It actually wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. The upper door hinge on my 81 was totally shot (pin and bushings flat worn out and the door spring was completely broken), but the lower was actually in pretty good shape as it just needed a pin and bushing set.

Needless to say, when you replace a door hinge, alignment is ALWAYS a bit issue and usually something you really don't want to do (well, something I sure don't want to do!!!).

My original plan for today was just to replace the pin and bushings on the drivers side door lower hinge and call it good for the day (What can I say? I wanted to work my way into this SLOWLY.). Of course, anyone that has actually played with the door hinges knows you have to remove the door to get access to bushings... Yeah. I didn't know that until after I started this.

Well, given that I had to at least unbolt the door from the upper hinge, I decided I might as well jump in with both feet and replace that upper hinge while I had the door off.

But getting it aligned without removing (or loosening) the fender probably wasn't going to be easy. Or so I thought! My bright idea that actually made this fairly straight forward was pretty simple:

Before I removed the upper hinge, I attached a string through the bottom hinge pin hole on the lower hinge, then ran it up past the upper hinge, just touching the side of the hinge in the same location as on the lower hinge. I used a 3' stick taped to the hood and window in the right spot so I could anchor the top of the string to it and it would maintain the alignment of the string while I removed the upper hinge. A couple of height marks at the top and bottom of the upper hinge on the string would also make it very easy to get the new hinge in exactly the right location.

After unbolting the old hinge and loosely bolting down the new one, I was able to use the string reference against the new hinge to get the front/back, up/down AND the rotation alignment (so the pins are on the same line) set up right on the money the first time. The door was set in place on the lower hinge and the new pin tapped in place. Then the upper hinge was bolted to the door lightly and the initial alignment was set.

I have to admit, that it DID take two tries to get the in/out location on the upper hinge (where the door attaches to the hinge. The hinge to cab location was set perfectly the first time) set right so the door was sitting correctly in the opening. When it was all said and done, the door is aligned better now than it has ever been and the door doesn't have that 1/4" sag when it's not on the door striker. And, the interior noise is GREATLY reduced because the door seal at the top of the door is actually being sealed correctly. I didn't realized just how much noise that "slightly out of alignment" door was causing...

Now I just have to finish up the passenger side door tomorrow!

 

I should probably change my driver side cause the spring broke so the door just swings loosely, but I'm kinda liking that so far, it doesn't tell me where it wants to rest.

 

Being a slacker, I keep putting the replacement off. I've had the pins and bushings over 5 years now. Maybe this summer when I do the rear springs.... Sounds like you did a good job.

 

It only took me about 1 1/2 hours start to finish to rebuild the lower hinge and replace the upper hinge on the driver's side. I could probably do the passenger side in less than an hour now. Of course, I have decided that the passenger side is in good enough condition so it can wait until next weekend!

The springs on both my doors have been broken for several years. I kind of liked it at first, but after battling wind and other issues that wouldn't have been issues if the door springs worked correctly, I decided it was time to fix it.

In truth, what my truck REALLY needs is a frame off restoration. If only I had the time and money for that.

 

Could someone tell me where I could buy hinge pins for my 1976 f-100?

 

I picked mine up at the local NAPA store. Hinge pin replacement kits (with the pin and bronze bushings) are pretty common, so you should be able to find them local.

 

I went to two different NAPA stores and they couldn't find the hinge pins for a 1976 f-100.Do you have a part number or some kind of reference # that I could give them? Do you know the diameter and length of the hinge pins you bought?I might be able to find one that way? Thanks zrxlover.

 

RockAuto have them for 80 - 86 trucks @ $4.25 per '1x pin, 2x bush' kit (2 kits per door needed)
LMC also do them, but at more than twice the cost per kit

They probably also have your earlier parts