The other day, the wind snatched my door away from me and flung it pretty violently open. The door didn't close after that. We got it ghetto-fixed with some washers added on, the door opens and closes perfectly (with no sag anymore!) but most of it doesn't seal with the body anymore. My truck is pretty well ventilated now.

I was going to head out to the junkyard when time allowed and grab some door hinges, but I just found a "door hinge repair kit" at Bronco Graveyard (linky), along with an upper spring repair kit (another linky). What do you guys think, should this fix my door or am I going on a junkyard adventure?

If it'll help, I can get some pics of the affected door after work tomorrow.

 

Depending on what broke it will fix it. As long as it didnt bend. If you can pick the door up and down vertically when open and it moves a bit then yes the pins need replaced. They also have them at autozone/advance auto part stores

 

Sounds like the mounting surface could be tweaked. Either on the door side or the truck side. Try to figure it out and get back to us...

 

I agree with 92cruisinblue and broncoderek .
I just did mine a couple weeks ago. They were sloppy. Door now no longer sag's and closes well. I replaced the pins/bushings and the door striker bolt . Even though the door closed good,, it would rattle. There is a nylon bushing on the striker bolt that wear's out. But as said before if you tweaked the hinges you may need to adjust them as well, if so I would scribe a line around them to give you a starting reference mark. Best to Ya, '92

 

My passenger door got caught in a strong wind gust a few years back. Same problem. Best I could tell the mounting point on the truck itself is what bent. I shimmed the door so it would close just like you have done. Mine no longer seals like it should but its not creating any ventilation. IIRC I smacked the mounting points some with a BFH to try to tweak it back a little, but I can't remember if it made a difference. Hopefully you have better luck than I did.

Man was I pissed when that happened. Just moved to town, drove a few colleagues to a get together, and one guy opened the door and just let the wind take it. Bit my tongue hard so as not to look like the crazy new guy.

 

The only thing that scares me is if it pulled the metal the hinge mounts to out of position. The hinge pin kit you are buying is for worn pins and the spring kit is just that a spring kit. Meaning if your springs work then that's that if they don't then the kit will benefit you. The best way to test if the hinge pin replacement will work is opn the door about 45 degrees and get on the end of it. Lift the door while watching the hinge or "feeling" it. If the hinge pin moves inside the bushings then this will help but may not fix your problem. The other thing you can do after replacing the hinge cmponents is "adjust" the door by gently but forcibly bending it. That's what the body shops do when aftermarket doors don't fit just right.

 

Sorry for the delay, been a busy couple of days. Here's some pics, you guys can tell me what you think.

First off, here's the panel gaps I now seem to have:

This is my driver door, with thumb for comparison. Normal gap.
This is my passenger door, the one that got screwed up and was fixed with washers. Big gap, huh?


The hinges:

Passenger side, lower hinge.
The ghetto-fix. This was done to all the bolts on the passenger side door.
Closeup of the lower hinge.
Upper hinge on the passenger door.

When I took these pictures I couldn't get any clear ones of the driver side since it was in the shade, but the difference in the hinges is night and day. The driver side is flush with the body, the passenger side has a much larger gap.

So, I'm due for new hinges, or do you guys think more damage was done?

 

That is exactly what mine looks like. I figured the hinges are made of some fairly beefy material and the mounting point is composed of sheet metal, and just assumed the mounting point on the A pillar is what got tweaked not the hinge. The door (on mine) looked fine where the hinge bolts up. I also did the washer ghetto fix, and my gap looks similar to what you have. Sucks doesn't it? I hope you figure it out, I'll be following this thread.

 

This is the Dorman 38410 kit. It's sold locally at Pep Boys, AutoZone, Advance Auto Parts, etc.. for about 6$. It'll save you on shipping, unless you need to order other things.


This is the Dorman 38435 kit. Hard to find in my local auto parts store at least. I ended up ordering it off eBay.

I haven't done this repair yet. Supposedly you can get at it without removing the fender.

 

From your pictures it does look like the door side sheet metal has been pulled out of position and needs to be repaired. The hinge pin repair kit will fix a door that sags because of Pin and Bushing wear. If you can move the door up and down when it's open then you will see movement at the hinge pin and the door body lines will not line up, nor will the latch with the striker and will need to be lifted to close. The driver side door is usually the 1st to wear the pin and bushing. You may need to get a body man to be hands on, to see if only sheet metal work is needed. Or hinge & pins may be needed also. Shops in my area have answered questions for me that have helped me fix other body rust repair issues. It does not hurt to ask. Let us know how it turns out it. Hope this helps '92.

 

Figure I may as well update here. Nobody likes it when someone posts with a problem and never posts the resolution.

I got the door fixed today. To cut the price a bit, I picked up some hinges in good condition from a junkyard Bronco. Stripped the paint off with a wire wheel, rattlecanned it something vaguely blue, and then handed the job over to the professionals.

The cab sheet metal was indeed pulled, and the hinges were shot. It also tweaked the fender a bit. They told me the only way to truly fix it would be to cut the cab metal and weld new stuff in, but they did what they could with it and shimmed the fender and hinges a bit, and bent it up a bit to get it looking normal. It's not a 100% fix, the panel gap is still there, but the door opens and closes perfectly and is now sealed.

I'm satisfied with the fix. The body shop originally quoted me $100 for the work, but it ended up being $140. They gave me a discount because of the originally quoted price, and because I bribed them with some meat from the shop I work in.

Now, let's see if anyone notices the Chrysler blue door hinges...

 

my hinges were bent, the door was tweaked and the A pillar was pulled out a little. First I replaced the pins as the bushings were broke, that lasted about 20 days and they broke again. in 2 months, I had no bushings. So I replaced the door and hinges and now all I got to do is push the mounting points on the pillar in so the door sucks in properly.

The top is in too far and the bottom hangs out so I have a gap on lower end.