The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Doors Hinge/door fitment '47 3100

I rebuilt my door hinges using parts from the freebies section. The right door bolts up and aligns perfectly. The left upper hinge however doesn't seem to fit correctly, the hinge inner bolt hole is about 1/4" inboard of where the hinge pocket hole is and I can't get the bolt in. The 3 outer bolts that attach to the pillar fit fine. I know when I removed the old hinge that the hinge body aligned correctly, and I'm assuming that I used a different upper hinge body and possibly a different arm when rebuilding. I can't remember for the life of me if the door aligned properly before I removed it (I REALLY need to start taking pictures). Would this cause the upper part of the door to have zero clearance and hit the door opening? I can't adjust the upper hinge outward at all. The lower part of the door aligns nicely.

Can these hinges warp that much or do I have a warped door or possibly wrong hinge body?

I'm not understanding exactly which bolt you're referring to that doesn't fit. Does the hinge bolt to the door without it being bolted to the pillar?
Can you post pictures of the issue?

The hinge bodies should have the same bolt pattern and interchange without issue, but the arm may have been bent at some point to align the door.

Other than that, I've got nothing to help you. Maybe one of the guys that's messed with doors a lot can help you out.

The first two pics show the inner bolt and how far out of line it is with the hole in the hinge pillar pocket. All of the holes line up well other than this one. I thought all the hinge bodies should be the same as well, but this one just seems to be a bit off. I don't know what to do next, try to find another upper hinge or find a new door. The 3rd pic shows a decent gap between the door and the cab upper rear which is what I want, the 4th pic showing the non-existent gap between the door and cab at the top.

That's interesting. My truck (a '51) has no bolt back inside the hinge pockets, and the hole in the pocket has no provision for a cage nut. Maybe there was one on earlier trucks, but I can't verify that.
I don't think I'd worry about installing a bolt there if you can align the door with normal means using just the 3 bolts on the face of the hinge. The door pillar takes care of vertical alignment (with the holes in the face plate (and the one back inside the hinge body) oval shaped vertically.

Line up the moulding on the door vertically. It looks like you need to move the front of the door upward, based on your fourth picture. If you can't get enough movement horizontally at the upper hinge, you may have to bend the hinge arm that extends into the door.

I just started alignment of my doors also and noticed that my ‘52 is also missing the back bolts on the hinge pockets. I remember reading on this forum about not forgetting to loosen those bolts. I thought one of the past owners, snapped off the cage nuts at one time and I would have to reinstall them sometime in the future. Seeing proof that the ‘47 has the cage nuts and mine and Kevin’s do not, I question whether or not my ‘52 should also have them. I leaning on the side that they should be there.

We need some of the seasoned ‘bolters to chime in to set the record straight!

I guess I just needed a couple hours to step away from the alignment issue...

Kevin, I took your advice and moved the door upwards and out at the top to get the front moved up. While doing that, I noticed that when I put pressure on the door to open it, the inner hinge body hole would line up with the pocket nut thingy. So, got a bolt in there too! Still had the problem of the door not shutting very well and found that I never tightened the lower hinge back bolt so the hinge arm was hitting it and causing the whole door to warp when closing.

Phil, I took the back bolts out on the passenger side to see if it made a difference and it doesn't make an alignment difference. I noticed a bit of flex at the pillar though and the door feels *lumpy*? when it opens and closes (don't know how else to explain it). The inner hinge bolts installed seem to stiffen things up a bit. Also, there is a noticeable gap between the pillar pocket and the back of the hinge body so I didn't give her the beans when tightening them. I think they are just there to reduce flex/twisting maybe kind of? I would assume that the later models have a bit more support at the pillar so possibly they aren't necessary.

Thanks for the help guys, the doors are now aligned and closing great! Now on to more body work which I despise.

Mason, Glad you got it worked out. The "lumpy" feel may be that the striker needs adjusting or it's just the latch engaging. I still have to get my doors fitted. Pretty close to doing that, but still need to install bushings in the hinges.
Not sure how the back bolts would stiffen things up, since the metal they screw into is just spot welded to the pillar at the door hinge pocket. Maybe GM realized they didn't help much and left them out on later models to save a few cents on bolts.
It would be interesting to know when that might have happened. We have bolts in '47 and no bolts in '51 and '52. Anybody else care to weigh in?

Phil, there was no evidence that there were any cage nuts on my truck. I had access to see in there when I replaced cowl panels.

Same on my '51. I figured it was for fine tuning the hinge. With bolts snug, you can use a drift in there to move the hinge around before you tighten them.

I don't know how one would ever be able to adjust the inboard/outboard position of the door if that deep bolt were in place.
I have never seen a bolt in that hole in any of the several trucks which I have taken apart.

I think it's just a 47-48 thing. The body service manual mentions loosening the 4 cap screws for adjustment and you can just make out a bolt inside the pocket...197-1948 Servicing Chevrolet Truck Cabs

Good to know, I thought mine were broken off by a PO.

THANKS Kevin, Mark and Mason, for you reassurance!

…..you learn something new every day. I just checked my truck: it’s a 1950 cab (although I have it titled as a ‘48). There are/were no bolts in those inner hinge pockets, top or bottom. The holes are there but I can clearly see there is no captured nut on the receiving side of those holes. Like Kevin said: GM probably eliminated them as a cost savings measure.
Good luck, Dave

Time to bring this thread back to life for a little deeper dive! I read this thread at the time and I learned that later trucks did not have 4 bolts like my 48 and 47's do. Last night I found another difference that might be of use to folks down the road. I am putting the doors back on the 47 panel to get the gaps correct when installing the lower outer cowl patch panel. The upper passenger hinge I had was very stiff and the door was just not right. I sourced a used original gm hinge and replaced it thinking they were all the same. Only the trucks were different without the captured nut for the 4th bolt right? Wrong. The hinges are different too. The 47-48 hinges open wider. The 49 and newer hinges have a stop that will not allow the door to open as far. I believe they also have a different hinge arm profile as the door now sits inboard by about 3/64. Thinking I was only solving the 3/64 problem and unaware of the stop issue, I took to widening the slotted holes and grinding on the nub in the back of the hinge mount so I could adjust it outward. When I put it on to check my work I opened the door and the top was solid but the bottom was wobbly and clearly not at the end of it's travel. I checked all 4 hinges on the 48, all four hinges on the 47 p/u and all the extra hinges I have from over the years. None had the stop in place that this hinge had. I called the guy I got it from and he looked in his pile and all of his 20 or so hinges had that stop except for 1. Another difference is my original hinge had only 1 spring and only a place for that one spring. The newer hinge has two springs and they are shaped differently. the patent number stamped on both hinges is the same. Given that the 47 p/u I have is an unmolested original in its original paint, I would bet dollars to doughnuts the hinges are original. My best guess (not assuming here ) is 47-48 hinges are stand alone items. That being said, everybody go check your extra hinges and post an upper passenger one for sale please .