1948 Dodge Door hinge pin size

[Aussie Dodge]

I live in Australia and am in the process of rebuilding a 1948 Dodge Business coupe (American model)

I ordered new hinge pins from Andy Bernbaum & they measure 1/4" dia x 2 5/8" long

When I removed the very original looking pins from my hinges, the pins are 3/8" dia x 2 7/8" long.

The weird thing about the whole exercise is, the genuine Dodge Passenger Car parts list I have, tells me they should be 1/4" dia x 2 7/8" long.

To me the 1/4" pins look a bit small for the intended purpose.

Does anyone on here have any information or experienced the same situation?

Any help will be much appreciated.

Cheers, Glen

Edited November 28 by Aussie Dodge
spelling error

[Eneto-55]

I have run into the same confusion on the P15s. My hinge pins come out to 11/32", and a forum member had told me that he has a Dodge book that lists them as 5/16". The idea is that as the pins wore into the hinge tongue, the solution was to get over-sized pins and drill (hopefully actually using a reamer, but that probably didn't happen) out the holes for the larger diameter pins.  On my four-door P15 (1946), ALL of the pins are this larger size. I can understand that on a car with over 90,000 miles on it, that the driver's door hinges, and possibly also the front passenger door hinges, would have been replaced that way, but it seems less likely that the rear doors would have required that to be done.

 

By the way, I would appreciate it if you could post a scan of that page in your parts book.  (I only have Service Manuals, no parts book that has the descriptions for each bolt, etc.)

 

[I have posted quite a bit on this topic, and I thought that I have a document with the post information - how to find it all again - but cannot find it now.]

[andyd]

Glen, welcome aboard.........got any pics........we love pics.......regards from sunny South Grafton NSW.........Andy Douglas

[Aussie Dodge]

The pins still had the red oxide undercoat on them, so it either got new pins very early in life, or they are original.

I have included an image of the page, Eneto-55.

The 2 books I'm using for reference.

[MikeMalibu]

I rebuilt the hinges on my ‘49 P17.  The original pins measured approximately 0.34”+/-. Replacement pins were too loose (too narrow). My first thought was to bore out for a bushing, but decided to just ream the hole for a 0.37” pin. If that failed, I could go larger for a bushing. I used a 9.4mm & 9.5mm core drill bit to get close, then used a hand reamer for a tight fit on each pin. That was easy. The more difficult part was dealing with the flanged holes in the bracket for the pins. The bracket is not thick enough to hold a bushing unless brazed in place, and the flange walls are not thick enough for the 0.37” pin.  I used TIG to run a bead (1/16” rod) around the flanged holes to thicken the side wall, then bored & reamed to 0.37” to set the knurled head of the pin.

 

I did find some pins that measured 0.342 and was able to ream one of the hinge tongues from 0.341 without enlarging with the drill. 
 

I purchased the pins on-line from O’Riley’s auto parts

[Eneto-55]

7 hours ago, MikeMalibu said:

 

I rebuilt the hinges on my ‘49 P17.  The original pins measured approximately 0.34”+/-. Replacement pins were too loose (too narrow). My first thought was to bore out for a bushing, but decided to just ream the hole for a 0.37” pin. If that failed, I could go larger for a bushing. I used a 9.4mm & 9.5mm core drill bit to get close, then used a hand reamer for a tight fit on each pin. That was easy. The more difficult part was dealing with the flanged holes in the bracket for the pins. The bracket is not thick enough to hold a bushing unless brazed in place, and the flange walls are not thick enough for the 0.37” pin.  I used TIG to run a bead (1/16” rod) around the flanged holes to thicken the side wall, then bored & reamed to 0.37” to set the knurled head of the pin.

 

I did find some pins that measured 0.342 and was able to ream one of the hinge tongues from 0.341 without enlarging with the drill. 
 

I purchased the pins on-line from O’Riley’s auto parts

I did the bushing route (one-piece sintered bronze), but so far on only one hinge, the worst one of the 6. But I was attempting to return to the original size (or what I understood to be the original size from what info I had). So I have a different problem with the holes in the hinge frame - the holes are now too large for the pins I planned to use.  I have considered various ways to build up the area INSIDE the holes, and created a discussion thread about this on Rat Rods Rule as well.  (This was several years back already, and I got some good feed-back from the guys there as well.  I haven't yet followed through with anything, because my car is still dismantled, and as I say, "My work gets in the way of my hobby." I also do not have a shop yet - the car just sits in one side of our 2-car garage, here at the house. But no room to work on it.)

[westaus29]

3/8 pins sound a bit large? I had a similar problem with my 38 Richards body, ended up buying GM door hinge pins 4" x 11/16 and reaming to fit. They are readily available and much cheaper than alternatives. Try Auveco 14559 part number.

[Plymouthy Adams]

10 hours ago, westaus29 said:

3/8 pins sound a bit large? I had a similar problem with my 38 Richards body, ended up buying GM door hinge pins 4" x 11/16 and reaming to fit. They are readily available and much cheaper than alternatives. Try Auveco 14559 part number.

if 3/8 was large...11/16 is off the chart......

