Rusted Upper Door Hinge "Pocket" Fix

[GASoline71]

As I progress through my rust repair of the cab of my 1972 GMC, I have an issue I am kind of stumped at.

When I wrecked my truck the impact made a rusty area of the upper door hinge on the drivers side door even worse. I'm currently working on the passenger side and that door hinge area is fine. But when I start on the drivers side, I'll need a door with decent hinges.

I really don't want to use an aftermarket door, and would like to use my original door. If I have to find another door off of another truck, that's doable, but again, would like to use my original door.

I don't even know where to begin to fix this area with a patch. The metal is very thin from rust and the hinge adjustment pocket is probably compromised. I do have another complete 1972 GMC door that I can cut up to use to cut out and weld in. It's bashed in along the bottom and completely rotted out down there as well, so it's a perfect candidate to use for the hinge "pocket". But this doesn't seem like an easy fix regardless because of all the different panels and braces that all come together near that top hinge.



So... I'm just throwing this out there in case anybody else has done this repair before.

Gary

[Kennuck]

Mine was way worse than that. My body man fixed it up better than new. I can't tell you exactly what he did but it is definitely repairable.

[snipescastle2]

I did the same thing, except mine was in the hinge pillar area, I had a parts cab that I got with my truck, so I cut the useful parts off and scrapped the rest. The nuts on the back of these are " Caged" so I took a tap and chased the threads before I welded these sections in place.i also sprayed a weld through corrosion resistant coating on them before I welded them, to prevent this from happening again. One additional thing I did, was to elongate the slots on the hinges (both sets) to make adjustments easier.
Ben

[GASoline71]

I started this thread a while ago and figured I need to update it as I just started this repair. I had already posted it over in my build thread but wanted to also update this thread in case anyone was searching for this specific fix.

From my build thread:

This truck will never be a show truck. Just low, mean, fast and loud... So I am learning as I go in the metal fabrication process and the rust repair. Today I decided what the hell... might as well give the upper door hinge pocket repair a try. If i really screw up that bad, I'll just use a different door, or... ulp... an aftermarket door!

When I wrecked this thing the drivers side door flew open and tore the already rusty hinge pocket out of the door a bit. So here is what I've done today...

Made a few cuts to the outer skin and will use what I cut out as a template to make a new skin out of spare sheet metal. I wire wheeled in there the best I could and then hit it all with some Rust Mort. Now I will let it sit overnight so the Rust Mort can dry and I'll figure some more out tomorrow.

Gary

[GASoline71]

More stuff rom my build thread:

Finally tackling this upper door hinge pocket on the drivers side. I got a piece fabbed up last night and also had to weld the cracks in the hinge brace that is behind the door skin.

I again repurposed metal off of the old bent up original hood from my truck. I am really glad I saved it instead of scrapping it. It has really come in handy with floor patches and also some random stuff I've needed to fabricate.

The hardest part so far about doing this hinge pocket is cutting the metal in the small area at the pocket right next to the outer part of the door. I don't have a dremel or any other smallish cutting device. So I used the smallest and thinnest cutting wheel I had that fit on my air cutoff tool. I will try to get the piece welded in later today or this weekend. I got side tracked last night and didn't get to weld it in.

Gary

I forgot to add that I will also need to drill the holes and cut out the slot too.

[GASoline71]

Few more pics of the hinge brace welds.

Gary

[snipescastle2]

Harbor freight has an inexpensive " Air saw" sort of air powered hack saw,
You would need to drill a small pilot hole for the blade but makes quick work
Of the task.
HYH,
Ben

[GASoline71]

Thanks Ben! I was thinking about one of those to aid in cutting out the slot in the patch panel. Its either that or a jig saw with a thin metal cutting blade.

Gary

[El Dorado Jim]

why did you primer the area where you have to still weld the patch piece in? you are doing a good job fixing this...

[GASoline71]

Originally Posted by El Dorado Jim

why did you primer the area where you have to still weld the patch piece in? you are doing a good job fixing this...

Cuz I was sloppy. I will just grind the primer off of the edge again. I was half way done priming it when I realized what I did. Coulda just masked it off.

Gary

[crakarjax]

Thought this looked familiar, saw your posts on NW C10s! Nice repair there.

[sKnNyPpY]

Need to do on my driver side. Subbed, following

[GASoline71]

I finished up last night. It turned out better than I thought, but was still quite challenging to say the least.

I didn't grind the welds all the way down because I still wanted a bit of strength in this area. But the hinge sits flat on the surface so it should work just fine.



Gary