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Re: Wampus Cat
Door Hinges Rebuild
I started to try to rebuild the door hinges a while back because they were very worn and had lots of play. However, I don’t have access to a press and was unable to drive out the hinge pins regardless of the amount of penetrating oil, or large-hammer force, or heat that I applied. I set the project aside, and gave some thought about how to approach this.
I decided on the following process and found that it worked fairly well. Once I figured out how to do it, I was able to rebuild the four hinges in under two hours.
1. I used parts from Classic Part Inc, Part No 18-406, Door Hinge Rebuild Kit, about $4 per kit. The new bushings appear to be oil impregnated bronze compared to the worn out nylon bushings that were in the hinges. The pins are about 1 inch too long so they need to be trimmed to length and beveled on the end.
2. I used a grinder and a cut off disk to cut off the sides of the old hinge pin head (while being careful not to cut the hinge) so that what is left of the head is about the diameter of the pin, and will fit inside of a socket. This “nub” helps locate the socket in the next step in the vise.
3. I then put the hinge with the socket over the “nub” in a vise and used the vise to push through the hinge pin the ¼” to 3/8” length of the protruding pin. This little bit of linear movement seemed to be just enough to break loose the decades of rust and the retention splines on the hinge pin.
4. Once the pin was broken loose in the vise, I was able to use a hammer and punch drive it through the rest of the way and disassemble the hinge.
5. I cleaned out the hinge bores with a round file, and dressed the mating surfaces of the hinge flanges with a flat file, then pressed in the bushings and reassembled the hinge.
6. The old nylon bushings were shot, and for some reason the hinge pins on the driver’s door were almost completely rusted through in the middle of the pin.
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