Packard Forum Index » Post-War (1946-54)

So I pulled my hinges last night and this is what I found.

Pins are not only worn, but they are bent as well, particularly the top one. In the second picture you can see some hammer marks on the hinge, which is maybe the cause of the bent pin.



I know the service manual says to lubricate the hinges, but I didn't know, until I took mine apart, that the hinge has a little hole in the bend that goes to the pin! Maybe all old vehicles are like this, but it's a great idea! The pin is clearly designed to distribute the lubricant. If you haven't lubricated your door hinges through that little hole, do your car a favour and get it done!



Another issue, particularly with the bottom hole of the top bracket, is that it is a bit egg shape. So some of the movement is coming from here as well. I'm going to weld around there to beef it up and bit and just doing that will probably shrink it enough to tighten it back up. If not I'll build it up and drill it back out.



The holes in the hinges themselves are not very worn, so I won't need to drill and put in bushings. The top one is a bit looser than the bottom, so I'll swap the top for the bottom.



I don't see any reason that when I'm all done they will be good to go for another 70 years! Especially with proper lubrication!

For that effort I think you could find a nicer pair that would mostly just work.

Can you take measurements with a caliper and check what your values are for everything?

Not much effort at all, and I would rather have hinges that are 100% for the driver's door.







Hinges must have been mounted before cars were painted. I cleaned it up and gave it a light coat of paint even though there was only some very minor surface rust.

That definitely looks like paint under there though?

Quote:

Do you mean where I painted it?

Super pleased with my hinge rebuild, the driver's door falls closed and latches even with new door seals.

I picked up the hinge pin kit pictured below from Napa (DBP 38423 $14 Cdn) thinking it would give me lots of options. I could use the correct size pin, drill out and oversize the pin, or add bushings. As it turned out, building up where the pin when through the hinge and replacing the pin with the factory size was the ticket.

The one thing these pins from NAPA do not have, compared to the originals are the grease grooves. I thought about adding them, but decided to just lubricate that door a little more often than the others.




Cleaning up where the hinges mount to the A pillar made door adjustment easier as well. Having said that, I never find door adjustment is "easy", lots of tweaking to get gaps as nice as possible and the door closing nicely. I would have been kicked off of the Packard assembly line! LOL

Did you build up the door or body side of the hinge?

How did you "build up"? Welding?

On the top hinge the most movement was coming from the bottom pin hole in the bracket. Welding around it built it up and shrunk it enough that with a small amount of file work I could get the pin nice and snug. I did the same for both holes on both brackets.




Getting rid of the free play and the bent pins, which I think were binding as the door closed, made a world of difference.