Door Hinges

[kram350kram]

Thought I would post my attempt and version of door hinges, to avoid the more costly units available.

Made of 1-1/8"OD Delrin (Acetal), 1-1/2"OD -1-1/8"ID acetal spacers, 1/2"-20 SS nuts and bolts, 1/8" SS spring pins, 1/4"-28 x 3/4" SS set screws, 1/4"-20SS threaded rod and coupling nuts and 1/16" thick olite washers.

The acetal is a slight press fit (1-1/8") into the door bobbins. Square hole, round peg. The 1-1/8"OD acetal is offset drilled about 1/8" to allow both in, out, fore and aft movement, an eccentric. The bolts are pinned to the acetal so the bolt and acetal move as one for adjustment and the unit as a whole pivots in the 1/2" body bobbin hole. Both top and bottom units adjust independently with the 1/4"-20 threaded rod holding the upper pivot unit in-place. The ends for the rod sit in a machined recess in the pivot bolts, with tension supplied by tighting the coupling and locked in place with the jam nut. The 1/4"-28 X 3/4" set screw is placed in a threaded hole drilled through the door bobbins preventing the pivot unit from moving in the door bobbin, ensuring the 1/2" pin rotates in the body bobbin, all on the olite washers. A 1-1/2" OD  1-1/8" ID acetal spacer, about .550" tall is what controls door height and pivots on the bottom door and body bobbins. 

I debated using the olite washers as acetal is self lubricating, but I had them so I used them. The door adjustment is great in all axes. Setting door height was a trail and error measurement. The 1/4"-28 set screw holes in the door are visible when the door is open, but a rubber plug will cover just fine. The whole assembly is somewhat of a hassle to install, but for $60 worth of Mc MasterCarr stuff and 2 days on the lathe, it was worth it.

Hope this helps others. 

[TurboFource]

Interesting! Any pics of it installed?

[kram350kram]

Installed

[gideon]

Have you tried adjusting the door yet?   I'm wondering if you have coupled the fore-aft adjustment to the in-out adjustment in a way that might mean you can't get the precise adjustment you need.  The eccentric only gives you points on a circle, instead of all the points inside a rectangle.

I'm genuinely curious.

[kram350kram]

Yes, adjusts perfectly. I was concerned with the fore and aft adjustment initially, so I placed the door in its correct closed position and marked the center of the bottom pin location, so I was really in the ball park to begin with. Rotating the pivots very minute amounts result in a major change in alignment in all directions, more so up and down at the rear of the door. Since I have the doors gutted for paint, once I place the windows, latch and interior weight back, this adjustment should come in handy. 

[EuropaTC]

I don't know if I'm interpreting this correctly, so this might be another "doh" moment.....

If the rod and end pins are fixed in the door shell with the pins rotating in the body bushes, then I'd consider replacing or inserting sleeves in the upper & lower body bushes. You'll have steel rubbing on fairly soft Aluminium otherwise and that's going to wear. Admittedly in clean conditions and the amount of use our cars get it's going to take a few years so you might just prefer to see how it goes ?

The original design is supposed to have the pin fixed with the door moving on the steel bushes bolted into the door shell. In practice of course the steel pin rusts to the steel bushes, the whole lot moves and wears out the aluminium bushes in the bodyshell.

Brian

[kram350kram]

You are correct and I thought about the wear factor, stainless pivoting on aluminum, but this car will not be a daily driver by a long shot. I will probably wear out long before those bobbins! LOL. I thought of bushing the stainless pins with a very thin olite or acetal sleeve or bush the bobbins in the body to not lose the 1/2" pin size. Maybe a better answer would be to make the pins totally out of Acetal or olite brass?

I think I was so entrenched in anti-rust, adjustments and the overall engineering function of this weird hinge setup, the wear factor was low on my list of concerns. I do think with some water proof bearing grease and with the minimal use anticipated, I should probably get some longevity out of this set up.  A small machined recess to hold the grease on the pin in the bobbin might help too.

Really appreciate the comments, input and interest. Maybe someone else will improve on this approach? This is fun! 

[EuropaTC]

I get that the amount of wear is going to be far less than it would have been when these cars were new and daily drivers, so you're right that they are going to last a long time. I'm a bit of a nerd with such things though, I hate the thought that "it just might" come back when I'm older and less enthusiastic (or able) to fix stuff.

With your comment about a bush, one very common repair by a specialist dealer over here was to drill out the aluminium in the lower sill and upper body then slip in a machined top hat brass bush. These were glued in place with epoxy and restored the tight fit of the original pin design with very little fuss/work.  Just after I bought my car and needed to replace the rusty pins he showed me what he did, "if find yours are in a mess, you'll need a set of these as well".

Brian