Door Hinges n Stuff Part 2

Now for the pain in the butt part.

The hinge pins for the Mustang are too long and the splines are too long under the head.

On the lathe they go.

I got them down to the stem dimension. However I have noticed on many of these old door hinges the pin working its way loose and the head was up on quite a few of them. Since these were longer I had a plan to alleviate that.

I'll notch the pins at the bottom for a E ring and they will not work up anymore.

Now to cut them down a bit.

That's the idea.

Now for the rollers and their pins. Well they too are both too long. The roller will need to be cut and I'll have to very carefully turn that small pin down a bit on the unsplined shank so it will press into the lower arm of the hinge.

That was a bit tedious because they are so short.

I cut the rollers and now these should work.

This is my fixture for blasting and painting those detent springs.

Finally ready for assembly.

And we have one complete set of hinges that work correctly now.

I packed that small cavity between the bushings with semi-synthetic water proof grease with teflon and also the roller. This should be good for another 25 years with zero maintenance.

I opted to try stainless hardware for the hinges in lieu of stripping a few dozen rusty door bolts, then treating and painting them all. I am getting excited about painting the body now.

I am using a Belleville washer spring washer as the locking portion then a wider washer to spread the load. It is stainless so no worries about corrosion.

Note : We had a 1966 4 door post car as a parts car and the rear door upper hinges were made from cast aluminum. Our current '66 LTD 4 door hardtop have the same hinges in the rear doors. Now that '68 LTD 4 door hardtop parts car that recently was cut up for parts had stamped steel rear door upper hinges. Ford must have learned it was cheaper to stamp both pieces out of steel rather than cast and machine aluminum.

Cheers