Rebuilding Driver Door Hinges (Part 1)

I've needed to rebuild the driver door hinges for a long time now. The hinges need to be rebuilt as they allow the door to sag slightly. This causes the driver door window to contact the quarter window when fully rolled up. Additionally, the latch which holds the driver door open is completely worn down. Since the fender is off, now is the best time as it is easy to reach all the bolts.

I decided to rebuild the hinges due to the cost of reproduction hinges. The top hinge on a '67 is $72.95 and the lower hinge is $63.50. The rebuild kit for a door (two hinges) was about $15 which is significantly cheaper. While I might think better of it later, my budget currently demands that I rebuild the existing hinges.

My plan was to keep the door closed and remove one hinge at a time. I started with the lower hinge and marked the location of the hinge on both the pilar and door. I then took pictures of the hinges and door gaps. I then removed the lower hinge and started the rebuilding process.

The most difficult part was removing the pins from the hinge. This literally took at least two hours total. I soaked the pins in PBlaster and then used a hammer and old bolt to punch out the pins. The hardest was one pin which was sealed on the bottom. The only way I could remove it was to use a hammer and flat head screw driver to get the pin off.

Once the pins were out, I used a wire wheel to clean up the hinge. I then put about four coats of Krylon primer on each of the pieces. I also took this time to clean the surface rust from where the hinge mounted and coated it with rust converter.

I then attempted to reinstall the pins. I used a hammer and covered the end of the pin with a towel to keep from damaging the end of the pin. The process worked great until the final pin when I hit my thumb with the hammer. I squeezed it tightly and waited for the pain to go away and noticed a large amount of blood coming from between my fingers. Ends up, I split open my thumb by sandwiching it between the hammer and door hinge. I suppose this is the blood part of the blood, sweat, and tears.

I'll need to wait 48 hours for the rust converter to completely seal the rust where the hinge mounts. Once this is done, I'll install the lower hinge and rebuild the top hinge. The top hinge should be easier as it has one pin rather than the three the lower hinge had.