This is probably last update before Stoneleigh and an important one at that if I want to attend in my MK2, to finish off the doors. I must admit this door hinge project has took a lot longer than first planned but hasn't been helped by the acquisition of my MK3.
With the door hinges removed I had to now try and take them apart without making a dogs dinner of them. As I had already mentioned I have the early type hinges where the hinge pin is fixed in the main body of the hinge and the outer part of the hinge rotates around the pin.
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Roy Forrester, on Flickr
117 by
Roy Forrester, on Flickr
The problem was I was unsure how these hinges were made,
was the hinge pin fixed and part of the main body of the hinge (highly unlikely though) or was it 1 pin pressed in or 2 pins pressed in from either side, my gut feeling was 1 pin.
The first thing I did was to grind the heads on the captive bolts enough room for the 5/16 (8mm) pin to be removed. I now drilled the hinge pin from each end about 1/4" deep using a 5/16 drill, making sure I was perfectly central to the pin. I was now able to remove the outer part of the hinge. On closer inspection of the main body of the hinge I noticed a very slight chamfering in the bore which told me a pin had been inserted. I tried to press the remainder of the pin out but with no luck so I drilled all the way through with a 7mm drill, I thought if it was 2 separate pins from either side I would have to drill the main body of the hinge anyway.
Drilling the hole all the way through I found out it was 1 pin and it virtually dropped out on its own, so I carried out the same procedure on the other 3 hinges and was pleased I had stripped them all down without any casualties.
The hinge stripped apart with the hinge body drilled and tapped for the grease nipple.
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Roy Forrester, on Flickr
I now had to decide how I was going to repair them, the problem with me is I always seem to over engineer jobs even if they are a relatively simple task. What I would like is to repair them in such a way that they are easily dismantled or perhaps able to remove the doors without unbolting the hinges which also evolves removing the dashboard, so removable pins was the answer. I decided to make the pins out of a bronze and hope they won't wear out too quickly.
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Roy Forrester, on Flickr
The bronze pin inserted against the captive bolt to prevent the pin rotating.
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Roy Forrester, on Flickr
M4 socket set screw used to prevent the hinge lifting out and to further lock the pin in place.
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Roy Forrester, on Flickr
Hinges now had a few coats of paint.
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Roy Forrester, on Flickr
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Roy Forrester, on Flickr
The doors now fitted.
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Roy Forrester, on Flickr
125 by
Roy Forrester, on Flickr
I'm now pleased to say the doors no longer drop and close a great deal better than they did.