Door Hinge Pin Removal 328

i have a hinge pin that worked its way loose on the pass side door on the GTB and i cant get it to go back in!

 

If you figure it out, please share; I'm having the same problem and so far no dealer I've contacted knows either. I'm working with a restoration body shop and he may be able to offer some advice.

 

I have a pin that needs replacement on my GT4 and I can't get it out either. It is still on the car, so it sounds like you are (at least) one step ahead of me. I have a theory based purely on...nothing, just a guess. I think that maybe the hinge pin is worn into a sort of lightning bolt pattern. The door side of the hinge wears its section of pin at the front and the car side of the hinge wears its pin on the rear side. It might need to be aligned well to get it out, or it might have worn a ratchet system where it will only come out in one direction. But you have it off the car, so alignment shouldn't be as much an issue as with the door hanging on it. I was hoping to be able to do this without removing the door! Let me know what you find.

 

i have 2 driver's-side pins i'd like to replace due to slight door sag.
perhaps one of our illustrious consultants could come to our rescue.
i'm offering 2 bottles of gold, extra, extra virgin blinker oil to the 1st one supplying the straight, no chaser tutorial.

 

Hmmm. Weird you guys bring up pins NOW. Just last night I was again contemplating this, and tonight I took the passenger door into the shop (it's been back in the storeroom since last summer). Last summer I had tried to carefully knock out the pins only to mildly mushroom the c-clip ends, they never moved a thou and are frozen tight in the door side of the hinge. The pins seem rather soft on the end, all I used was a brass drift.

Before I go any further I am going to lop the end of the pin off flush with the hinge with a dremel. I ran a 1/4-20 tap into the grease zerk hole, and I'll get some threaded rod and use a slide hammer instead of a drift and hammer like I used last time. But before I try moving it again I am going to heat up the center hinge section (door side) and try to get some more penetrant into the hinge.

 

OK, I made another attempt at this last night. I'm working on the bottom hinge pin on my GT4. I've wacked it a bunch and it won't move. So now I'm looking at removing the door. I only see the bolts holding the hinge to the jamb, not any holding the hinge to the door and I couldn't feel anything there with the door panel off. I assume this is either welded in or only accessible with the door skin off. I tried the hex bolts with an allen wrench, but no luck. I tried an allen socket and a weak impact wrench, on three of the bolts with no movement. I guess I'll try the next impact wrench size/quality up. I squirted the backside of the bolts with penetrant last night and I'm letting it stew.

What do these bolts go into? Is there adjustment here that I need to be prepared to deal with? Oblong slots or a floating plate on the back of the door pillar that these screws go into?

 

OK, I went at it again. I tried to remove a few hinge bolts. I wacked the center of each bolt with a punch a 2lb slegde to shock any rust and corrosion. Inserted the hex bit, tapped it in gently until it bottomed it out and proceeded to strip out the hex in the bolt head. I drilled down the center of the bolt with a 3/16" bit and then drilled it with 3/8 and removed the head. The bolt shank came out just by sticking a screwdriver in the first hole and twisting it. I didn't have have to ritually break off the end of an easy-out like usual or anything. The next one came out easily, no stripping, no drama. The third backed right out as well. The fourth stripped, it was drilled and gave no trouble, just like the first. Two for four, not bad, could be better. I supported the door bottom and played with the bottom hinge, the top stayed bolted on.

So now I know that the pin is really married to the center hinge section, the part attached to the door. It isn't the door weight that's not letting the pin out. The reason I'm going after this whole thing in the first place is I have door sag and my biggest concern is that top corner of the door frame is just starting to hit the rear window frame. The aluminum won't put up with that at all. For now I cut a bit of stainless shim stock and shimmed the bottom hinge to lift the rear of the door. It is a tad low from perfect, but it solves the problem for now.

I will be getting eight new bolts and using a bit of anti-seize on them for the next person. After I get some new window fuzzy stuff I will remove the whole door and give the hinge a second (third?) round.

 

Oh, the answer to my question above: Yes, there is adjustment at the hinge. The bolts go into a floating plate that clamps the door pillar support which has oversize holes. Mine was stuck in place with paint, rust, luck or some combination. I do not want to re-align the door!