Neira Posted December 22, 2023 Report Posted December 22, 2023 Just wanted to share how I tackled fixing a sagging door on my 1948 Plymouth club coupe recently. Maybe it will help someone or motivate someone to tackle theirs. I’ll attach some more photos to show my general sequence. I did end up getting NOS hinges from AMS Obsolete Parts. The pins on mine are severely stuck. First thing I had to do was remove the screws that attach the hinges to the a-pillar. This was done with a smaller bit (about 3/16”-1/4”) and then a 1/2” bit being careful not to gouge the hinges. The inner bracket cage nuts were severely rusted to the screws. I was able to weld a nut to one of the screw threads and extract it but the others were not budging. The inner brackets were removed so I could replace the nuts. 1 Quote
Neira Posted December 22, 2023 Author Report Posted December 22, 2023 Spot welds cut. There are two spot welds on the inside that also have to be cut. They’re by the kick panel. This goes for upper and lower one. Quote
Neira Posted December 22, 2023 Author Report Posted December 22, 2023 New cage nuts were ordered (5/16”-24). I was able to reuse the original cages but I had the new ones as a backup plan. Quote
Neira Posted December 22, 2023 Author Report Posted December 22, 2023 It was hard to identify two spot welds on the lower inner bracket. I had to remove some of the pillar to get it out. Quote
Neira Posted December 22, 2023 Author Report Posted December 22, 2023 Once the nuts were all installed I was able to move to reinstalling the inner brackets. The way the spot weld cutter works I was able to get them lined up in the original locations with some confidence. Next was welding them back in place. The bolts in this picture were used to pull the bracket flush. Quote
Neira Posted December 22, 2023 Author Report Posted December 22, 2023 After they were welded back in and ground flush, it was time to paint. Quote
Neira Posted December 22, 2023 Author Report Posted December 22, 2023 Once these were welded back in and the NOS hinges were bolted to the door, I was able to realign the door to the body and get it reinstalled. Now the door works perfectly. Of course if the hardware attaching the hinges to the a-pillar weren’t so rusted, I would have just been dealing with the actual hinges. Since things don’t always go that smoothly I wanted to show how I dealt with the inner brackets. Hope this helps someone. 5 1 Quote
61spit Posted December 22, 2023 Report Posted December 22, 2023 Nice work. Thanks for the photo tutorial on how you did things. I'm sure it will help someone in the same situation. Well done. 1 Quote
andyd Posted December 23, 2023 Report Posted December 23, 2023 Nice work there...thanks....andyd 1 Quote
moparfun Posted December 23, 2023 Report Posted December 23, 2023 Very well done, as a fabricator I can appreciate the hours that you have in to this. Good job 1 Quote
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