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Frozen Hinges

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Csarneson

Csarneson

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My poor 100/6 sat in a barn for 40 years in pieces. I am getting ready to blast and repair the chassis but realized that 3 of my 4 door hinges are stuck. It takes a tremendous amount of effort to move them. Obviously if I am going to test fit my doors I need to get them restored. Can anybody provide advice on this?

It looks like I should be able to hammer out the pin but is there a particular direction it needs to go? On two of them I can see a punch mark that was probably done to keep the pin in place. Is there an easy source for new pins?

Thanks!

Chris
 
Working them loose with heat can work. I've done similiar style hinges by heating and working back and forth for awhile to "grind up" the dirt and rust inside them. But it's not reall a long term fix. The best is to replace the pins and to do that it's unlikely you'll be able to remove them without a press since one end will be an interference fit to keep the pin in place and not rotating in the hinge. So they'll need to got to someone with a press and mill to remove, line drill and fit slightly oversize new pins. If you do this they should be like new. A competent machine shop should be able to if you decide to go this route.
 
Two of my four hinges were similarly semi-seized. I believe the hinges are aluminum, and the pin is steel, so my guess is that some corrosion occurred. Penetrating oil, heat, and pressing did nothing to budge the pins. So I drilled out the pins on my drill press--it was tricky clamping and setting them up in my machinist's vise, but once set up they drilled out pretty easily. I did not remove any hinge material as I used a drill slightly smaller than the diameter of the hole, though I don't recall what size I used. Just keep the bit smaller than the pin itself, and you wind up with a thin tube of pin material that pushes right out. For new pins, I used a suitably sized deep shouldered bolt, cut to length. It is not a press fit, but does not need to be.
 
So Hugh when I first read your post I thought you were absolutely crazy. I mean what kind of an idiot would try to drill out hinge pins? Fast forward to two hours later when I had just used more penetrating oil, more heat, and a bigger press, and STILL failed miserably. There I was at the drill press drilling away. Your idea worked! It took a while because I was so afraid of ruining the hinge but I was able to get one of the hinges apart. I just purchased a new pin and will try re-assembling it tonight. Thanks for the crazy idea! Now I still have three more to do...

Chris
 
Chris, glad the nutty idea worked! Yes, I was surprised how easily the old pin drilled out. One thing to be careful of that I should have mentioned: There are three "leaves" that the hinge pin passes through--two of which are part of one half of the hinge, and one (the middle one) is part of the other half of the hinge. When your drill transitions from one leaf to the middle leaf, the middle leaf can shift (since it is separate) and jam your drill. It happened to me on one of my hinges and I almost broke the drill.

Good continued luck!
 
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