Do your hinges look like this? all wobbled out and worn? Mine were all worn and oversized holes from wear. After some measuring I made a trip to my local hardware store.. I bought a piece of 1/4" rod and some 3/8" outer DIA 1/4" inner DIA Oillite type bushings. I think they were 1" long bushings and I split them for two bushings per hinge. I cut the 1/4" rod about 3/8" long to allow for a trim to flush. All in all I spent about $15 at hardware store. 1/4" DIA rod was plenty to allow for a pretty large "worn" hole on a set of hinges. First: I drilled out the hinge ends to allow the two hinge pieces to seperate with a little heat and a BFH knocked out the pins from inner hinge. If heat does not do the trick you should drill them out by building a jig to keep them plumb. Heat did the trick for me Second: drill existing inner hole 17/64" witch is the size just a little larger than the 1/4" rod. This will allow the rod to hold a lil lithium or some type of grease. also drill holes in the outer hinge pocket piece with this same 17/64" drill bit. If your hinges are worn even more than this I used a trick in the end to get them aligned. Third: Cut Bushings in half or if you can find smaller bushings at store get two 1/2" bushings per hinge. Using same jig or drill press as the pin hole drill in 1/2" or so with a 3/8" bit to allow the bushing to have a semi tight fit when slid into outer hinge pocket. When these three steps are complete you should have something that looks like below pics Fourth: Test fit everything,, It should fit pretty tight I found that a little bit of work with a emery paper on the pin and some 400 grit inside the bushing like a hone made them fit just perfect. I dont have the bushings in all the way in above photo. just test fitting. They slide very nice in above photo Below photo you can see how the system will work. The steel rod will ride on the oillite bushing because in the end we are going to weld the pin to the outer pocket. The finished hinge will look something like this on both sides.. you can work the bushings at the surface to get a nice fit of inner hinge into the pocket. These original hinges are steel so we can plug weld this to look almost identical to a pin. can you ever take them apart again? well no but they lasted 85 years steel to steel,, enough said Ok now a little trick only if your outer hinge pockets are worn beyond the 17/64" drill bit size. 1.****emble new hinge systemand close them together 2. Make sure both inner and outer are perfectly aligned together 3. Center pin on top and bottom then plug weld 4. Done yep that easy lol keeps em aligned Here is my finished product below installed, as you can see they work DAMN good and dont SQUEEEEAK. I just drilled out the rivets they were installed in and used existing holes with new countersunk bolts and nyloc nuts,, boom done.. I hope you find this useful because I about passed out when I saw what new hinges cost!!!!
How about getting some long 1/4"*****on head bolts that will reach all the way through before the threads start. Cut them to the right length. You can grind the socket indent off the top of the head and it will look like the stock hinge pin. Don't drill your bottom hole of the hinge bore any bigger. By driving the 1/4" cutt-off bolt into that bottom hole it should lock in place. Then you can take these apart later to re-bush if necessary.
toyed with this, but bolts were to inconsistent in dia. they slopped around in the bushings.. I actually bought stainless rod but opted out for the fact it would not lock into place after welding as good. I guess if you had some high dollar bolts they would be closer to the 1/4" but even the stainless bolts I tried pretty much*****ed again was tryin to keep this on the cheeep
FYI.. If you buy a full set of bronze ones, they are MORE than what I sell mine for... and the mounting holes are NOT drilled in them..and they are cast!
Heres a thread on how to make hinges from scratch. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=298292 And I agree, when I was looking for new hinges, I got the feeling I was trying to buy a model A and not just the hinges.
actually prime the ones I found were like $475 for a set and they were not drilled.. I had not seen your set. If mine were totally gone your set looks like a good option.. I am losing the top hinge since Im chopped little over 6" so I only had 4 of these to fix.. and $15 is a long way from a new set .. I do like the screw plates you have there on your website I made something similar but it welded to the car.. I know what it takes to mass produce and create an item like you have and your prices are great but im a broke $#$k and have to try and pinch where I can thought I would share some friendly advice for someone that did not have hinges that were to far gone thanks for chimin in I had not seen your website
yep I saw that thread,, man those hinges were "TOASTY" lol that guy did an awesome job. luckily mine was an easy fix
Not a prob, just my red flag popped up like you were on a bashin' spree at my expense NBD, it's all good. That price ($475) is for the cast bronze ones which are total***** Chinese junk. I like your tech on fixing your originals, that's a good alternative to buying new ones, If I had originals like yours, I'd try to fix them also. I sell parts and pieces also along with full sets so you don't have to buy a full set if you only need 1 piece, they interchange dimensionally with OEM Ford hinges so everything jives. The reason for the hardware install kit I offer was for the DIY guy in his garage tryin to mount hinges that's all, nothing special about it. Simple solution. Honestly, I'm NOT makin a killing on hinge sales, believe me, I just about break even with production costs. If I could make them for $50.00 I'd sell them for $75.00.. the law of 3's (Manufacturing cost, Retail, and Profit) doesn't really apply in my case, especially the profit part. If I did sell them for profit, they would be over $500 a set which I think prices them out of the market of practicality. I make em so hot rodders, shops, guys in there garages don't have to fight with what they have. Funny thing, I had a shop owner call me last summer about a set of hinges for a customer's vehicle and he knew about the thread on " How to make your own hinges" the one that the link was just posted by Prewarcars4me...He calculated the time it would take to make all 6 and it was in the ballpark of $600.00!!! way out of the realm of feasibility cost wise for the customer, but If you're a hobbyist, money and time are completely two different things.
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