[Eneto-55]

52 minutes ago, Plymouthy Adams said:

if 3/8 was large...11/16 is off the chart......

I had to go back and make sure it wasn't me that made that error "again" - writing 11/16" when I meant 11/32"..... (11/32 = .34375".  Sometimes I have to do that calculation/conversion to make sure I'm getting it right.)

[Plymouthy Adams]

was thinking you meant 32nds....but my math is as laborious at time also....I don't need a thermometer or numbers on the dang thing to tell me it is cold outside right now....

[Eneto-55]

42 minutes ago, Plymouthy Adams said:

was thinking you meant 32nds....but my math is as laborious at time also....I don't need a thermometer or numbers on the dang thing to tell me it is cold outside right now....

I have certainly made this same error in the past, but this time at least, it was someone else (the guy with the '38 Richards body - I don't know what that is, to be honest - An Australian vehicle?).

I haven't decided for sure how I'm going to fix my hinges. I could look for used ones, but they're bound to have the same type of wear.  I have thought of making a jig to get everything aligned correctly, then cut off the 'bulge' that forms the pin area, and weld on larger diameter round stock that has been machined to accept a larger bushing than what I have, so that I can possibly even install grease zerts. But the zerts would be over-kill I know, and I try to resist going over-board like that.  (It's my tendency to go to extremes. The zerts would also have to have extension tubes that pass through the curved part of the hinge tongue in order to grease them w/o removing the entire assembly from the door pillar. So I should be able to resist that extreme 'solution'.   Hopefully.)

 

I was hoping that I would be able to read the technical pin size description on the Dodge parts manual page that Aussie Dodge (the original poster on this topic) posted a picture of, but unfortunately I cannot make it out.  I reckon not everyone has an actual scanner for that sort of thing.  I saw a Plymouth Parts Book like that on Ebay once, but it seemed rather high priced, I was short on cash at the time, and so I didn't move on it right away.  Then someone else got it.... As they say, "You snooze, you loose." I need to check there again.

Edited November 30 by Eneto-55

[andyd]

Eneto.....T J Richards were the main tho' not exclusive Mopar body building company who where bought out by Chrysler to form Chrysler Australia......Oz mopars up till possibily 1948 had a small brass badge on the top of the firewall or a TJR stamping on the passenger side of the vertical firewall...........TJR also build bodies for other US & English car companies up till the late 30's............my Oz 1940 Dodge has a T J Richards built bodysimilar to but different to the 1940 Plymouth that its based upon....note the external door hinges, trunk lid shape but Plymouth fenders,head & tailights, bumpers etc.......andyd     

[westaus29]

sorry my fingers got ahead of my brain .. should have been 11/32" for sure

[Aussie Dodge]

On 11/30/2024 at 11:58 PM, Eneto-55 said:

I have certainly made this same error in the past, but this time at least, it was someone else (the guy with the '38 Richards body - I don't know what that is, to be honest - An Australian vehicle?).

I haven't decided for sure how I'm going to fix my hinges. I could look for used ones, but they're bound to have the same type of wear.  I have thought of making a jig to get everything aligned correctly, then cut off the 'bulge' that forms the pin area, and weld on larger diameter round stock that has been machined to accept a larger bushing than what I have, so that I can possibly even install grease zerts. But the zerts would be over-kill I know, and I try to resist going over-board like that.  (It's my tendency to go to extremes. The zerts would also have to have extension tubes that pass through the curved part of the hinge tongue in order to grease them w/o removing the entire assembly from the door pillar. So I should be able to resist that extreme 'solution'.   Hopefully.)

 

I was hoping that I would be able to read the technical pin size description on the Dodge parts manual page that Aussie Dodge (the original poster on this topic) posted a picture of, but unfortunately I cannot make it out.  I reckon not everyone has an actual scanner for that sort of thing.  I saw a Plymouth Parts Book like that on Ebay once, but it seemed rather high priced, I was short on cash at the time, and so I didn't move on it right away.  Then someone else got it.... As they say, "You snooze, you loose." I need to check there again.

 

[Aussie Dodge]

Hi Eneto-55. the hinge pin size in the parts manual is 1/4" diameter x 2 7/8" long.  

[Eneto-55]

54 minutes ago, Aussie Dodge said:

Hi Eneto-55. the hinge pin size in the parts manual is 1/4" diameter x 2 7/8" long.  

This is from the Dodge books you have, correct? ('46 - '48')

 

At a difference of .09375, that is a quite significant difference from the size of the pins I removed from my 46 P15.  (3/32". I realize that my car may have been reamed out for over-size pins over it's long years of service, but 11/32 is a LOT bigger.  The Plymouth may have been different - - my understanding is that the Dodge bodies were new for 1946, where as the Plymouth was basically a carry-over from '42, not getting it's completely new body until early '49. Or did the new Dodge design come out already in '42?)