The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop 56' door hinge pocket

guys i'm getting ready to repair the lower hinge pocket on the drivers door to start with as old repair, it was braised from cracking over 30 years ago. the area that has the 3 3/8"x24 square nuts welded to it that the hinge connects to door with. i checked with mc.master carr and the factory nuts are 3/8" thick and the ones offered are only 5/16" thick. has anyone here used these or is their a supplier that offers the correct 3/8" ones? hard to believe this panel came from the factory with "plastic door hinge bushings but it did. thanks

the area i mentioned on the "hinge pocket" on door was not rusted but seemed to be ripping, actually both doors did the same thing years befor i purchased it. any ideas would be great though it seems measuring and making a flat rectangular steel plate is pretty straight foward. gonna definatly make the plate thicker than O.E.M. so it doesn't happen again in my lifetime.

you mean this part inside the door? the patch pieces are fine, and come with the nuts - I've seen lots abused enough to crack the metal, result of the leverage of the door weight being roughly swung out to the limit, to make it stronger you'd have to weld an I-beam in all the way over to the latch side

Bill

do you realize to install those pieces you need to cut your doors apart. i'm gonna cut some 4.5"x2" 1/8" sheet which is double thickness that should be fine.

that's what the guy said who brazed it up before

yeah I realize, got a couple doors in the pile that have the same problem, maybe a bandaid job would do to keep a driver on the road, but I wouldn't consider using'em without opening up the front face of the door that the hinge pokes into so a full fix could be done, there's more involved there than can be got at without opening it up

the drivers door on my 57 panel had that area brazed up and it held up fine for the dozen years I drove it, but it never did fit quite right

Bill

if the damage wasn't fully accessable by not cutting into the door i would have no problem cutting them but luckily these doors are extremley solid. having owned these trucks in the past and knowing their issues with the doors trying to take shortcuts is not a option. poor design from the factory.