Got some time in the garage today and took a stab at translating my paper hinge pocket into metal. As a reminder, I have no metal working experience. So I'm learning as I go. I bought a sheet of 22 gauge metal at the home store and laid out 2 of the hinge pockets. If these are successful, I'll only need 2 sheets of metal, total, to make all of the replacement hinge pockets. After doing the lay out, I drilled out the relief holes where the bends will be made. Next, I used the metal shears and cut out the shape. After that, I used the hillbilly metal bending technique, because I don't have a press brake. Because the 22 gauge metal is thinner than the 16 and 18 gauge metal that I've been practicing my welding on, I was able to bend it according to the layout. Then it was just a matter of fitting it into the replacement hinge pillar part, marking the bolt holes and drilling them out. Once that was done, I did a test fit with the correct hinge, replacement hinge pillar and newly fabbed hinge pocket. All in all, not bad for a first try. I'll go back and dress the edges of the hinge pocket to remove sharp edges and sort of square things up. I'm not too worried about it being perfect.
Now, about that 22 gauge metal. I really don't know what the purpose of the hinge pocket is. Will 22 gauge metal be strong enough or do I need to do a final version in thicker metal? I'd like to hear opinions backed up, if possible, with engineering type of rationale.
