Option on assembling Jeep hinges

H

HIG

I'm hoping you guys can give me some option for reinstalling the hinges on my son's Jeep (doors, tailgate, hood & winsheild).



I'm assuming we will paint the Jeep disassembled and reassemble it after paint. I know with some of the panels we will test fit them in the primer stage but I don't know how we can mark them (or drill if they weren't so obvious) for realignment after paint. I want to make sure we have paint under the hinges in case my son every wants to get replacement hinges. Is there anything I can use between the body and hinges to protect the paint while adjusting the hinges?

I know they make washers for under the door strikers on GM's (http://www.classicindustries.com/camaro/parts/f12370.html), would it be worth buying a sheet of something and cutting my own.

Or am I making too big of a deal out of it?

Any advice???

Thanks, Steve
 
jcclark;35677 said:
I usually drill a 1/8" hole through the hinge
and use a 1/8" drill bit for realignment.
Click to expand...

That would usually work but on a Jeep all the hinges are exposed.

Steve
 
When I did my CJ-7, just before paint, I hung the doors, aligned them, and used a scratch awl to scribe around the hinges. You can scribe it to where it's easy enough to line your hinges back up but not noticeable when put back together. Just don't scratch down to the metal.
 
Prplpny68;35726 said:
When I did my CJ-7, just before paint, I hung the doors, aligned them, and used a scratch awl to scribe around the hinges. You can scribe it to where it's easy enough to line your hinges back up but not noticeable when put back together. Just don't scratch down to the metal.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip, I was wondering about that but was worried it might be noticeable after it was painted but I can see how just a faint line in the primer would not show on the finished product right next to the hinge.

I haven't looked yet but I was also wondering about drilling from the back side of the panel and not going all the way thru the hinge and driving a roll pin into the hinge. It would not be noticeable from the outside but would still line it up.

Did you post any pics of your CJ-7 anywhere while you were doing it, I'd love to see some?

Thanks, Steve
 
HIG;35739 said:
I haven't looked yet but I was also wondering about drilling from the back side of the panel and not going all the way thru the hinge and driving a roll pin into the hinge. It would not be noticeable from the outside but would still line it up.

Did you post any pics of your CJ-7 anywhere while you were doing it, I'd love to see some?

Thanks, Steve
Click to expand...

If I recall, there is a plate that goes on the inside that the hinge bolts thread into. That might make your idea a little more difficult. But I could be wrong, it's been known to happen.

Mine was a mess when I got it. These are the only pics I have right now, the "after" pics. I'll look for some more when I get home. It's all SPI except for Diamont basecoat.



Jeep1.jpg

Jeep2.jpg
 
"If" you can access the backside of the caged threaded plate maybe just put a couple of tackwelds on it to keep it from moving when the hinge bolts are removed.
 
Bob beat me to it.........

If that doesn't work for you, you could always get the doors prepped for paint, paint the area the hinge bolts to and re-install the doors for alignment. Once the doors are aligned, leave the hinges in place and paint the whole door, which would also fix/hide any minor damage caused by adjusting the doors. You could then install them with the adjusting already done and the hinges are painted underneath. ( I am assuming the older jeep hinges come apart at the pivot pin like the newer ones for door removal?)

Kelly
 
Prplpny68;35754 said:
If I recall, there is a plate that goes on the inside that the hinge bolts thread into. That might make your idea a little more difficult. But I could be wrong, it's been known to happen.

Mine was a mess when I got it. These are the only pics I have right now, the "after" pics. I'll look for some more when I get home. It's all SPI except for Diamont basecoat.



View attachment 3358View attachment 3359
Click to expand...

BTW, your Jeep looks GREAT!!

Thanks, Steve

- - - Updated - - -

Thanks for all the great choices.

Do you think it's possible to reinstall the screw after everything is painted without messing up the countersunk hole (chipping as it tightens) or mess up the points of the torx bolt with the socket? I can just imaging it chipping in there.



As a side question, on perfect restorations how do you protect the head of the bolt from getting marked up with the socket during reassembly?

Thanks, Steve
 
There's no way to protect that style of bolt from paint damage during assembly but you can mask them off and paint them in place once the door is on. Stainless bolts and no paint would be a good upgrade IMO as long as it didn't need to look oem original. Painting the hinges and doors off then installing them with a non hardening sealer sure makes it nice if you need to do some adjusting or a replacement down the road. The factory painted them installed with no paint under the hinge-you can do better.
 
Bob Hollinshead;35931 said:
There's no way to protect that style of bolt from paint damage during assembly but you can mask them off and paint them in place once the door is on. Stainless bolts and no paint would be a good upgrade IMO as long as it didn't need to look oem original. Painting the hinges and doors off then installing them with a non hardening sealer sure makes it nice if you need to do some adjusting or a replacement down the road. The factory painted them installed with no paint under the hinge-you can do better.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the good advice, I think stainless bolts would be a nice way to go (look good and solve the paint issue).

What would you recommend for a non hardening sealer to use between the hinge and the door?

Thanks, Steve
 
You can use strip caulk, butyl, even plumber's putty for something like that. Just enough to do the job. Put some on the bolts as well and clean off any excess after they are tightened down. I use windshield butyl for this kind of stuff all the time. Keep the water out.
 
Well, the tub is finally ready to paint. So I'm back to the decision on how to paint the hinges. Right now all the panels are ready for final blocking with 400/600, sealer, SPI Red then Universal clear.





What I'm thinking is to leave the door hinges all aligned and just remove the doors from the pin to paint, this way there is no alignments/chip issues when we reassemble the hinges.

The rear tailgate I think we can paint in place by just opening and closing the gate to spray around it.

The only thing is we will paint the windshield off the Jeep and will have to worry about messing up the torx heads screws and possibly chipping something when we reassemble it and maybe blend in the paint if that paint/clear chips.

We will have to pull most of the hinges off 1 more time because while we were "Tweaking" the hinges we chipped some primer plus I want to take a countersink bit and clean out all the bolt holes to remove any primer build up that could chip and cause problems, after cleaning them up we'll spray 1 or 2 coats of epoxy to seal them.

So my question is: what should we do under the hinges, right now they have 2K Urethane primer on them. Should we pull them off and spray that area on the doors where the hinge goes and the back of the hinge with Epoxy, or red base/clear or would windshield butyl seal the 2K good enough. I'm leaning towards epoxy because if we spray base/clear then reassemble and paint the whole door and hinge there would still be a line where the top coat of base and clear ended if we ever had to realign the hinges so that doesn't seems like it gains us much.

I'm probably making it much more difficult than it need to be. :)

Thanks, Steve
 
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