Stovebolt.com Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Doors Door hold open springs 1950 1/2 ton

On my 1950 1/2 ton there are no door hinge springs to keep the door open. I have done the search and I am confused whether the door needs to be removed and which spring is for the upper or lower on the top hinge. There were non present on my truck, only a broken piece of one in the hinge area. I have the kit, my doors fit good and shut good.How difficult is this for those who have done it? I have printed the tech artical on doing this.Truck has been sitting since 1992, but never has a screw been hard to screw out, lucky I guess. As one said in the search that not having them present is driving him crazy, me too. I am working on the interior and use a 4x4 block to hold the door open. Never fails that I try to shut the door without removing the wood block from the jamb.

Shof,

I have moved your post to the Paint and Body Shop as it's the best forum for further discussion on your topic.

Very sure you will get some great response and helpful info on your predicament soon.

Dan

Note: The Moderator may move this further to the "Paint and Body Shop" sub-forum for "Doors" if it may fit better in there.

I had broken springs on my door hinges as well. You need to remove the door hinge to rehab the pivot pin and replace the spring which means removing the doors. The spring goes on the top side of the top hinge. You need to remove the pivot pin to install the spring so it is a good opportunity to rehab the pivot. Its not hard but it can be a fair amount of effort to remove the door, get the pivot pin out, etc. With the srping in place the door will stay open (no 4x4 required).

Shof - There is a very good YouTube video by Jerry Kassis that might be helpful ( it helped me ) . Take a look.

Jerry Kassis rebuilds AD Door Hinges. [youtube.com]

When I rebuilt my door hinges, I needed to recondition the holes that the springs go in to keep them from falling out. Also the slot in the hinge cage needed to be re-formed as well to repair the wear.

As Jerry's video shows, there are TWO holdopen springs on each upper door hinge.

A trick to keep the doors aligned is to drill a 1/16 inch hole thru the door sheet metal into the hinge strap before removing them. When reinstalling, line up the hole with the back end of the drill bit. That assumes that the hinge pins aren't severely worn.

Jerry Kassis's video is awesome

He's got others that are great as well. I used his video when I rebuilt my wing windows.

Thanks for all the replies and video links. The doors were taken off and the hold open springs installed. The door pins were not replaced as there was no movement or wear. I was the helper with my mechanic friend. We work on it on Tuesday, thus Truck Tuesday. Again luck was with us, no bolts were frozen. The 2 most difficult parts were getting the spring set and getting the door back on. The springs just took time with the hinge in a vice and using a clamp the get the spring set in the hole. The upper hinge attached to the door was giving us trouble in getting back in the pocket so we removed in from the door and bolted it to the body. I was hesitant because the door fit was excellent. We got the lower hinge in the pocket and then the upper into the door and bolted it up. Only a slight adjustment made by loosening bolts and lifting rear of door slightly to get a good fit. This is definitely a 2 man job, those doors are heavy. Total time was about 2.5 hours total for both doors. The second door was faster than the first from learning. My doors now stay open and no longer need the 4x4 wooden blocks. Thanks to all.