Tech 101 01 GMC door hinge repair

riotwarrior

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Ok As a FORD guy I cant recall ever dropping down here into the basement but eh....why not.

One of the regular Ford guys said we need more chev tech:rotflmao

What will you need?

Patience....

Annular cutter at least 1/2" dia per instruction however I used a 3/4" one.

Drill capable of running annular cutter

1/8 and 1/2" drill bits

Angle grinder with flapwheel or hard disc or both.

Auto centre punch and a regular centre punch and hammer

Air chisel and or cold chisels and pry bars

Hammers MFH AND MLFH OR BFH

10 mm socket

Two guys or engine crane and zling like I did.

Welder....MIG

Repair hinges and new pins...get genuine GM parts for best results.

Spot to work on the door....I used an inverted fruit bin.

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Primer and paint to match truck...or not match...yer choice. If not matching might I suggest.....wait for it...."ROOSTER **** PINK"

This article is for a drivers door...

Remove doore from truck by removjng the 10mm bolts holding hinges together and 10mm retention strap bolt.

Undo electrical from behind fuse panel on LH side of dash and behind kick panel. Remove boot from A pillar to door....A pillar side...see that white plastic grommet like part...reach in from kick panel find the two clips press it outwards and the whole wire and plug will now pass out.

Lift off door now and begin to follow instructions to replace hing on door...older model doors are welded on and newer ones use bolts....this Tech 101 is for welded hinge sets.

I cheated after reading the instructions. I created a template from cardboard and the new hinges so az to accurately mark the old hinges for removal.

Here is the door hinges 2 coats primer 2 of paint baked 150 for 20 min per first 3 coats fknal bake 175-200 for 2 hrs...ya single has prifledges...

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E D I T......ADD PHOTO OF TEMPLATE HERE


This shows the hinges on the door marked with a centre punch. Also CAREFULLY scribe the hinges position on the door take care doing the two half circled edges they are key to doing a great job.

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Close up and I zinged the hinge with the annular cutter for effect.

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Here is a video for those not familiar with an annular cutter..or spot weld cutter

https://youtu.be/htlCsPbJsw8

Either tape or felt pen as seen in vid or measure depth of cut but do not go too deep and damage the door. Some cutting will go slightly deeper and welding comes into play later.

The instructions said to use a 13 mm or 1/2" cutter however based on experience and my trial fit of the 3/4" / 19mm cutter that is the size I chose. It more fully encompases the taper of the bolt hole in the hinge and would leave less weld material. I am glad I chose the larger one as very little weld remained and hinges came off with just a little love from a hammer and cold chisel and prybar...or air chisel.

Here is the first hinge off door.

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Hinge..

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Look close at the lower left cutter mark and between 10 and 12 oclock you can see a tiny bit of weld. This required pry chisel etc...there is some work involved...

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And the second hinge...is off as seen here. This one required a bit more TLC to get off.

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Close up you see where weld was left intact. Now this is why I chose the larger cutter.

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Ahhh...scrap metal..

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And another pile of scrap.

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That concludes this portion....stay tuned...more to come.

Thanks for looking
 
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riotwarrior

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Picking up where I left off.

One thing be extremely careful not to **** your cutter at an angle as this occurrs doh!
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Not a cheap tool to break. Fortunately it broke on the last hole as I was cutting it got crooked...

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Alls well job as seen above worked out.

So now we have 8 x 19mm or 3/4" nubs to deal with. Out comes a grinder and flap wheel. Again taking every precaustion so as to NOT LOSE MY CRITICAL SCRIBE LINES!!!!

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Here is my first set ground off...you can see I cut a bit deep. We will deal with that shortly so no worries.

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Second set ground and the scribe line is intact...

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Ahhh this is coming along nicely.

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Now using a black felt pen I marked the 8 centres zo a centre punch would show up well.

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I used the hinges lined up with the scribe lines and marked the centres as seen here. Then drilled 8 x 1/8" holes

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Now I welded up the cutter grooves...slowly tacking so as not to get too hot.

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So we have marked and removed and marked and ground and welded up hinge locations.

More to come

Thanks for looking.
 
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riotwarrior

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Picking back up from welding the grooves I needed to grind the welds flush for paint and hinge mounting.
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No pictures however I drilled 8 x 1/8" holes in my centre punched marks so I could maintain location of hinge placement.

Now I need some inside door access so I removed the inner door panel and was left with this.

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Couple of pics inside door and you can see my 1/8" pilot holes.
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I then cleaned the outside of the door where hinges will mount sanded the are and primered and painted thus being left with what we see here.
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Now with door back on the bin I carefully observed and remarked my scribe lines.

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Here in my hand are 1 old 1 new hinge see the one hole ovaled. There is no way a new pin can be made to work correctly in that hole. That is due to neglect and repeatadly tossing ***** pin kits in to aleviate a symptom but not cure the problem. Real repairs take time and $$$
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Here as per instructions are 8 holes drilled in door 1/2" diameter. Guess they want wiggle room.
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Yuppers we are on the way to success.

Hinges on

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Door panel on and door ready for installation.
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More to come...

Thanks for looking
 

riotwarrior

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Well between getting door done and going out to remove the ACTUAL HING PINS AND BUSHINGS, I discovered that the pin brackets were NFG. These are the little C sjaped brackets seen here.

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And here...

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Ah the agony...of crap worn TF out

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So I removed thos brackets ordered them again ay Murry GM in Penticton a d theze new ones showed up with new hinge pims too.

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Ahh 1 of the new pins in the new brackt too...

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And for chitzngigglz a new.pin in the old worn out brackt...splines cannot bite into bracket due to enlarged holez...this is why it is important to check all the parts before ordering.

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These new pins and brackets are premium quality. Notice the machined surfaces and oil hole for bushing lubrication.

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Top view...they came with rubber caps like for vacuum tees.

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The brackets got the same clean primer paint routimes has the door side himge had as seen below.

Also in this image you see an old bracket and 2 new ones, the bracket on left came with those pins and bushings. The bracket on the right is with a GM pin bushing kit I previously picked up. Both of the brackets came with the same pins as on left. This was for comparrison purposes to show you what the differences are.

You can clearly see the template I created by tracing the New hinges too.

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Premium pin kit with stop brackets....

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Normal GM pin kit...

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Pins and stop brackets installed in A pillar body side hinge halves. These hapves were in good condition and I didnt need to weld up and mahine out bushing holes as originally anticipated.

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More to come

Thanks for looking
 

riotwarrior

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And picking back up with new shiny parts.

I used locktite green bushing retainer to hold the pin bushings in place. Installed pins and oiled bushimgs ...well greased with a synthetic grease.

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And the lower one.

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Now slip the rubber boot onto the plastic grommet and install door.

I was skeptical that it would line up but Brian and I got it installed in about 5 minutes. Hinge pins lined up perfectly
With door in place tighten retention strap and the two stop brackets re install wiring and it should look like this!

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Or this here...
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When driving no more whistling no more draft easy one hand close. It totally changed the truck.

What you see here with pictures took almost 6 hours of pick n poke and prep and pai t work.

Thanks for looking

We are done.
 

icanfixall

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Al thats a complete pain in the ass job. Bolts are so mush simpler and who ever designed this was foolish.. But then again what engineer was not a fool...The know they will NEVER have to work on what they laughingly designed... But a very nice job done by you.
 

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