[schwarz968]

Door hinge and pin replacement due to sag. So here I thought I was a experienced mechanic! With over 40 years of hands on experience, 20 years as a tech rep and 15 as an engineer you'd think I could figure out how to change the door hinges.

I could use advise from those who have done this little task...



So here's what I have concluded;

1) The hinge assembly (both halves and pin) were installed befor the door was fully assembled,

2) The original hinges have tooling holes for proper rigging/alignment

3) Porsche did not consider "in-service" repairs as related to the hinges



End result:

1) Lower hinge half to chassis and hinge pin can be removed and replaced. Your gonna need a helper and a rivet gun or suitable tool to drive pin out.

1 a) The lower pin is driven out from the top to the bottom. Not sure why as this facilitates loosing a pin.

1 <img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/cool.png" class="smilie" alt="" /> The replacement hinge half does NOT have the alignment/tooling hole.



2) The upper pin is driven upwards but CANNOT be fully driven out as the outer skin of the door has a fold inwards that prevents this event from occurring. As such, the upper hinge half cannot be extracted.



2 a) Believe alternative is to fully remove door assy, either cut pin to remove and drive pin in to assy from bottom, or flatten skin outward so that the pin can be properly extracted. Glad I will be painting car someday.

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[Bulti]

Holy cow, I will never open my doors again!

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[hot968]

Yipes!!! Scarry

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[Langley968]

I have no help to offer on this. My doors are nice and solid (knocking on my desk at the moment) and I already have 105,000 miles on the odometer. Those doors must have opened and closed a LOT, especially the drivers door...



But I did have a three year old car that the hinge pins wore out. They were an easy replacement... but at only 3 YEARS OLD??? Now that is YIKES!

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[Kim]

I had a VW once that had that problem. They replaced only the lower hinge as the upper hinge could not be removed for the reasons noted above. But that made a big difference.

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[williamoss]

so is my girl friend

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[ds968]

[quote name='williamoss' timestamp='1410363038' post='162096']

so is my girl friend

[/quote]



parrrum-pum.



remember Joan Rivers' ( RIP ) famous quote : " talk about sagging breasts, at my age I can get a mammogram and a pedicure at the same time "



back to door hinges : no problem whatosever with either one of my 968s. in fact the doors still close with that solid thump sound that is the hallmark of a well built vehicle. fingers crossed and knock on wood though they won't develop this issue anytime soon.

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[Bulti]

"...in fact the doors still close with that solid thump sound that is the hallmark of a well built vehicle."



The industry uses sound-engineers to get the sound just right. I guess you also need to factor in how many hours and engineers a brand can or wishes to spend on a certain component. Mercedes for example obviously spends a lot of € on stuff like that.

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[AJG]

I have new half hinges to install but the local Porsche body shop could not get the screws undone to remove the door! But there is a way to fix matters. #1 you can accurately centre dab the bolt hex head then spot with a small drill then change over to a 6mm diameter drill and drill through the depth of the head plus the attachment plate thickness which will separate the bolt head from the old half hinge. It takes a bit of nerve to attempt this and it could go wrong! Concentrate on one half hinge at a time. Or #2, you could wait until I get round to making a drill jig which will position over the bolts and a drill bush will guide the drill. I've just looked at the door and think its possible, just need to work out how the jig is clamped in place to effect the drilling operation. Cheers.



Andy

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[schwarz968]

Thank you to all and I certainly appreciate the great humor! To be specific, the upper and lower hinge halves that bolt to the chassis frame are worn. I suspect the pins are as well. I have changed the lower chassis half and pin and while sag is reduced, there is still a noticeable amount of slop/play. The upper pin has to be removed to replace the hinge half.



Question 1- anyone tackle this in the past?

Q 2- If so How was is replaced?

Q 3 - Is the disconnect for the door wire harness in the door or driver footwell?



Flash-didn't you pull doors when you painted your blue car years back?

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[flash]

i did. i had to pull the harness out of the door though, which meant disconnecting the mirrors and all that (warning - very fragile retaining mechanism)

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[schwarz968]

Thank you and fully understand. Think we are going to stop at just replacing the lower half hinge and work the upper half after the door is pulled for repainting of the car.

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[AJG]

I spoke to my local Porsche body shop this morning and the manager their, who has a 968 coupe himself told me that the upper pin is knocked downwards and the lower pin is knocked upwards to remove. Cheers.



Andy

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[Ryan]

I say just weld the doors closed and enter "General Lee" style. You do remember Dukes of Hazard don't you? Should really stiffen up the body too. <img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/EmoticonCar.gif" class="smilie" alt="" />

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[AJG]

Are you talking about Daisy Duke by any chance!



Andy

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[flash]

lol - that's how i used to get in and out of the mgb. the latches on that car were so finicky, it was better to just jump in.



tried it on the charger. not fun. that door lock was always a drag.

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[Bulti]

Now I'm starting to get the whole cabriolet-thing!

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[Rap]

Daisy always stiffened me up!

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[schwarz968]

LOL. I was in love with her when I was younger, not so fat or gray. I wonder if she'll have be now that I make more than $16k per year.

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[AJG]

You will not be surprised when I say I was typing rubbish earlier in this thread! My door bolts do come loose, its the pins that are seized and its difficult then to remove them. I think I can make a pin extractor which will act just like a g-clamp in action but with a pin slightly smaller then the door hinge pin to push them out. With a fine thread on the extractor it will give good purchase on the pins and hopefully push them out! Cheers.



Andy

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