12 Attachment(s)
With the firewall finished, I moved on to assembling the panels to start correcting panel fit and gaps. I mounted the cab back on the frame along with the front clip after blasting the header panel and doing a bit of initial straightening on the inner fenders. The fenders and radiator support are aftermarket and the fit so far is really good, I haven't had to do any cutting, bending, or slotting of holes to get them to bolt together.
Attachment 279192 The new hood hinges held me up from getting the hood mounted. The old hinges were super worn and sloppy so the hood would never stay in alignment if they were reused, and reproductions were available. Their fit left a lot to be desired... with the mounting flange flat against the firewall the lower mounting hole was off by half of the bolt diameter. Attachment 278988 Tilting the hinge to show how far the flange needed to be bent to align the lower mounting hole. Attachment 278989 When the two bolt holes on the main flange were lined up the inner mounting flange was also off; not just width-wise but the shape of the flange didn't match the angle of the firewall. Attachment 278990 Attachment 278991 Attachment 278992 The curved lip on the back side of the inner flange interfered with the lip on the firewall so I reshaped it and ground it back to fit better, and so the edge had a shape that flowed better. Attachment 278993 After about 40 trips between the firewall and vise to tweak the flanges into shape the hinge finally fit flat against the firewall and all four bolt holes were in pretty good alignment. Now when the bolts are tightened the flanges won't pull or twist the firewall out of shape, and won't chip the paint from the edges digging in. Attachment 278994 Attachment 278995 Attachment 278996 Same process on the other side. Attachment 278997 Attachment 278998 |
Very nice. Are you going to paint the hinges?
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Originally Posted by KO1960
(Post 20121231)
Very nice. Are you going to paint the hinges?
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I just read this from the beginning. Great work!
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6 Attachment(s)
Long winded update hood hinge, I'll break it up into a few posts. The reproduction hinges ended up not working out once the hood was bolted on. Long list of problems with them-
1: The joints were too tight. I had to use a 24" adjustable wrench slipped over the flange that bolts to the hood to get the hinges to open and close, even with the spring off. 2: The individual arms are thinner and flexed easily which let the hood shift from side to side. 3: Each hinge angled outward front to rear by 5-7 degrees, so with the hood bolted on the already stiff joints were then in a bind from the joints on both sides not hinging parallel to each other. The thin and flexy arms somewhat minimized this problem :lol: This also made the flanges that bolt to the hood misaligned with the holes in the hood. 4: The passenger side hinge wouldn't fully drop as far as it should, so the back edge of the hood was kicked up above the cowl. 5: The joints were eating themselves. I cycled the hinges a few hundred times with the 24" wrench hoping they would "wear in" and loosen up, periodically adding oil to the joints to flush out the metal shavings that were building up. They eventually loosened up some but not enough. 6: The supplied springs were barely capable of holding the hood open, and not able to hold the hood all the way open. The hood has a section cut out at the very front for rust repair, no emblem, and the paint is stripped so it's lighter than a finished/painted hood. The friction in the joints were the main factor in the hood barely staying up. A full weight hood wouldn't have a chance at staying open. 7: The stops that set how far the hood opens were not shaped correctly. Attachment 278999 Attachment 279000 Attachment 279001 Attachment 279002 Attachment 279003 Attachment 279004 |
Well that sucks! I am in the process of deciding weather to buy new or restore my stock hinges. I wonder if all of the new aftermarket ones are the same or are some possibly better than others? Can you tell us where these were from? Right now I am leaning toward cleaning up and restoring my originals... Thanks very much for sharing your findings. It's too bad so much time has been invested in trying to fix something that should be much better to start with. I just used my new "dustless blasting" setup for the pressure washer to clean up mine... First time using it... less than $25 on amazon and I have been impressed... I have not yet determined if there is too much play in these, but they are cleaning up nicely.....
