I've been burdened with the classic thirdgen sagging doors. Whats the best fix? I've heard of some kind of bushing, pins, or new hinges. Are passenger and driver side hinges the same or different? thx

 

I really don't think you would have to change the whole hinge. In most cases...it's just the door pin and bushing.....you should be able to get those at your locl GM dealer...and they are pretty cheap...

 

I went to the body shop, to see if my doors could be fixed, the guy said the the pins were good,it was the latch that was bad. he showed me the latch was covered in plastic form the factory and it had worn down, I tested to see if he was right by using some epoxy or a glue gun and cover the latch, it tryed and it did work only about eight times then it wore off.

 

same problem with my drivers door. do i have to replace the whole latch mechanism?

 

http://www.andyz28.com/

 

A new latch goes for $58

 

I just wondered about the hinge b/c I can get one at the junkyard cheap, thats all. Thanx for the info guys. I'll let you know how it goes. BTW, how hard is it to switch out the pins? Any tips? Thx

 

Nasty_Bird_'90,
Check the upper hinge, if theres play in it and you can lift the door up and down without moving the car body then it needs fixing. You can try Andy's kit which looks like a good fix, or get a body shop to weld on a new upper hinge. The bottom hinge and pin does not effect the door sagging AFAIK.

 

I know that there's play in the upper hinge. That's how I found out something was wrong. How much are the pin/bushing kits from GM?

 

GM doesn't sell a pin/bushing repair kit to repair the upper hinge. They only sell the lower pin and bushing. GM's repair method requires you to drill out the spotwelds on the worn hinges and bolt or weld new ones in. If you have power door locks or windows you'll have to either un-wire them from the door or cut and splice them back together after, since you have to completely remove the door. With Andy's kit you don't have to do that, because you only move the door about 1.5"-2" to sand the ID of the hole for the new bushing. Andy's kit requires roughly half the time and effort to install by comparison and IMO is a superior hinge when finished. I also sell and install Andy's hinge repair kit.

Lon

 

there was an excellent post reguarding this a while back say two months ago? do a search it was an awesome post it decribed how to fix it in about two hours.

 

Whatever you do, don't believe everything that was written in the hinge repair feature in High Performance Pontiac. There were some gross errors that were made that they SHOULD have caught had they in fact done the complete hinge rapair job. They repaired the lower hinge pins only and showed pictures of parts they claimed were to repair the upper hinge. But in fact these were not the right parts, as Andy and I have both pointed out in that post.

Lon

 

If I get Andy's kit will i have to do the upper and lower or just the upper seeing as how the lower has nothing to do with the sag? How much do you sell the kit for?

 

You have to remove the lower hinge pin anyway to access the upper hinge hole to sand it. Also there are some barbs on the lower pin that get sheared off when you drive it out. So I recommend replacing the lower pin too.

The kits are listed under the "Body & Interior" section of my web site.

Lon

 

Go here for upper and lower hinge pins, and there the greasable type. http://www.hawksthirdgenparts.com/miscellaneous I thinkfor both sides for the delux kit, its about 200 bucks which isnt bad cause itll fix the prob till after ya dont have the car.

Bill

 

My friend work at a body shop and he told me that GM makes a bushing/hnige pin repair kit. He said the bushing is oversized and required drilling out the hinge. I will get the part number and post it. He has done it many times and says it takes about Two hours.

 

My friend works at a body shop and he told me that GM makes a bushing/hinge pin repair kit. He said the bushing is oversized and required drilling out the hinge. I will get the part number and post it. He has done it many times and says it takes about Two hours.

 

I just bought the cheap pin and bushing replacements from GM. Cleared the problem right up on both my thirdgens.

 

whats the gm part # and how much did it cost u total ray>??

 

Lol
All I did to fix the problem was to jack the doors up while the car was still on the ground. Did help quite abit along w/ some wd-30... no damage
But then again I hate my car

 

How hard was it to replace the pin and bushings? Are these the same as the ones you can buy at a parts store? How much did they cost?

 

The "cheap" parts are only available for the LOWER door hinge. NO service parts are available from GM for the UPPER door hinge.

My website fully explains this; www.andyz28.com

 

hey Andy, is that standard kit enought for both doors? or do i need 2 kits?

 

One kit is required per door.

Lon Salgren
Top-Down Soutions

 

I just installed Andy's kit on the driver's door this week end. Simply put IT WORKS!

This kit <a href="http://www.andyz28.com/3rdGen/greaseinfo.html">here</a> is enough for one door.



You will need (in addition):
--Ratcheting nylon tie downs (I bought a 4 pack)
--'A' Frame ladder (to suspend the door)
--3lb drilling hammer
--Metal punch (should be longer than 6in. I used an alignment punch)
--A Dremel with grinding bit !!!!
--Special Spring Compressor Part number DST2190 from <a href="http://www.mactools.com/home.aspx">MAC Tools</a> (Only available over the phone since not listed on site. Price is $18.99 )
--Safety Glasses
--A good movable light
--A Grease Gun
--Duck Tape

Stuff I learn/good ideas:
--Andy shows a "Cutoff" dremel bit but says to grind. The cutoff disc on the dremel will not fit to cut off the pin. Instead use the grinding cylinder to grind down the pins. I know it will take a bit longer but it will work.
--grind the smaller head of the upper hinge pins (exactly as Andy says). Grinding the larger head does not allow the pin to be extracted. You must grind the smaller heads.
--Replace the lower hinge pin and bushings. They will probably be bad also.
--Make sure you have combo wrenches handy as the socket wrenches don't fit.
--Start early on the weekend. Just incase something goes wrong to your daily driver.

 

How did you guys get the spring back in place on the door?

 

With this GM Door Spring Tool.

Update: sorry no longer available. I'm looking for a new supplier.

Lon Salgren
Top-Down Solutions

 

--Special Spring Compressor Part number DST2190 from MAC Tools (Only available over the phone since not listed on site. Price is $18.99 ) Get the phone number from their <a href="http://www.mactools.com/home.aspx">website</a>.

I would not even try without this type of tool. The tool compresses the coils of the spring. Hold it between the door spring notch and rocker arm. Then untighten the screw on the tool to let the spring expand into its position.

...Would have been nice to save $10 bucks though.

 

Just to toss something else in this topic, I recently replaced just the two bushings in the lower hinge along with the pin. I got all the stuff for about $6 from a GM dealer. Go to a GM dealer because the bushings are different for different years, a parts store may end up getting you the wrong parts, like they did me. And let me tell you guys, the only thing missing now when I open my doors is some new car scent. My doors opens like the day it rolled off the carlot.
Now I understand that some of the upper hinges may go bad as well, and AndyZ28 seems to have a good fix for that. But try replacing the bushings, its cake. I was able to remove the lower hinge without taking the door off. If I knew how easy and cheap this fix was, I would have done it a few years ago and saved my ground fxs and the sometime treible noise the hinge made.

 

An update since my last post. The GM Door spring is not currently available from my web site. I discovered that my supplier discontinued it 3 days after shipping my first stocking order. I am searching for another supplier, but it won't be as attractively priced as previously. Those few of you that purchased one while they were available should consider yourself fortunate.

Lon Salgren
Top-Down Solutions