Door hinge pin replacement! -..-

[VW_OwneR_85 1]

Well iv been putting this off now for a few months so today i actualy pulled my finger out! first off! abig

%*^%$£!!!! to VW because i dont even think they designed there door with door pin maintenace in mind!

you cannot even remove the pin without it digging into the door skin! the hinges were obviously pre assembled

then welded onto the door in thee tightest space they could find!!,so no matter how carefull you are you

will damage paint, also its very difficult to use a hammer and punch as you dont have a straight line at it,

my top hing is fine but the bottom is realy worn, the door was saggy so much that it was scrapping the paint on the

sill,

i tryed with a hammer and punch with the door on the car and got no where!

so off it came!

sorry for the bad quality pics as i only have a phone camera,

the idea was to press the hinge out but it only cracked the G clamp, its only a small one

due to the space you cannot use anything bigger, then i thought AH!! ball joint splitter!

it needed some grinding on the edges for a decent fit! but it worked!

now this is what realy annoyed me,check out the angle on this! btw the pin only goes one way and thats the way im going.the pin is barely half out and its already fouling on the door skin! if i would of pushed the other way it would of hit the door skin square on,also one end has a taper and its the taper end your supposed to push out on,

its almost out here but i had to carefuly punch the door skin slighty so the pin doesnt digg its way into the door skin

as you can see if i would of pressed the pin out the otherway it would of just been blocked,

got the pin out ok, need to order a new half hinge as its worn the old one aswell,

well atleast its almost done!

[VRTrickster 0]

God that does look like a right pain in the a**e! Well done for giving it a go though :)

[VW_OwneR_85 1]

yea cheers iv been putting it off awhile now, just cant belive vw would put it in such away thats its physicaly impossible to remove without damageing the paint.

[fla 9]

not to make youi feel bad, as i commend your efforts - my drivers door sagged and i put some shims behind the hinge to pull it into line. That was about 7 years ago and it still fine. In fact i believe quite a few people have have done something similar. Ideally yours would have been the best 'proper' solution though

[volksworld13 0]

i had the same issue, a body shop attempted this, and said they would cut the hindge off and re-weld it back on, and the cost would not be worth doing so i left it, i did try all sorts myself, door off, punch hammer press, gave up in the end!

[VW_OwneR_85 1]

yea i can see from a labour point of view why it wouldnt be worth doing,im glad im tackiling this myself, and yea i also thought about washers cut in half in the shape of a C and then slide that between the hinge to take out the play but luckily it didnt come to that,if anyones handy with metal you could easily fab up a little press jigg specificly for this job,which is what i would of done if the balljoint splitter failed,the splittler i used had to be ground out for it to sitt right, but it wasnt perfect but it worked! if anybodys thinking about doing theres my advice is have a bench grinder and a bunch of G clamps and a scissor type ball joint splitter ready as they will need rounding off or bits removed to sitt better, also have the replacement pin and half hinge before you start as that will also motivate you to try harder knowing you got the parts ready! i must admit i was like fxxx! this aint working! but seeing as i took the trouble to remove the door i didnt give up easily/at all and its off! happy days! just waiting on the hinge from VW and then ill smooth out the paint and give it a little touch up{ in a none sexual way} :)

part # for pin= 321 831 421

part# for hinge half= 321 831 403 VW still have these..

[VW_OwneR_85 1]

right! the hinge half arrived this morning, it also comes with a copper bush! {which may look like thin washers either side of the half hinge}which is another part that gets worn away! the pin needed to be pressed back in with the ball joint spliter,also greased the hell out of it! and its a very tight fit!! im sure some of you have bigger hammers then me! so a punch may work but mine didnt, also found the reason why my electric mirrors wernt working! the conntacts on the connecters were corroded!! so now everything works as it should!! door action is silky smooooooth! well chuffed :)

i also gave it abit of paint to match but i didnt take anymore pics after this one

[owen g60 10]

top effort that man:thumbleft:

[VW_OwneR_85 1]

top effort that man:thumbleft:

thanks man, so glad ive done it. thought the hard part would be the wires in the door etc but tbh it was actualy removeing that pin! thought that draper G clamp would press it straight out,

lol when it cracked the G clamp i was like "oh $%£! now what am i gona do?!" :(

[owen g60 10]

i would have got irate at that point and leathered it with a hammer :bonk: rather you than me

[steveo29 0]

done a couple on my cars latley...i find the least destructive way is use a 1mm cutter disk in the same plane as the pin and cut a slit , pin then taps out easily

 

mask off the paint and mig weld up the slit , refit the new parts , with care theres very little damage and no lost paint from exsesive hammering

[VW_OwneR_85 1]

done a couple on my cars latley...i find the least destructive way is use a 1mm cutter disk in the same plane as the pin and cut a slit , pin then taps out easily

 

mask off the paint and mig weld up the slit , refit the new parts , with care theres very little damage and no lost paint from exsesive hammering

 

ah i see clever method,ill remember that as i do have access to a mig welder :) its also surprising how blady heavey those doors are!!

think they need to go on a diet!!!.

[steveo29 0]

horrible job ...i spent ages on the first trying to make a clamp device etc

 

doesnt need to be in there that tight , i dont know what those splines are for , a circlip would have done

 

if anyone is local to me , id swap your pin over for a drink , would want the door taken off though