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.for...48ef4baccf.png |
Originally Posted by 7BercMerc
(Post 20160434)
Well that sucks! I am in the process of deciding weather to buy new or restore my stock hinges. I wonder if all of the new aftermarket ones are the same or are some possibly better than others? Can you tell us where these were from? Right now I am leaning toward cleaning up and restoring my originals... Thanks very much for sharing your findings. It's too bad so much time has been invested in trying to fix something that should be much better to start with. I just used my new "dustless blasting" setup for the pressure washer to clean up mine... First time using it... less than $25 on amazon and I have been impressed... I have not yet determined if there is too much play in these, but they are cleaning up nicely.....
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16 Attachment(s)
After searching the forum for hood hinge info it seemed like the hinge rebuilding companies that others had used in the past were no longer willing to rebuild this style of F100 hinges, I think due to the hinge pin's rectangle shaped end that is used to rivet the pin in place. So, armed with the Atlas lathe and Bridgeport I set off to rebuild them myself.
I'm not a machinist, and certainly not very educated on how to properly use a lathe or milling machine... anything I've done with the lathe until now was just to rough out parts with no real need for precision. Preparing to make the lathe work correctly and then learning to use it somewhat correctly involved binge watching mrpete222, This Old Tony, and Blondihacks on youtube. The Atlas lathe was in desperate need of a tune up to make accurate parts; nothing was worn, whoever had it before us never really set it up correctly. None of the gibs were adjusted so there was play in everything. Eventually with considerable trial and error I figured out how to make a hinge pin. I bought a Columbian 506 M2 vise awhile back but hadn't mounted it yet, so I went ahead and did that to hold the main hinge frame during the rebuild process. Attachment 279054 I also recently found and bought an old Delta carbide grinder so I could shape and sharpen my own hss lathe bits and tune up the brazed carbide tools that came with the lathe. This would come in handy on the longer pin that the spring is hung from. Attachment 279055 Once back to the shop I started cleaning it to see if I could get it back down the the original paint. I'll get around to cleaning up the rest of it eventually. Attachment 279056 Attachment 279057 Attachment 279058 I checked the hinges on the parts truck and they were tighter than the original pair so I started with those. Attachment 279059 The arms fit flat against each other, which creates wear and friction. I addressed this during the rebuild. Attachment 279060 Attachment 279061 I carefully ground down the riveted end of the pins, and used the mill in the tighter areas where the grinder wouldn't fit. Attachment 279062 Pressing out the pins. Attachment 279063 Tons of wear and gouging. The metal was deeply pitted, likely from the metal galling. Attachment 279064 Attachment 279065 Attachment 279066 Attachment 279067 The link between the two main arms was thick enough to rub both arms, removing the coating and causing friction. Attachment 279025 The measurements show how worn the parts were. Attachment 279068 |
Good to know, thanks.
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I was waiting to see how those after market hinges worked out for you. I bought a set 6 years ago to use on mine. They were junk then and evidently still are, They did not line up they would not close without extreme force so much so that I thought the hood would buckle. I threw them in the garbage and after a couple weeks of searching found an NOS set at a Ford dealer in Texas
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Not sure what’s wrong with the imgur site. When I click the links I get Calvin and Hobbes.
Why not just post the pics this website instead of using image hosting? |
Originally Posted by instig8r63
(Post 20161345)
Not sure what’s wrong with the imgur site. When I click the links I get Calvin and Hobbes.
Why not just post the pics this website instead of using image hosting?
Originally Posted by instig8r63
(Post 19516074)
Beautiful work.
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19 Attachment(s)
More details on the hinge rebuild. The arms were out of alignment, none of the pivot points were parallel from one end to the other. Some had high and low spots along the friction surfaces.
