The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk New AD door hinges at Chevs of the 40s any good?

Chevs of the 40s is advertising complete new upper and lower door hinges for Advanced-Design series trucks at $150 per door. (see page 24 of current "Street Rodder" magazine).

This is not cheap, but when you take into account the labor needed to rework worn hinges properly, and the time that the truck is unusable to enable that, it's not outrageous.

But, has anyone actually seen these new hinges, and are they of "original quality", or are they inferior quality?

My friend Randy, a profressional mechanic, is highly suspicious that they may not be a like quality to the originals.

Anyone seen or handled them?

Jim G

Problem is, with any part that moves and moves and moves like the door, the part should be of high quality. You can get away with crappy patch panels, (make your modifications and move on) but not door hinges.

Chevs of the 40's is a good outfit to do business with. I'd buy 'em, look them over, if you're not satisfied you can return them.

Just my opinion, but you're going to have to remove the hinges from your doors anyways.....why not give them a rebuild. The repair kits are cheap, even if you had to hire somebody to do them. Sure it's a PITA to get the old pins out but $300.00 for repop offshore stuff is just a bit much.

Secondly, you're not going to know if they are any better than what you have (after a rebuild) until you install them and hang the doors. Will the bottom hinge be able to be bent like the originals to get the proper fit? Doubt that any vendor is going to be happy about taking something back that has been installed to evaluate.

Of course it's your money and your call!

Dave

When I used to work at a Chevy dealer about 30 years ago we replaced hinge pins & bushings quite a lot. It isn't what I would call a simple job, but it isn't $300.00 worth of hard work for sure. We had a hand tool at the body shop for pulling the pins out so I would think one of the tool suppliers may still carry them. My left lower hinge needs bushings so I am going to try to find a pin removal tool and rebuild mine. What the heck, maybe I should start a side business rebuilding hinges for $25.00 each & shipping. It would be cheaper tha new hinges.

I keep hearing about people replacing the bushings, so what year did they start using bushings in the door hinges??? My '50 hinges are just drilled to the size of the pin and do not have bushings.
Fortunatly when I rebuilt my doors insides I had all four of my hinges off and pressed the pins out in the bench press, they were not worn at all and all I had to do was strip the paint, repainted them and press the pins back in. In other words there is no slop in the door hinges what so ever. There was a lot of grease on them so the PO's must have kept them lubed.

Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Denny. I'm glad you said all that. I just replaced the pin in one of my lower hinges. I drilled out the hinge to the specified size, and pushed it in. I don't know what the bushings are for, because they wouldn't fit anywhere. I guess I'm just lucky. A few taps and the pins (I put "hold opens" on the top hinge, also) slid out.

when you rebuild the pins will be slightly over sized and the hinge might need drilled out.
It really is not that hard....the pin removal is the toughest but with some heat a hammer and a punch all 4 can be done in less than an hour

Do as you may but I would caution aganist hammering the hinge pins out unless they are only being held by the serations and loose enough to move with relativly light tapping. If you have ever set a rivet you can understand what I mean. Sharp blows from a hammer on a tight pin in almost any situation can expand the column of metal and actually make it tighter. This can even happen with a hardened pin since most of the time it is only a case a few thousands of an inch thick.
I'm a firm believer in pressing pins out in a bench press, an inexpensive item now days since Harbor Freight and others came on the scene with cheap jacks and frames.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

If you cut the pins with a grinder or hacksaw the busings go inside to replace the metal you removed or the worn down area from the hinge movement. I rebuilt mine like the attached thread shows, it is not a $300 task this is a couple hours per hinge deal plus the repaint time. They work like new now and both sides of my truck had broken tension springs and non-budgeable pins.


https://www.stovebolt.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/328064#Post328064

I had mentioned a few threads back that Bitchin' is now selling hinges and I believe their prices are lower. Also, I think all their stuff is USA made.
Dave

I must have missed that post. I will see if I can find them on the Bitchin website. Thanks!

Jim G

Hey guys, I believe there is a tech tip on rebuilding these hinges. I made a note some time ago that for a perfect fit use a 11/32 bit to drill out hinge and an "R" bit to drill out the hinge frame.
I have bought a "R" bit but have not got to rebuilding my hinges yet.
I'm also with Denny wondering what year they even started using the bushings. I know some come with the repop kit but I think that is for those whose may have "wallowed" out pin holes of maybe for later models that used the same pin but the hinges were made to accept the bushings for easier repairs in the future. I took my original 52 hinges apart and no bushings in them and I will not be putting any in.

See the attached link in my post for the tech tip you are referring to.

I saw the add in Classic Trucks and Custom Classic Trucks. Both magazines have the add for the hinges. They look well made, but I would check with the company to see who made them, us or china.
Like I said, Bitchin' says they have these now and they're USA made.
Dave

I don't know about the ones from Chevys of the 40's, but these are rebuilt originals. You send them yours as cores and get back a set of rebuilt ones.

http://www.bowtiebits.com/store/Sto...e&CFID=21244123&CFTOKEN=21263813

For $169 per pair.

Yea, all you have to do is find the things on that %$@* website.

Ok Guys,
Talked to Chevs of the 40's and Bitchin' yesterday.
Chevs says hinges are made in Taiwan, but are of good quality at $150 per side.
Bitchin' says a US company took all the dies and tooling to Taiwan to make these hinges and doesn't know who the supplier is for Chevs. Could be the same supplier. Bitchin' prices are $64 each, but doesn't have any in stock. Bitchin' is $128 per side.
Dave