grandprix saggy doors writeup.

[sasquatch094]

While i searched this forum up and down, it seemed that everyone one said these hinges are not rebuildable. I found replacement door hinge pins and bushings from Rockauto and decided to go with it. This 15 or 20 dollar fix sure as hell beats what you guys have said in the past about buying the whole hinge from the dealership (costing above 75 dollar at least, then its not painted to your car)


dorman 38490 is the part number, also might be found at the "help" section of your autostores..

I took a jack and took the pressure off the hinge, unbolted all 4 bolts that you can see when you look in the jamb (not the ones bolted to the door or firewall)
(this was a 1 man operation btw and took less then 20 min)

Put the door on the table, made an X on the old riveted door pins. took a punch and popped them through. took a pair of pliers and removed what was left of the old bushing (practically nothing)
Simply put the replacements in the holes, tighten down the nuts, hang back up your door.

Theres no need to readjust any body lines or screw around with that. the 4 bolts you take out, all will align back to the old spots leaving no need for adjustments. . You can put some grease in the new bushings or squirt it later..

beats trying to shim and replace the whole hinge when thats not needed.

 

[redlinepontiac]

nice find

 

[matt5112]

to the how to!

 

[sasquatch094]

shoot, i should to taken pictures then.. i can take some after pictures so you can see them, but i dont have any during shots.

 

[Mr D]

I used some spare washers to shim a hinge on my saggy door. I do most work alone, and didn't want to wrestle w/ the door, risk scatching, denting it, or deal with wiring, so I used a jack (w/ wood blocking) to support door on hinge side, and (w/ window down) hung the latch side from a ladder. pic is w/ both hinges off chasis.

Plenty of room to work & easy to re-align.

 

[sasquatch094]

But since youve gone that far at taking the door off, bushings is probably easier then picking out a shim and dealing with all that crap. After all, if your bushings are dead and you compensate with shims, your really not fixing the problem, just avoiding fixing it correctly IMO..
No offense, if it works for you then great. but now my door is nice and tight just like factory.

btw, the wiring is the easiest part.. take the boot off the firewall then pull some of the harness through and youll see a junction block, unclip it and its ready to go. theres not cutting or anything like that. just makes it easier.

 

[Mr D]

You ae 100% correct, though it has been perfect since, I did not 'fix' anything. If I have any more problems, I'm definatly using this fix, so thanks for this.

My post was in response to working alone, and laying the door down, which was not a good option for me, and I could not figure out how I would rehang the door. Once i got it at the point w/ hinges off, no need to go any further w/ door removal.

 

[triebenbach07]

nice find! I believe this will be on my to do list for this weekend. Thanks

 

[kinger]

How were you able to replace the bottom bushing on the top hinge?

I have the door off and the bottom hinge complete. The top hinge has me puzzled because I dont see how to work around the door spring on the hinge.

Thank you for the help!

 

[K Slice]

This may be a dumb question, but how do you get the old pins out? Do you have to drill them like a rivet or does it actually come apart in 2 pieces?

And sorry for bringing a dead thread back up. I feel like the answer to this should be on the how to thread.

 

[sasquatch094]

Kinger- sorry im a few years late haha! i dont remember to be honest, im in the 04+ body style club, memory is shot

K slice- Not sure, in my first post, i wrote something about making an X with a grinder on the old rivet style hinge then pounding it through.. Maybe that? my memory is shot, if you takea picture i might be able to help.. and it should come out in one main piece..
sorry man..

 

[K Slice]

OK, I think I understand what you're saying about getting them out. When you said made an X I didn't realize you meant with a cutoff wheel lol. I should be able to do this then. Thanks!