The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Doors AD Door Post Hinge Bolt - 3 or 4 ?

Working on a 53 AD cab. I noticed that the bottom of the door hinge pockets on the passenger side have threaded nutserts installed while the drivers side does not. With the door open, it does appear that you could install a bolt in the bottom of the hinge pocket. The only hinges that came with my 'parts' truck were the passenger side, and they only had the three visible bolts on each hinge, but the bottom of the hinge pockets show the impression of a washer with less rust in that area.

Anyone know if there are supposed to be a 4th bolt in the bottom of the hinge pocket or not ?

Yes, one bolt (a fourth bolt) that goes into a captive nut in the middle of the inside of the hinge pocket. If the captive nut is not there, unless someone else has a method of getting a nut in there, you should be able to make-do without it (I bet a lot of people have gone without it).

Whoa, back up a second here... there's a FOURTH bolt?

I just looked and by god, you're right! None of my hinge pockets have any trace of ever having a captive nut, but that's a minor point compared to just exactly how would one go about putting that bolt in? Things are pretty cramped in that pocket with the hinge in and I'd be willing to bet that bolt got left out of a lot of repairs.

Don't you just love the way they put this forum off in an obscure corner where hardly anyone pays attention?

Woody,

I agree.

Most likely this was a well-intentioned effort to clean up the front page listing of fora. However, unless you know where all the subordinate fora are located, you will not easily find this forum.

Suggestions:

1. In the main forums "description" of each forum, name the subordinate fora in the the description.
2. In a forum that has multiple subordinate fora, list sll the subordinate fora at the top (as is done now), but include the name of the "default" subordinate forum.

We'll get used to it but new users might be slow to break on through to the other side and discover "The Doors".

Tim

I think it would be wise to just post doors questions in the Paint and Body forum and then let the mods move it. At least that way you get a link and some exposure.

Personally, I don't see the reason for a sub-forum... I think door discussions could very easily fit into the Paint and Body forum. But what do I know?

I believe I originally did post it in the body forum and they moved it.

It does not look too hard to get a bolt by the hinge as long as the door is all the way open.

I actually have to replace the inner and outer cowl, at least the lower portion, so I could weld a nut the back of the hinge pocket if you all thought it was necessary. But after fitting my passenger door for the last two nights, I believe three bolts are plenty. Lots of tweaking going on here to get things to line up. Including having to modify the cab corner I just put in. Live and learn. I will have the door mounted on the driver's side BEFORE I weld anything solid.

This is so strange because I can find no evidence that there ever was a captive nut on any of my hinge pockets. There's a slight nick or deformity on the long slot next to the hole that the nut should be behind, but no evidence of any spot welds or crimps or anything on the hole.

I'd love to see a photo of how this is supposed to look. I could see putting another bolt there that wouldn't get tightened until after all door adjustments are finished... if not well after just because there's supposed to be one there.

As far as my '50 cab goes there are only three bolts for the lower hinge. Two in the top and a third at the bottom.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Here are a couple of pics. Easy enough to show since I have a BIG gaping hole where my lower cowl is supposed to be. You can see the two upper hinge bolts sticking through their nuts. The other nut in the bottom of the hinge pocket looks just like the other three.

http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2058858680103486525RQBbhG?vhost=good-times
http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2518651470103486525fznUwp?vhost=good-times

Kevin,

Thanks for the photos... I don't have anything like that on mine. Those are the same kind of captive nuts at the other three positions on the hinge pocket and those holes are not round, they have a flat spot. The holes in my pockets at this position are perfectly round and show no evidence of ever having a captive nut.

As an interesting aside, there's a MANUAL at the bottom of that page which I have and it makes reference to there being 4 bolts on each hinge.

Man you guys are really confusing me! Woody the manual that your refering to I assume is the "Servicing Chevrolet Truck Cabs" manual. The only reference to tha door bolts is on page 11 where it explains the door adjustments. In both pictures there are clearly only three bolts in each hinge and it makes no reference to the number of bolts other that that of loosening and tightening the capscrews securely.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Woody - I only have them on the passenger side. The driver's side just has the perfectly round holes you say you have.

Denny - not trying to confuse anybody, just trying to learn from you guys that have been at this longer than I. It is very hard to take a picture of the bottom of the hinge with the door in place, so I imagine that the 4th bolt would not show up, but MIGHT be mentioned in the text.

I went to test fit my drivers door last night. The PO managed to strip AND break the head off one of the upper door side hinge bolts. So, instead of drilling it out, they just drove the broken bolt and backing plate back through the part of the hinge that sticks into the door so they could remove the door from the hinge. What a mess. I managed to remove the broken bolt (not easy in a recessed hole at an awkward angle, then I pried the backing plate into position and welded it back in place. The good news is the drivers door fits great.

So are we talking about the same area of the truck as this????

http://rides.webshots.com/photo/2305252510098611668LNvQZK

Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

In my copy on the same page, the caption for the top photos says "To adjust the door vertically, loosen the four capscrews at the pillar end of each hinge" and if you look closely at both photos you can clearly see a bolt head inside the top hinge, back in the pocket... or at least they are visible in my copy.

As for your photos, you're in the right church, wrong pew. The bolt holes in question are inside the pocket. You probably need a flashlight to see them.

OHHHH, I see what your talking about now! There are no capscrews or captive nuts nor were there ever any in the back holes in my ’50.
http://rides.webshots.com/photo/2563346430098611668oTuZRG
http://rides.webshots.com/photo/2018188790098611668WxwQiv
http://rides.webshots.com/photo/2670542290098611668hBXLdc

And I went back and reread page 11, your correct it does say “four capscrews”. When I read it (14 times) I just naturally skipped over it because I knew from my having the doors off and on a couple of times that there wasn’t any screw or nut plate in the back. And I remember now questioning those holes myself at the time.

As far as the “four” in the text, either they did have one back there prior to ’50, i.e., 1947-49 and discontinued it after ‘49 or there is a mistake in the text. Back in the 60’s and 70’s I had a friend that was a technical write for, of all people, the GM training center here in LaGrange, IL. The thing that always baffled me was that Tom had never changed a tire and barely knew where you put the gas, back in those days someone pumped it for you around here. Tom didn’t have a clue as to how a machine worked yet his job was to explain it in the textbooks. He would go out to the line and watch other people doing the job and record what he saw. So ever since then I don’t have 100% confidence in what I read in a technical manual.
This might be another one of those features that helps distinguish what year a truck is when the VIN tag is missing or your thinking about buying a morphodite.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

My bet is that someone got an award for the cost saving idea of eliminating the fourth bolt after the assembly line guys complained long enough.

My cab is a 53, but has definitely been worked on in the past. The passenger side must have been hit hard.