Milling Door Hinge

[Brawley M.]

I'm well aware of the midyear coupe door fitment issues. I can see 1/4" daylight b/w top of door and roof rail weatherstrip. Also, the top crease of the door is not in line with the body creases by 3/16". I know wthrstrp is not the issue, and there are no shims behind the upper hinge. So, I know this is a hard question, but how much would you recommend shaving of the backside of the hinge (1/8",1/16")? ANY HELP is GREATLY APPRECIATED!

[Rich P.]

Re: Milling Door Hinge

Brawley,

You can easily take a 1/8" off with no problem. But a more effective approach is to taper the hinge. If you take more off from the forward most part of the hinge it will act like adding a shim to the rear most holes which will draw the door in closer than if you remove an 1/8 fro the whole hinge. This is an old body mans trick. I have done this many times.
If you do this make sure that when you are doing your final fitting to put a coat of primer on the ground part of the hinge and mating surface on the door. Then do your fitting. And when you paint tape off the mating surfaces of the doors to hinges otherwise the added paint material will act as a shim moving your nicely aligned door out of wack.
Coupe doors are alway "FUN" to fit.

Rich

[Brawley M.]

Re: Milling Door Hinge

Rich,
Thanks so much for the speedy reply and the "outside the box" ideas one onlly develops from doing several of these cars. I truly appreciate it. Brawley

[Gene M.]

Re: Milling Door Hinge

Bawley, did you try shims added to only the far end or the hinge this tips the hinge outward moving the door in. Sounds backwards but if you reason it out it's correct.

I did angle mill 3/16" off one coupe that was real bad. But door was not virgin to car. All, be advised AO Smith and St Louis car and doors don't replace each other with an acceptable fit.

[Brawley M.]

Re: Milling Door Hinge

Gene,
Did you place a shortened shim under only the aft most (rear most) bolts, or did you place it under both the middle and rear most bolts? I would rather place shims than entrust my original hinge to some machine shop. Thanks, Brawley

[Gene M.]

Re: Milling Door Hinge

Brawley,
We used washers of different thicknesses so we could "taper" the fit across the 6 screws. None on first pair of screws and one very thin on next pair. Just build up so you get the "slant" to position the hinge pin outward. Yes it is a pain slipping the washers behind the hinge and getting the bolt thru. I masking taped the stacks of washers together.

Trial and error is only way I have been successful. Having to do this on both hinges is time consuming. I found the upper hinge has more effect on top of door fit. But you may need to do the bottom too so the door doesn't get "loaded up" or stressed.

[Brawley M.]

Re: Milling Door Hinge

Gene,
Placing washers behind the hinge sounds like just so much fun! NOT! But if it can save me from cutting down the hinge, so be it. Thank you very much, Brawley