VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1937-1945 Bent Door Hinge

Found a bent hinge on my 38 Coupe when blasting and rebushing them.

I have been looking for a replacement and decided to try straightening mine with an anvil and sledge hammer. Unless I heat this thing cherry red or find a massive press, this cannot be straightened easily. It is solid. Almost 3/8" thick plate.

It dawned on me that this hinge is WAY tougher than my door or hinge pillar and there is no damage to either of those. It's just the flat side of the hinge that is bent rearward 1/8" so would have the effect of widening the door gap at the top by up to 1/8".

We will be reinstalling the doors during bodywork but don't have access to check the fit currently but would like to have a spare hinge just in case as that would hold up the bodywork.

Attached a couple pics. Hinge is neatly bent about 3/4" back from the pin. You can see the 1/8" bend really only when on a flat surface. If you look at the pic of the skinny end, you can see the top is slightly bent left.
Would the factory bend a hinge like this for fit adjustment?

The factory people that made adjustments so some parts fit better did what was quick first. Bending was generally first, shimming, finding another part came way later. No telling what has happened since the body was originally assembled.

I have found that most hinges are steel and not cast iron. If so they can relatively easily be adjusted. Don't recall needing heat but have slept many times since the last hinge adjustment.

That is how the door gap is adjusted on my 38, by bending the hinges. That is the only way to move the door front to back, as explained in the manual. I used a press on mine for the driver's door hinges and one of them broke in half. The machine shop that repaired it told me it was cast steel, not cast iron. If your doors fit before I would not alter it at all. Bending it needs to be done with heat.

Thanks Fred, now at you mention it, you are right about bending the hinge being the only way to move the door front to back. There is miles of adjustment with the holes for every other direction but not that one.

I'm going to search my pictures to see if I have an image showing the door gap.

Edit: I found some decent pictures the day I lifted the body and the front door gap looked good and the back gap was actually wide at the top so suspect they tried to reduce some of the gap at the rear of the door by bending the hinge.

There is a bit of a noticeable gap in front of this bent hinge though. I might just be looking too closely now lol.

The hinge being so solid I doubt it was bent on the car without the door or frame being seriously bent as well. When you get the door swinging again and do need to adjust it will be much easier to make a shim to fit between the hinge and the door frame as it is less likely to be seen than if it is on he door side of the hinge. If you are using the parts that come off the car I doubt you will need to adjust anything that much anyway.
Tony

On my 38, there is no room for shims. The hinge fits in a pocket in the door and a pocket in the door post.