door hinges

[Hans Efde]

I am overhauling my Convertible doors and just removed the door hinges. I am fed up with the 5/16inch bolts so I removed them in order to have M8 bolts installed. I noticed a slight wear on the (greased) door pins (maybe the cause of the door slightly hanging below the waistline), so I removed the first to see what the play was. I found the pin to be 8mm (I would have expected 5/16 which is 7.9) and the hinge itself 8.1mm.
Has anyone done interesting mods to the door hinges? I could install a 8.1mm pin (which again would need replacing in 10 years or so) , but I also could install an M8 bolt with selflocking nut. The play would remain the same, but I could use the selflocking nut to pull the base plate lugs (or ears) closer to the small pipe of the rotating part. That would prevent the hinges to sag and would also allow later adjustment. To make this work I need to install studs in the baseplate and weld them flush to the bracket, because the bolt heads prevent installing a bolt and nut in the hinge (did this sound too complicated?).
Does anyone have ideas or experience?

[manifold]

Hans,

Makes sense to me.

Sounds like something I am planning on doing, albeit I intend to turn some stainless pins with P clips so I can pull the doors (or replace due to wear) quickly.

Using theaded studs sounds like a similar plan too.

Also considering making full hinges in stainless or something else.... so they dont rust out and look nasty.

[Hans Efde]

Hi David,
Stainless steel is soft steel. When used for hinges they will wear out quite quickly. The standard Midas door hinges are already made of poor quality steel hence the quick wear. I prefer to install something stronger. My brother suggested I use spring pins (roll pin) like used on an old type Ford Fiesta. Just tap them in and ready! He was going to source a few and I'll give it a try installing them.

[manifold]

Hi Hans,

A4 Stainless is more than strong enough. The rudder stock on my fathers yacht is made out of it and that was made in 1978. The boat weighs 16 tons and the rudder (which gets a lot of pressure in up to force 8 gales and more out in the Irish Sea!) is a life critical (literally) part and shouldn't have any play. so I can live with it on a Midas door hinge.

[Hans Efde]

Sounds like quality stuff! The SS I work with is so soft, I need the very best and sharpest drills at low speed, else I smoke the drill and make just a dent! When I worked for KLM I visited Umbra Uscinetti who were making all sorts of ball screws (jack actuators for the traling edge flaps on the wings) from SS. But to make the screws wear resistant, they heated the parts and then used a very strong electro magnet for induction hardening. The result was very impressive. A small layer appeared on the SS that was harder than chrome. Too bad this technology has not been used for other applications (as far as I know).

[manifold]

Ahhh..... Thats explains the KLM connection in your pics. A few of my mates round here work as engineers for BAE systems.....so it comes in handy!

Talking of which my mum made me a 'home made' birthday card last week, and knowing how much she knows I like my Midas she went on the internet to get some pictures of Midas (without me knowing) to make a Midas themed card.....and when I opened the card yesterday it was a photo of your car.

I said, "hey mum, I know whose car that is, its Hans, the guy from Holland. He's nearly as nuts as me about Midas". LOL

[Hans Efde]

After a long time doing nothing, I have completed mod and overhaul of my doorhinges.

doorhinges01.jpg (37.38 KiB) Viewed 8271 times

Bolts are now metric, after welding the heads have been ground off and all painted in matching 2 pack. I got special 8mm bolts from my brother (in Dutch "pasbout") , don't know the English word. They have a long solid 8mm shaft (normal 8mm bolts are 7,9mm), so no play. It's now possible to remove play by just turning the nut, or remove the bolt and take the hinges apart.

[Geoff Butcher]

I think David should organise a group buy of titanium hinges!

[manifold]

Your hinges look great Hans.

Great stuff...and how they should have been in the first place.