left front door hinge

[Nicholas R]

That looks awesome!!, way to go!

[djdogbone]

Holy crap, that's awesome!

[cybercusp]

Well, mine just broke. Looks like I'm in the market.

[Sidaries]

My car's LF door hinge is broken now. Were there any changes in the past few years? Do anyone know the exact material it is made from? I am planning to reproduce the door hinge (430 euro for a used one is a bit too expensive for a used part, which can break any moment), and it will be good to know, what material I should use.

[DMC5180]

What do you mean by any changes? AFAIK, none of the vendors has stepped up to remanufacture them due to low demand and there are enough parts cars to meet that demand. While I would agree 430 euro is a bit steep for a used part, think about the used price of the Torsion bar that mates with it. The last I checked they were double that amount. I have yet to hear of anyone who had replace that hinge with a used one, have second failure. It certainly could happen, however the risk is likely extremely low.

The guy who posted earlier made his from 7050 aluminum. If you’re
worried about strength, I would find a local machine shop with A Rockwell hardness tester and have them test the broken arm of the hinge. This will give you a minimum number to meet for material grade selection and improve upon if desired.

A conservative shoot from the hip material would be 4130 or 4140 steel.

When examining the fracture of the broken pieces, is their any rust present from a long term developed crack or was it a clean fracture?









Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Sidaries]

I meant exactly, what you describer. Maybe a new stock or anything.

The crack was not a clean one. As it seems, there were a previous crack. I send a few pictures.
One of my friend says he can reproduce the hinge, I am eager to see the quality of it.

[Bitsyncmaster]

Your material will depend if you cast it or machine it from bar stock.

[David T]

Your material will depend if you cast it or machine it from bar stock.

For all of the work you should be able to find one less expensive from a parts car. Very unusual for a hinge to break. Something weird must have happened to it. Was the door ever replaced? Maybe the car was in an accident or it was driven into a garage with the door open.

[Sidaries]

The car was not in an accident, as I know. At least not in the past 10 years, since I own it. I said in our forum, that I should check the door this spring, because it seems, that it is not aligned well. Now I see, that I was right, so this break was not without antecedent.

The reason is a bit more mysterious, but I think, this was my fault. About 5 years ago, we aligned the door at home, and maybe we made some mistake. Or this happened because I like to drive occasionally with the door open. Very rarely, but sometimes on rough terrain. I don't know, but actually it doesn't matter, I will fix it and enjoy the car even more.

Finding a hinge from a parts car is not easy here. We don't have any Deloreans in Hungary, so it will be easier to fix or reproduce the part. Or buy the one from Ed for that horror price, when everything fails.

[Sidaries]

It is fixed. This is how it looks like now. It will be painted, then measured, and a new one will be created. And then I will see, which one is better.