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 Joel
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| posted on July 28th, 2010 at 12:25 PM |
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How-To: Replacing door hinges
One of the downsides to owning a solid well built old car is they have solid well built old doors, which weigh a metric shit load
All well and good for the first 20 years of the cars life but after that the hinge pins tend to wear out and the doors start to sag when open.
I think nearly every beetle I've owned has required the old Lift and Shut door closing proceedure due to worn hinges
New hinges used to be available along time back but I havent checked up these days to see if thats still the case, but I have a feeling they are
NLA.
So the next best thing is to have the pins driven out, hinges reamed and oversize pins put in.
This can be performed with the hinges still on the door, but If you have an old rusty or dented door with good hinges still they can be swapped.
The other thing that can also happen is the hinges can get bent, which is the case with my bugs driverside door courtesy of my careless f**king ex
The bend is very obvious on my top hinge, as is the nice dent to the door skin where the door hit the hinge.
The lower hinge is actually bent where it mounts inside the door, but the door gap or lack of between it and the A pillar, and similar dent in the
door skin tell the story
You would be hard pressed to slip a buisness card in the gap and also as a result the gap at the B pillar end is now that large that the door seal
wasnt doing its job and I don't fancy driving to valla in this shitty weather with no heater and a cold shoulder.
Fortunately I have a nice straight solid original 74 door with good hinges here and most sane people would just respray this and swap it over.
But by the time I swap over my electric window and centrol locking setup, paint it, fit a new scraper and trim, swap in my tinted glass and smokers
window, mounted my vitaloni mirror etc it's easier to just transfer the good hinges over to my existing door.
Seems a waste of a good door but it will probably only ever sit and never get used only to be crushed anyway.
So here's the proceedure for swapping hinges for anyone else who finds themselves in this situation.
All beetles are like this and I'll be that kombi, type3 KG etc are all similar
The hinges are held to the door with steel rivets
The top one has 4 or sometimes 3 thanks to cost cutting near the seal area.
The bottom has 2 rivets in this spot,
and a 3rd hiding under the door panel.
If your undertaking this job then one would assume you know how to drill out rivets
Its critical to get the drill dead center so a good centerpop does the trick so as to not ruin the tapered seat
I use a 6.5mm drill bit
After 36 years or more in the one spot they can be pretty stubborn, I use a block of wood and a BFH on the center of the hinge.
Bottom one may take some wriggling out due to the shape, mine really put up a fight cos of the bend in it.
Operation repeated on other door.... and you can see my problem
A rough straighten of the bent door skin for now
While psyching up myself up for the worst part I stood back and admired my new African Safari Edition Beetle and prayed for no rain
Now cos I dont have a VW factory in the backyard with rivets and riveting machine but I do have an abundance of these around the choice was made
easy.
They're just 1/4" allen key tapered bolts that I use in my harvestor for the wheel pack pivots.
There's sweet FA room up inside the door around the top hinge to get the nuts on and you will end up with lots of skinned knuckles and an extended
vocabulary.
It helps to take out the checkrod for a bit of extra room to work.
I probably should have used nyloc nuts but maybe next time.
And there you have it, they will self locate due to the tapered bolts
Wattle hinges stick out like dogs balls on a white car, I'll paint them after valla.
Atleast now I have a door seal that works and normal gaps and shuts like a new one again.
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68AutoBug
A.k.a.: Lee Noonan
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 posted on July 28th, 2010 at 01:12 PM |
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excellent job Joel..
but finding two good hinges may be difficult..
especially on a drivers door....
unless it was a lhd door... ?
great work.... first time I've ever heard of it done...
now everyone will be checking out Your door hinges at Valla Nambucca heads....
lol
cheers
Lee
- [size=4]Helping keep Air Cooled VWs on the road - location: SCONE in the Upper Hunter Valley - Northern NSW 320 kms NNW of SYDNEY--- [/size]
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 vw54
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| posted on July 28th, 2010 at 01:44 PM |
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yeah good story
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1303Steve
A.k.a.: Steve Carter
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| posted on July 28th, 2010 at 02:06 PM |
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Hi
CIP have new ones 19 & 26 USD each.
Both my 1303s have perfect hinges, my old 1302 bug had very worn hinges.
Steve
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68AutoBug
A.k.a.: Lee Noonan
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| posted on July 28th, 2010 at 03:25 PM |
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| Quote: | Originally
posted by 1303Steve
Hi
CIP have new ones 19 & 26 USD each.
Both my 1303s have perfect hinges, my old 1302 bug had very worn hinges.
Steve
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they would be heavy Steve...
probably cost $60+ freight..
it was going to cost Me $42 freight for 4 of those rear torsion bar rubbers....
LEE
anyone local sell the hinges??
Alternately , take the hinges off the door... as per Joels..
then replace the pins.... and reinstall the hinges....
