Door hinge pin replacement.

[Tucaz520]

Long time no post for me but the 73 Mach1 has found its way back to the top of my project list. 

I have cleared all the clutter of the car and have even got her registered and legal. 

I have a new set of door panels ready to go on but dont want to install them until i get the hinge pins replaced to get the sag out door.

I have in my hands ready to go the hinge pin kits from NPD. 

They look pretty universal and say cut to fit. 

I'm aware that the old pins must be cut to be removed. The plan there is to get an air saw and some good blades. 

What I'm stumped with is installing the new pins. Specifically on the top hinge.  With the curvature of the door there doesn't appear to be adequate room to intall the new pins from the top. But if i install from the bottom up what keeps the pin from working itself out.   Is there a better quality or more model specific hinge pin kit?

Every video i have found on you tube has the hinge removed from either the door side or both sides and done on a bench in a vice.  I'm trying not to unbolt the hinge and have to fight with it to align when i reinstall.

Can anyone shed some light on how they accomplished this?

 

[Hemikiller]

... so you'd rather fight with it on the door in that very small space, while trying to keep the door from dropping, closing or landing on your foot?

Save yourself the hassle and take the hinge off, or at the very least, pull the fender. You can mark around the bolt heads, so when you put it back on, you can get the alignment very close on the first shot.

 

[vintageman]

That's what I did, took the fender off, marked the placement of the hinges and took one off at a time. Door alignment was very minor when putting the hinges back on and now I have no sag and the door closes and latches with very little effort.

Tom

 

[mudbilly]

How hard is it to take off the fenders?

 

[Tucaz520]

Would I rather? No thats why I'm here asking if anyone has successfully done this.

If anything i think i would unbolt the door from the hinge before the fender. The way i nderstand it the door will have to come off anyway once the pins are removed.

 

[Carolina_Mountain_Mustangs]

Once you have removed a fender it gets pretty easy.

You have one bolt from the end next to the door up top going in toward the front. There are two bolts coming in from the bottom of the fender behind the front wheel.

There are three bolts connecting the front valance. Then look inside the headlight bucket and you will see I think 4 or 6 that connect the fender to the radiator support and the headlight bucket.

Then down the top of the fender are the bolts holding to the inner fender.

This also gives you an opportunity to clean out any trash behind the fenders and make sure any cracks in the sealer on your torque boxes are sealed up. Also you can block the cowl drains so mice cannot get in. Use stainless steel scrubber pads and just put enough in so the critters cannot go in but let water out.

If you do not want to scribe the paint around the hinge just put some masking tape around the outside to show where it was.

Did your pins come with new bushings? If not you need to get a better set.











pic host

 

[rackerm]

Would I rather? No thats why I'm here asking if anyone has successfully done this.

If anything i think i would unbolt the door from the hinge before the fender.  The way i nderstand it the door will have to come off anyway once the pins are removed.

I found it easier to remove the hinges from the car (and door), especially since you will have to adjust the door anyway after installing the repaired hinges. The pins are splayed on the end so I found it easier to just cut the pin in the middle and push the two parts out from the center. I used a Sawsall.

Keep in mind, that if your hinges are really worn, it is likely that the bronze bushing is completely worn out and it may be that the hinge pin holes are no longer round. If the hole is not round the new bushing will wear out real fast and your door will be loose again. I had one hinge so badly worn that the holes were not round. I found a set of bushing at NAPA that had the same inside diameter but were slightly oversized in the outside diameter (thicker walled) compared to the originals. I drilled the hinge pin hole slightly larger to make it round again and used the oversized bushing. It worked perfectly.

Also, some of the pins are installed with the pin head on the bottom. I don't know why that is. I installed all my pins head on top. Either way, you should splay the pin end to make sure it can't work its way out over time. I also had to trim and bevel the ends on my pins to the right length before I installed them.

 

[Qcode351mach]

The best most rock solid upgrade to your Mustangs door hinges is the Mustang Steve hinge rebuild kit BEST I've ever seen or used ! I mean there's even a zerg fitting to grease the hinge ! If your removing the hinge why play around with anything but the best ? Also a note on panel alignment, The easiest most accurate way to insure perfect alignment be able to put the panel back where it was before you removed it is to "INDEX MARK " the panel before removal. On my car I spent a good 50 hours aligning ALL the panels prior to perfecting all the gaps with metal so total time spent probably a 100 hours just on that ! In order to insure I could then remove a panel and put it back exactly where it was prior every panel is index marked. I have a video explaining the process, I also have videos on how to to do the Mustang Steve hinge rebuild . part 1
part 2
Index marking panels

 

[Paul M]

Long time no post for me but the 73 Mach1 has found its way back to the top of my project list.

I have cleared all the clutter of the car and have even got her registered and legal.

I have a new set of door panels ready to go on but dont want to install them until i get the hinge pins replaced to get the sag out door.

I have in my hands ready to go the hinge pin kits from NPD.

They look pretty universal and say cut to fit.

I'm aware that the old pins must be cut to be removed. The plan there is to get an air saw and some good blades.

What I'm stumped with is installing the new pins. Specifically on the top hinge. With the curvature of the door there doesn't appear to be adequate room to intall the new pins from the top. But if i install from the bottom up what keeps the pin from working itself out. Is there a better quality or more model specific hinge pin kit?

Every video i have found on you tube has the hinge removed from either the door side or both sides and done on a bench in a vice. I'm trying not to unbolt the hinge and have to fight with it to align when i reinstall.

Can anyone shed some light on how they accomplished this?

I added the pin replacement in Media files. Go on Media and go back @ page 12. I drilled them and tapped them out. 1 goes in upside down if memory serves me right & I did cut them after since they are universal fit. Some reaming is necessary. I believe I measured the distance the doors were hanging and stacked some blocks n pcs of wood up to hold the doors in place for door install.

 

[72mokk1]

For a few bucks you can make one of these to jack/hold your door while you take the hinge off. My hinge pins needed much persuasion to come out.
You can also put blocks and shim the door up.

 

[rcadd1ct]

I did the mustang Steve hinge upgrade.

Was the first welding project so it could have gone better, but had a grinder and they came out passable.

 

[BUCKWHEAT]

For a few bucks you can make one of these to jack/hold your door while you take the hinge off. My hinge pins needed much persuasion to come out.
You can also put blocks and shim the door up.

I bought a 4-wheel hydraulic lift cart, put the Mustang door kitty-corner on it, shimmed one corner of the door on the cart to get it 'level' with the door frame. Then rolled the cart and door up to the frame and bolted the hinges in place. No heavy lifting and one minor adjustment to get it done. I did tape the hinge locations before removal.

 

[72mokk1]

I bought a 4-wheel hydraulic lift cart, put the Mustang door kitty-corner on it, shimmed one corner of the door on the cart to get it 'level' with the door frame. Then rolled the cart and door up to the frame and bolted the hinges in place. No heavy lifting and one minor adjustment to get it done. I did tape the hinge locations before removal.

Nice, I was looking at buying a door lift but I couldn't justify the price for 2 doors when I had all the material to put a make shift one together. I did have to have the wife steady the door while I jockeyed it into place.