I will need to tackle a worn hinge - I believe it is just the upper, so my thought is to remove it and swap for a reproduction or rebuilt hinge - just swap the hing hopefully. - So can you remove the upper hinge w/o removing the fender ( in know they make or will need to make a special bent wrench to access the bolts...) thanks

 

Check the wear around the door hinge pins, they give problems often on cars with heavy doors. Cheap fix and repair kits are easily found . Also You Tube has videos on how to repair. Good luck, Larry

 

I would strongly recommend rebuilding your existing hinges - both. The repops aren't very good. I tried to use them but went back to my originals.

My attempts to R&R with the fender in place have not been hugely successful. It might be worth trying as you would save some time, but I'd go ahead and plan on pulling the hood and fender.

 

Here's another option. The back door hinges on more-door cars are the same as the front door hinges. Back doors get used a lot less and the hinges are rarely worn.

As for replacement, I've never been able to successfully do it without pulling the front fenders.

 

thanks...It looks like you can get to the bolts with the fender on with the correct wrench..hopefully.?

 

With patience, yes. I have several good hinges if you need any.

 

Maybe I've been lucky but I have replaced only the pins and never have seen a bad hinge in the dozen or so that I have had this "sagging Door " problem. Do the hinges break,rust out ,or wear oblong where the pins go through? Just curious. Larry

 

The bushings wear out. If it's really bad, the bushings wear all the way through and the housing starts to get worn from the pin. The rebuild kits come with bushings and pins.

If the bushings are somehow still good (didn't the OEM hinges have some plastic in there?) then one might be able to replace the pins with the door in place.

 

If it's just the pin and bushing you don't need to remove the door. Larry

 

Larry, how easy is it to just replace the pin and bushing, w/o removing door?..

 

I have the same problem as Del 70.

Larry. If it's the bushings that wear out, did replacing just the pins give you much improvement? I have about 1/8" play when I lift at the rear of the door. Is that enough slop to worry about and take care of before I paint my wagon or is it more or less normal? All my doors open and close nicely and I wouldn't have known there was play in the hinges if I hadn't checked and lifted the doors.

Joe's right. Rear doors are good...

 

In all actually 1/8 of an inch at the end of the door on a 70 is really not much wear. When you do the math and geometry, one degree of movement at one inch equals approximately .017 inch. 1/8 inch (much less than one degree) at the end of the door is mighty small amount of movement at the hinge. Cancel this, you probably mean 1/8" of movement in the hinge.

 

One degree... 15 seconds... It's not much, but it's all relative Ed.

Here are the kits. Oddly, they say it fits a Vista Cruiser, but the selector shows it doesn't...

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1968-72-GM-...lZ4SYk&vxp=mtr

and

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1968-1969-1...FXqdnK&vxp=mtr

I may still just check out the hinges that come with my "new" doors first an see if they are still in good shape.

I do wonder how those tabs on the ends of the hinge pins go through the bushings. Do they fold away? ;-)

 

How easy is it to replace the upper hinge w/o removing the fender?

Removing the bolts – I remove the kick plate, put some oil on the exposed bolts, and all bolts. Made sure all six bolts would loosen before starting the project. Used a ratcheting wrench with wrenches, socket wrench.... Very slow process, but the ratchet wrench helped some for the body side bolts. I bought two rebuilt kits and the extra bushing kit. The bushings are very easy to damage - yes I broke one so the extra bushing kit was used. The originals are plastic. Re-alignment of the door was the most difficult part, as anticipated.