Re-pinning a door.

[Cornish4]

I don't know if this subject has been covered before but if not here goes. The drivers door on Marigold was in need of new hinge-pins and I was able to get a pair from Andrew at AMG Renault (renault4mad). After removing the door pocket, door card, along with speaker and undoing the check strap I set to at undoing the hinge nuts. I found it best to unscrew the fuse block to make it easier to reach the two top nuts. The two lower nuts came off quite easily but unfortunately I managed to shear off one of the top studs, bother! I ground off what remained of the stud, drilled a 5mm hole through it and threaded it 6mm. Then I simply used a 6mm machine screw to replace the stud, tapped the new hinge-pins in, using copper grease on assembly and rebolted the door to the car. There should be a small rubber bung to go in the end of the pin too, to stop water ingress. There was a certain amount of alignment to be done but I've all but aliminated the play in the hinges. Of course if the play was excessive the part of the hinge on the door would have to be built up with weld and redrilled, but I was lucky this time. Not a very high tech job but quite necessary when these great little cars get to a certain age.

 

[renault4mad]

Heavy handed....

well done mate....at least you dont have to climb out the passenger door again

 

[Cornish4]

Yes, don't know my own strength. Climbing in through the passenger door was becoming a bit of a pain though.:smile:

 

[mojobaby]

when I first bought my R4 I thought that the check strap on the doors was a clever DIY repair by the previous owner. Then I noticed that all the R4's have them.

Has this concept been used by any other car manufacturer?

 

[Cornish4]

It is of course the simplist form of door restraint and was used on many cars prior to the R4. The Mini of 1959 had this type of strap, as did many cars of the 50s, but you can go back a lot further, pre-war infact. I had a 1936 Austin Seven that had the exactly the same simple design of strap. It works so why change it.

 

[renault4mad]

It works so dont change it.....
Wish renault would not change a lot of things

electric handbrakes.....keyless entry....key cards....what was up with the old ways...bloody crap