Shark Racer

Spent about 2 hours on it this afternoon with a friend. I am exhausted. Took door panel off, upper access panel and disconnected all 8 bolts. That door gets heavy after a while. The old bushings were in there TIGHT.

I finally did it right though. I screwed around with just the upper bushing for WAY too long. How many of you actually found this job to be a PITA?

-Steve

mayberg

Pacin, I'm getting ready to do this soon. Do the hinges need to come out of the car, or can you simply (ha ha, I know) remove the pin and the bushings with the hinges bolted to the birdcage?

Inquiring minds want to know what they're getting themselves in to. GM

Twin_Turbo

I found it real easy to do

Shark Racer

I just must not have been holding it right for my buddy, but everything went bad. The bottom hinge refused to go out, and all the bushings in the bottom had been fused into the hinge pretty tightly.

The job is pretty straightforward, but the door gets heavy after a while. Find a way to mark the bolts so you hold your alignment (spray paint or drill through the hinge in two points), then have your buddy hold the door while you get to work removing the bolts in the door. Drive the hinge pins out with a punch and hammer, or maybe you'll be able to just slide them out. The hardest part is to get the pin past the teeth. After that, it's relatively straightforward. Reinsert the bushings and pin and bolt your door back down.

I must say, in the end, it was DEFINITELY worth the hard work. Do it right the first time or do it twice. (Or five times in my case- I only ever removed the top hinge to remove play, which made the door shut nicely, but eventually the pin or bushings worked themselves loose... now, everything is perfect.)

-Stev

mayberg

I'm pretty dull sometimes. I still can't tell from the above post whether the hinges have to be removed from the car - or simply from the door - to change the pin and bushing.

NHvette

It can be done without unbolting the hinges.
The top is the worst, since the pin can hit the fiberglass on the way out the top.
Some people have suggested pushing it up a bit, cutting the head off, and
driving it out through the bottom of the hinge.
A thick towel or foam on top of a floor jack can help to hold the door up.

Once the door is off, getting the bushings out of teh hinge should be easy.

Putting the top pin in upside-down was also suggested, but holding it in place
seemed to be a pain. Steve (Pacin') was going to drill hoels for cotter pins
to keep the hinge pins from falling back out.

Steve - any luck drilling the cotter pin holes ? Any tips ?

:seeya


[Modified by NHvette, 2:37 PM 4/6/2004]

Larry B.

I have owned several C3's over the years and worked on many other's. The fact that theses car's are hand built and Quality control was terrible explains a lot. A job that goes easy on one car may turn out to be a real PIA on another.

mayberg

If you have to put the top pin in upside-down, it would seem to me that you would normally have to remove the hinge from the pillar post. Am I missing something?

Shark Racer

Mayberg- The "proper" way to do it is to remove the hinge completely from the car. This is *about* the only way to get the top hinge pin in correctly without damaging the car. I unbolted the DOOR side of the hinge only.

NH- I had tsw71 do it. ;) His owning a machine shop has saved my butt a couple times now. He used a center drill to knock a hole through it. Very very beautiful work he did!

According to the local vette body shop, no cotter pin SHOULD be required, but clearly in my case, gravity, stiff suspension and bumpy roads had the best of my hinge pin. I would have a cotter pin drilled regardless of how well you think the pin will hold from the bottom! A lot easier than having to worry about the thing coming out again...

-Steve


[Modified by Pacin'California, 7:32 PM 4/6/2004]

R 73 454

I had to remove upper hinge from car, just not enough room to remove pin. No biggie, removing the door was the hard part! However, I would never rely on pin upside down without some kind of retainer! My K1500 had the upper pin in inverted, for some reason the retaining "cap" worked loose, every once in a while you would open door, pin dropped out, and door quickly dropped to undesired angle. That was OK on the truck, but a Vette door? UGGGH, bad mental picture! :nono: :shocked:

Chuck Gongloff

One trick to get the upper pin out and to reinstall a new pin without hitting the fiberglass of the fender is to grind the top of the pin. The top looks like the letter "O". Grind one side so it looks like the letter "D". The flat spot will clear the fiberglass.

You can do it without taking the hinge off of the BODY. It's easier to remove the door instead of trying to balance it on a floor jack. Chuck

Gary79

use a floor jack with padding to hold the door, have an assistant to steady the door,put masking tape on the body over the top door pin, still grind the top of the top pin off, i could not get the wiring out of my door so i just curled the door around the corner and leaned the outside of the door to the outside of the front fender, using some old bath towels to pad the floor and in between the fender and door. this was one of the easier jobs i've had to do on my vette and completed it in a couple of hours. got the pins and bushings right off the shelf at local chevy dealer,$20, pins were too long but sawed them to length and beveled the edges with a grinder. piece of cake!


[Modified by Gary79, 6:25 AM 4/7/2004]

First79vette

I just drove the top pin up a little..cut the head off drove it down and out. put the bushings in and put the new pin up from the bottom took me and a buddy about 20 minutes if that. :hurray: :yesnod: bottom was no problem.

R 73 454

As mentioned above , hope you retained upside down pins, if not,....I tried to warn you! :eek: