I just replaced my lower hinge pin and bushings on my sagging doors, and it now works well. Nearly everywhere I read, it was the upper hinge that you had to buy for $80 that needed to be replaced. I decided to spend the $7 just to see if the lower hinge pin would make a difference, and I found that it solved my problem completely.

-Dustin

 

is it hard to replace the pin and bushings?

 

Heh, my lower hinge is destroyed while the upper doesn't seem to move around at all. Really need to get onto fixing that soon.

 

It can be aggravating because you have to take the inner door hinge off of the car, but it is not hard at all.

-Dustin

 

I've read what other people have said in the past and got turned off by all the grinding and difficult parts.. did you have to grind anything? and if so, would a guy who's sort of new to this stuff be able to do it?

 

I've also read that the UPPER hinge takes quite a bit of work, even with this $80 kit. But as for the lower hinge, I'm about as new as you can be to door stuff too , and I found it pretty easy.

I took the engine hoist in our shop and used a rope to hold my door up so it wouldn't sag totally down when I took the pin out, but if you don't have one, you could either get somebody to hold the door, or just put a bottle jack or floor jack underneath, with some padding/carpet on top.

First I pried(sp?) the spring out of the door. Then tapped the door pin out of the bushings. Next I took off the kick panel(in this case, drivers side), had to take off the relay that was screwed down. Behind it, took out the 2 screws that were 15 mm. On outside of hinge, took off the 13 mm screw, this was hardest part, which was still easy, but just hard to get at the screw.

Got a helper to lift the door up enough so that I could get the inner hinge off of the body. You only need to take that hinge off because then you can get the bushings out. I tapped the bushings out, found out they were done already before and were OVERSIZED, so I had to go back to the dealer and get oversize bushings. Put new ones in, put hinge back on, greased everything, put new pin in, put spring back in(not quite done yet ), and off I went.

I have done a lot of things that took more effort on my car, and for the $7 I spent, even if it doesn't work, I wouldn't have minded very much, because I at least learned how to take my door off if I want.

My door now closes smoothly, does NOT scrape on the GFX, which I have seen on EVERY SINGLE OTHER ThirdGen car that I have seen in person. Also, now when you lift up on the bottom of the door when it is all the way open, it doesn't have any play in it at all, but is nice and tight.

-Dustin

 

Post back with your results when fully completed. My driver door sags just a little bit, but its enough to be annoying. If I could fix it for $7 and a few hours of time, I'd be very happy. Now, did you replace the pin too, or just the bushings?

 

I replaced the pin, you probably wouldn't have to, but they are cheap enough. One thing you should know, there is a small piece on the pin that keeps it from coming up and out of the bushings, if you buy a pin you will see it and know what I mean Anyways, you might have to pry that off to take the pin out, I didn't though.

-Dustin

 

Holy Thread Revival!~

I just bought this off of a dude on ebay:



Here is the entire auction link.

I'm guessing I will attempt this task when the weather warms up.

 

Nice mine started scraping gfx about a month ago, real minor so the painter is going to touch it up as soon as its fixed, its on the inside but since i show it, it needs to be good.
I bought the kit form classic industries for 80 bucks that replaces the top rivits(dont see why they didnt use the pins up top)
Havent done it yet since i havent been driving it, but i think i'll replace teh bottom one first and see what happens, Too bad i already opened up the package and stuff or i could send it back and go to gm and get the pin and bushings

 

i must be lucky.. my doors dont sag at all..

 

top hinges go bad once in a blue moon, trust me i own a iroc and work at a body shop so i do my share of hinges. I did them on my car, for free thanx to my parts buddy at my gm dealer hes da man i get free stuff all da time. Anyway, just do the bushings on the bottom and throw some new pins in there and line up the door so it sits good with a door aligment tool, otherwise new pins and bushing wont do the complete repair, you have to work the door, or it will scrape on the gfx, mine did after my paint, so i did it hours after the clear dried, and voila, no touching, closes with the weight of the door and the poppers swing it open with ease.

 

where to get the bushing? mine moves around right where the bushing is