LEE
- [size=4]Helping keep Air Cooled VWs on the road - location: SCONE in the Upper Hunter Valley - Northern NSW 320 kms NNW of SYDNEY--- [/size]
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Joel
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| posted on July 28th, 2010 at 04:21 PM |
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They're not terribly heavy, but it's good to know there are still new ones out there
Good Originals are rapidly running out
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modulus
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| posted on July 28th, 2010 at 04:33 PM |
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A useful tech post.
Was it difficult to drive the pins out?
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cam070
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| posted on July 28th, 2010 at 08:28 PM |
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| Quote: | Originally
posted by modulus
A useful tech post.
Was it difficult to drive the pins out?
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He didn't change the pins in this job, but I'd be interested to see the change/redrill pins technique. Anyone?
BTW well done Joel, always full of useful tips.
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1303Steve
A.k.a.: Steve Carter
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| posted on July 28th, 2010 at 09:01 PM |
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| Quote: | Originally
posted by 68AutoBug
| Quote: | Originally
posted by 1303Steve
Hi
CIP have new ones 19 & 26 USD each.
Both my 1303s have perfect hinges, my old 1302 bug had very worn hinges.
Steve
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they would be heavy Steve...
probably cost $60+ freight..
it was going to cost Me $42 freight for 4 of those rear torsion bar rubbers....
LEE
anyone local sell the hinges??
Alternately , take the hinges off the door... as per Joels..
then replace the pins.... and reinstall the hinges....
LEE
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Hi
The most cost effective way to buy form the states is to buy high value stuff that is light weight, those hinges are heavy so to offset the freight
cost you must buy things that are light.
Steve
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modulus
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| posted on July 28th, 2010 at 09:04 PM |
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| Quote: | Originally
posted by cam070
He didn't change the pins in this job...
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Ah, I see, he swapped the hinges without disassembling them...
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Joel
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| posted on July 28th, 2010 at 09:21 PM |
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Even if it cost $150 I'd gladly pay it for sake of having nice tight doors
Its not so bad shutting from the outside but trying to pull shut a saggy door from in the car with those limp vw arm rests gets tiring.
I gotta get used to the bug being sealed well now, I forgot how hard it is to shut the doors with the windows up when the seals are all good
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oval TOFU
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| posted on July 28th, 2010 at 10:53 PM |
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Nice tech post! Now you'll have to crack open your 1/4 window to close the door.. hopefully the hinges on that won't wear out now 
...and Robert's ya father's brother...
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annosL
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| posted on July 29th, 2010 at 01:00 AM |
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easier than I thought, thanks Joel, maybe those bent hinges could be straightened in a press?
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Joel
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| posted on July 29th, 2010 at 09:27 AM |
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Im sure someone with the patience and a press could do it,
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68AutoBug
A.k.a.: Lee Noonan
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| posted on July 29th, 2010 at 02:30 PM |
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| Quote: | Originally
posted by modulus
A useful tech post.
Was it difficult to drive the pins out?
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He didn't drive the pins out as the hinges were damaged/bent
LEE
PS: Pins are very hard to knock out... although some people say they were easy.. lol I'd rather do it this way.... Lee
- [size=4]Helping keep Air Cooled VWs on the road - location: SCONE in the Upper Hunter Valley - Northern NSW 320 kms NNW of SYDNEY--- [/size]
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71-BEETLE-SEDAN
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| posted on July 29th, 2010 at 04:33 PM |
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Joel, before you replaced them if your door swung open would it "click" once it reached a certain point. Mine does and it doesnt seal well at all
and i cant see a bend in the hinges but i wanna know if its worth repplacing the hinges.
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HappyDaze
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| posted on July 29th, 2010 at 05:45 PM |
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Josh, if you want to bring the car around, I can have a look - it may be easy to fix.
I'd rather wear a Beetle out by racing it than by polishing it!
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Joel
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| posted on July 29th, 2010 at 07:03 PM |
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Josh that click just before its completley open is the checkrod doing its job, it holds the door open if your not on flat ground
you may need to tweak the adjustment of the hinges and/or the catch if its not lining up sweet
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dangerous
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| posted on August 2nd, 2010 at 10:56 AM |
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nice work Joel.
great tech story!
| Quote: | Originally
posted by westi
That's mad Alan.
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71-BEETLE-SEDAN
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| posted on August 4th, 2010 at 09:46 PM |
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Sticky anyone
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Joel
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| posted on August 5th, 2010 at 10:19 PM |
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I've already stickied it to my thread list
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1303Steve
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| posted on August 6th, 2010 at 12:01 AM |
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Hi
I was looking through my stash tonight and I found 2 NOS top hinges, cool.
Steve
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psimitar
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| posted on July 8th, 2012 at 11:32 PM |
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Just to update this for anyone not wanting to pay for USA shipping.
VW
Heritage Door hinges
These guys are very cheap for shipping compared to the US and with the current exchange rate the cost of the hinges is bout same as USA
Just incase anyone is doing this to their VW. Think I'll try heating and BFH-ing my bent ones back into shape.
My 50 year old hinges appear to have no play in them at all. Makes the door frame move when I wiggle the door
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