Attachment 279034 Attachment 279035 Attachment 279036 Attachment 279037 After straightening. Attachment 279038 Attachment 279039 All of the areas that were worn were welded up and ground/filed smooth. The holes were all reamed to make the exactly round again. Attachment 279040 Attachment 279041 Attachment 279042 Attachment 279043 Attachment 279044 Flatness was checked against a block of steel with a machined face. Attachment 279045 The pins were machined from 1" steel bar. I sized them for about .002" clearance for minimal play and room for grease. I also added .030" length to the shoulder so I could add a washer cut from UHMW. This will slightly cushion the joint, space the arms apart so they don't rub the paint off each other, and will reduce friction and wear in the joint. Attachment 279046 .030" UHMW sheet from McMaster Carr. Attachment 279047 Drilling/tapping for 5/16-24 hardware to hold the joints together. The original pressed rivets are not a precise way to hold the joints together so I didn't want to copy that aspect of the hinge pins. Attachment 279048 Attachment 279049 Milling the square ends that set the depth of the pin. This determines how tightly the joint is assembled so it was critical to measure the arms, UHMW washer, and on the main frame the offset of the raised friction surface. Too deep and the joint froze up, and the joint was too loose and wobbled if the depth wasn't cut deep enough. I ended up cutting the step slightly too low on purpose so I could remove material from the arms to incrementally loosen up the joint until it there was no play but no binding. Attachment 279050 Compound set to 12.5" to cut a bevel in the head of the pins. Attachment 279051 One of the pins on each arm were longer with a groove to mount the spring. I used the Delta carbide grinder with the table set to 7* to reshape an old/broken 60* threading bit to match the shape of the original groove. Attachment 279052 |
Very impressive
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18 Attachment(s)
Originally Posted by 654x4
(Post 20162474)
Very impressive
The finished pins, along with billet countersunk washers from All American Billet. Attachment 279017 Attachment 279018 Attachment 279019 https://i.imgur.com/8DSsewJh.jpg This is where a lot of time was spent getting the joints dialed in. The pins were machined a few thousandths too short which made each joint too tight when the hardware was fully tightened. I assembled each joint but only lightly tightened the screws; this made the joints snug enough leave a visible contact pattern of where the head of the pin was rubbing the arm. Then I used the 2" grinder with a 100 grit disc to lightly sand down only the areas that were contacting. I did this repeatedly until the joints were just snug enough to not have any play, but loose enough to not bind. Attachment 279020 Attachment 279021 I also monitored the inside of the joints to make sure there weren't excessive high spots or weird wear patterns. Attachment 279022 Assembled joint with UHMW washer between the arms. The washer is barely noticable. Attachment 279023 I didn't use UHMW between the larger friction surfaces of the main frame joints. These already had a wide friction surface from filing the area flat. I made these first and hadn't quite got the hang of setting the pin's shoulder depth yet, so they ended up loose at first. I used feeler gauges to check the clearance between the arms so to determine how much shorter to mill the shoulders. Attachment 279024 The connecting link between the two main arms was thick enough to rub both of the arms, and the holes were worn oversize. The holes being worn allow one arm to move before the other when closing the hood, which makes the hinges "pop" when the link finally does start pushing the second arm into motion. Attachment 279025 The link was a stamped part so one side isn't flat. I fixed that by milling it flat, and fixed the rubbing by milling it thin enough to fit UHMW washers on each side. Attachment 279026 Checking clearance after the initial cut to know how much extra to shave for washer clearance. Attachment 279027 Machining bronze bushings to fit in the holes. Attachment 279028 Attachment 279027 Reassembled with washers after reaming the holes to precisely fit the pins. Attachment 279029 Attachment 279030 Attachment 279031 The last issue to address; adding the UHMW washers made each joint wider, which pushed each arm outward .030". The last arm to go on no longer lined up with the hood mount bracket, so I had to bend the arm slightly into a Z shape to compensate. Attachment 279032 With that finished I had functioning hinges with no play and no binding. I hadn't done anything cosmetically yet so I disassembled them and used the 2" grinder to even out and smooth all of the stamping marks, then ran over all of the surfaces with a 3" DA and 60 grit to remove the grinding marks. After that I thoroughly scrubbed each part with Dawn, then Ospho to remove the fingerprint rust from handling bare steel parts. I lightly oiled them to prevent excessive rust during mock up until final disassembly and pain. Attachment 279033 |
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