MTFCA Forum

I am about to embark onto repairing the door hinge pins on a 1914 Runabout and am curious if anyone has done this and would be willing to share their experiences.

Since the hinge pins are 'killed' on the one I am working on, I think my initial thoughts are to align the two pieces the best I can and then put a tack-weld onto the hinge loops to hold the hinge in alignment. Then drill or ream (-likely the first due to the amount of wear present) the present pin holes to an oversize that cleans the hole up. Then grind and metalfinish the tack-weld off of the loops. For the new oversized pins, I will likely order some Steel Rod from McMaster that corresponds with the new hinge loop bore size and go from there. Not sure how I am going to approach making the head of the pin yet. Maybe add filler weld onto one end of the hinge and spin it in the lathe to form, -or whether to heat the end and peen it to a dome shape. Thoughts on any of this?? TIA!!

Have you had the old pins out to determine if they are badly worn? They may be "notched". If much of the wear is on the pins, replacing them with new ones or new, oversize ones may be sufficient. I'd be cautious about reaming/drilling the hinges, since there isn't much material there to begin with, and even less if they are badly worn.

TXGOAT2 wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 11, 2022 8:44 am

Have you had the old pins out to determine if they are badly worn? They may be "notched". If much of the wear is on the pins, replacing them with new ones or new, oversize ones may be sufficient. I'd be cautious about reaming/drilling the hinges, since there isn't much material there to begin with, and even less if they are badly worn.

No, I have not removed them yet, but based on previous experiences, I am almost sure the pins AND the loops have wear. You may be right, but I think there is more material there than one thinks. I feel comfortable that a 0.250" pin could be used however if I can get away with cleaning up the loop bore size to maybe 5/32" or 11/64", then I can order rod in 0.1540" or 0.1695" diameters which should give me a pin clearance of about two thou, which should be about right.

T open car hinges are pretty simple and in my experience with my 2 open T’s they have to be really worn out to need the pins replaced. The type hinge that’s pictured was and probably still is fairly easy to find at swap meets. The hinge haves sometimes get slightly bent but that’s an easy fix with a vise, anvil and hammer to straighten and close the loops together.
They are probably the easiest part of a T open car to fix and get back in shape.

That would make an excellent repair if there is enough stock to do it. If you have a way to turn pins to size, you might make heads on new pins by starting with a rod the diameter needed for the heads, then turning the shank portion down to size and shaping the head as needed.

Worn hinges can be a source of annoying noises.