or grind off the weld. Once it is off, tap the pin out with a hammer and a pin punch. Only remove one pin at a time so that you don't have the full weight of the door to manage. I highly recommend that you have a helper standing by to hold the door.

Once the old pin is out, lower the door and tap out the old bushings. Put the new bushings in and have the helper lift the door in place so that you can slide the new pin in. It may have to go in differently from the way it came out. That's OK, as long as you put the cotter pin in the hinge pin.

OOOPS!!!The important thing to remember is that the hinge pin isn't supposed to move once you are finished. If it does, then you will end up like me - the pin moved, it wore the door hinge instead of the replaceable bushings. Now in order to fix it right, I had to remove the whole thing again and drill out the hinge to the same size as the bushing and use 2 sets of bushings in each hinge rather than one set.

The fix for the OOOPS was very time consuming and if you aren't up to some very interesting machine work, do it right so you won't have to do it again. I fixed the OOOPS but I had $92 worth of drill bit and specialized reamer plus pulling the fender off to fix it. Getting the fender back on so that it lined up the gaps properly was a talent that I was not the best at doing. Sharpie marking the outline of the hinge or spraying the hinge and surrounding area with some odd colored paint is the best way to make sure that you got the hinge lined up in its original location.

I ended up removing the fender and removing the hinge bracket. Set the hinges up in a drill press to ensure that the holes will be drilled straight and in line with each other. Getting the hinge bracket set up in the drill press is very important. The top hole and bottom hole are drilled and reamed without taking the hinge bracket out of its mounting on the drill press. This ensures that the holes are in prefect alignment with each other.

Then I used a 15/32 drill to the old hinge pin holes out. Next, I used a .4780 straight reamer in the drill press to ream the holes out to the same size as the replacement bushing. Push the bushings in and use a little hard setting Loctite to secure them. If I did it again, I would probably go with .001-.0015 smaller reamer for a press fit.

A word or warning, if you choose this method, mike the bushing OD before you order the reamer. Your bushings may not be the same OD as the ones I used. The reamers can be purchased with almost any size OD you need, but be sure to get the right size the first time.

Drill bit and reamer are available from MSC direct (www.mscdirect.com)
As of Dec 2019, the prices were:
Reamer P/N 72034788 - $68-$71
Drill bit P/N 84579861 - $21

 

[Steel1]

When I replace my pins/bushings I made a simple cradle out of 2x4s to hold the door after I cut out the old pins.
It worked great, I attached it to the top of my floor jack so I could position the door easily.
Would post a pic for you but I have since disassembled them to use the wood for some cribbing.

 

[Bsimps]

This may or may not be helpful, but here it is...

Hinge pin & bushing kits are available at many auto parts stores. Or see http://www.texasmustang.com/ or http://www.mustang-unl.com/. Usually less than $8 for the kit with one pin & 2 bushings.

The hard part is to get the old pin out. Some were spot welded in, others were hammered so that the end mushroomed. Either way, it takes a grinder or cutter bit in a drill or Dremel tool to cut the pin or grind off the weld. Once it is off, tap the pin out with a hammer and a pin punch. Only remove one pin at a time so that you don't have the full weight of the door to manage. I highly recommend that you have a helper standing by to hold the door.

Once the old pin is out, lower the door and tap out the old bushings. Put the new bushings in and have the helper lift the door in place so that you can slide the new pin in. It may have to go in differently from the way it came out. That's OK, as long as you put the cotter pin in the hinge pin.

OOOPS!!!The important thing to remember is that the hinge pin isn't supposed to move once you are finished. If it does, then you will end up like me - the pin moved, it wore the door hinge instead of the replaceable bushings. Now in order to fix it right, I had to remove the whole thing again and drill out the hinge to the same size as the bushing and use 2 sets of bushings in each hinge rather than one set.

The fix for the OOOPS was very time consuming and if you aren't up to some very interesting machine work, do it right so you won't have to do it again. I fixed the OOOPS but I had $92 worth of drill bit and specialized reamer plus pulling the fender off to fix it. Getting the fender back on so that it lined up the gaps properly was a talent that I was not the best at doing. Sharpie marking the outline of the hinge or spraying the hinge and surrounding area with some odd colored paint is the best way to make sure that you got the hinge lined up in its original location.

I ended up removing the fender and removing the hinge bracket. Set the hinges up in a drill press to ensure that the holes will be drilled straight and in line with each other. Getting the hinge bracket set up in the drill press is very important. The top hole and bottom hole are drilled and reamed without taking the hinge bracket out of its mounting on the drill press. This ensures that the holes are in prefect alignment with each other.

Then I used a 15/32 drill to the old hinge pin holes out. Next, I used a .4780 straight reamer in the drill press to ream the holes out to the same size as the replacement bushing. Push the bushings in and use a little hard setting Loctite to secure them. If I did it again, I would probably go with .001-.0015 smaller reamer for a press fit.

A word or warning, if you choose this method, mike the bushing OD before you order the reamer. Your bushings may not be the same OD as the ones I used. The reamers can be purchased with almost any size OD you need, but be sure to get the right size the first time.

Drill bit and reamer are available from MSC direct (www.mscdirect.com)
As of Dec 2019, the prices were:
Reamer P/N 72034788 - $68-$71
Drill bit P/N 84579861 - $21

Good stuf, thanks for the help.

 

[Bsimps]

When I replace my pins/bushings I made a simple cradle out of 2x4s to hold the door after I cut out the old pins.
It worked great, I attached it to the top of my floor jack so I could position the door easily.
Would post a pic for you but I have since disassembled them to use the wood for some cribbing.

Appreciate the help.

 

[7991LXnSHO]

@jrichker I am sorry to hear about the hassle, but thank you for the warnings! I need to do the kit on the driver’s door,, and was wondering what if the bushings do not fit tightly. I was thinking about having the hinge hole welded, then drilling the hole right like on aluminum parts.