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Door Hinges

Brent13

Sr. Member
Joined
Aug 1, 2015
Messages
673
Loc.
Colorado Springs
Tell me what works and what doesn't, I think my hinges are shot. When I open my driver side door, and hold on the open end, I can pick the door up and down quite a distance. Feels like a lot of slop! Is that the tell-tale sign that the hinges are worn? My doors have always closed and opened with difficulty. Was looking at the SS quick release kit from Tom's for about 250 bucks. That set any good. Think I would like to buy SS and be done with it. And will I need to buy shims, or can I reuse the shims I remove, assuming I have shims behind my hinges? Also, any detailed instructions on how to do this job correctly? Duffs look nicer yet, with a 1/2" pin, really beefy!

Thank You
 
Last edited:

Rustytruck

Bronco Guru
Joined
Feb 24, 2002
Messages
10,875
Keep your stock hinges and repin them. The Bronco hinges are not precision parts and were selectively located and adjusted to work properly for the door and its opening on tough to fit assembly. make sure you take them off and put them back in the same location. I'm not saying you cant change them but be prepared to deal with difficulty if things dont go well.
 

bronconut73

Bronco Guru
Joined
Aug 7, 2012
Messages
9,916
With the price of hinges getting so much cheaper and more available through the years, I will never re-pin stock ones again. Life is too short to re-pin hinges when you can get those beefy 1/2" pin Duff hinges .....
 

Hopstr

Contributor
Jr. Member
Joined
Feb 26, 2012
Messages
144
Just mark where your old ones are before you remove them.
 

DirtDonk

Contributor
Bronco Guru
Joined
Nov 3, 2003
Messages
47,355
Seems like the Duff hinges are pretty sweet from the discussions I've seen here. Never installed a set, but they seem like a winner.
As said, the factory hinges were sloppy to begin with. Considering that, it's shocking they've managed to last as long as most of them seem to.
I have a set of NOS hinges still sitting in a box somewhere because they were no better than the ones I thought were worn out on my '71.
You can "tighten" them up in place by adjusting them slightly skewed until the play is mostly gone. Basically you're putting them into a slight bind.
Seems funky, probably won't work on every Bronco, and might even encourage more wear. Likely it's just putting off the inevitable replacement until later. But it can work, and the original hinges have lasted this long without falling apart, so their design isn't exactly prone to failure. They just keep wearing and wearing out until you're frustrated with how the door works.

Re-pinning your own with a kit that has bronze bushings will make them super tight and probably still is the best bang-for-the-buck if you don't mind the time to do it yourself. Better than new originals for sure, and on par with the current crop of replacements.
Like anything, keep them lubed and they should give good service.

The new crop of stock replacements are WORLDS better than the originals: http://www.wildhorses4x4.com/category/s?keyword=door+hinge
They're powder coated, tightly bushed, and should last the next lifetime of your Bronco with no trouble. Not inexpensive (for comparison I think I paid $7. each for the Ford ones!), but still less than the stainless ones.
Surprised nobody has added a grease fitting to their hinges yet. But I guess it's easy enough to give a spritz of wonder-lube every once in awhile and be just as effective.
The hinge bodies themselves never wear out or rust through, just the pins. Maybe the bushings too, but with luck a tiny bit of lube every few years should keep the bronze stuff working well hopefully.

I've never seen shims from the factory, but they probably still exist. If so, and they're not completely rusted through, you could easily re-use any you find on your truck. It all depends on your particular case.
But new are available too (as you can see in the above link), so if you need some it's not an issue.
Never needed them myself luckily, but with all the odd door gaps we see nowadays (40-50 years on) shims seem like a very handy item.

Good luck with the choice.

Paul
 

jmangi62

Bronco Guru
Joined
Jul 28, 2013
Messages
2,469
My original hinges were shot,bought new ones from TBP,nice and tight,fit great,bought new shims too,I didn't want to use rusty, dirty,crusty & bent,47 year old shims.To me it was a no brainer. :cool:
 
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