kstern58

Hi all. My second post (newbie post first) and first real question. I need to replace the door pins on my 68 442, and just looking at them it appears that the fenders would need to come off in order to get the new pins in. That seems extreme, and I wonder if I'm just looking at it wrong. The chassis manual doesn't seem to mention door pins or hinges, and searching the forums has not revealed anything specific enough for my question. Anyone have experience with this?

joe_padavano

You really want to remove the doors and then unbolt the hinges to do this off the car. You might be able to access the bolts on the hinges using an offset, curved wrench, but I've always just removed the front fenders, which makes it much easier. Be aware that you'll need to realign the doors after reassembly.

oldsonharmont

You might ask around and see if a body shop can do this for you. The new hinge pins and bronze bushings are cheap, and it's a quick operation for a shop with the right tools. I had 2 door done on an El Camino for around $100 parts and labor.

kstern58

I think I'm going to wait until the fall when I plan to replace the engine. I'll be taking the fenders off a that time, not only to make engine removal/installation easier but I need to replace the heater core anyway - which means the passenger inner fender needs to be removed anyway and the fender blocked out. Thanks for your suggestions.

allyolds68

I agree it's a lot easier to pull the fenders to do the motor. That being said, there's a tweak to removing the heater core without removing the fender. You can get to all but one nut and you can drill that one out from the inside. That one nut doesn't really need to be replaced when you put it back together. I haven't had to do this myself but I read about it on some article about changing the heater core in a GTO