What is the best and easyest way to put a door back on.I had to remove the door after the car was painted to install a new lower hinge and bushings.Is it easyier to bolt the hinge to the car or door or do you split the hinge and line it up from there.I don,t want to chip the paint .I would think it takes two people to do this. Thanks for any help

Depends on how you took it off.Did you unbolt the hinge from the cowl? Easiest way to change the bushings is to knock out the pins with the hinge in place,change the bushings,drop the pins back in, little to no adjustment needed. If you unbolted the hinges from the cowl you are in for a lot of work. If the hinge is still bolted to the cowl and unbolted at the door,its not as hard.Three people and a few layers of tape at the edges should help avoid chips. I usually stick the tape to my shirt first to take some stickiness out of the paint. Nothing worse then pulling the paint off with the tape. graemlins/clonk.gif

Having a standing army is great, but... when I did mine the hinges were bolted back on the door and I used a floor jack with a special cradle I built to capture the "knife edge" of the door bottom , I balanced and installled myself. So it can be done, damage free, if you're on your own.

Much better off to have the "standing army". I must have hung a hundred doors by myself with the floor jack and rubber pads method, but the last time I did it, I dropped the door to my '68 off the jack!! Of course, this was 10:00 at night and the last thing to do before the car left for the body shop, and I had just replaced the door skin. I bent the front corner down at about a 45 degree angle!! :mad: My body man (old friend!) fixed it after telling what a dope I am but it made me kinda sick to look at that brand new door skin with a buckle in it!! graemlins/sad.gif Sure wish I had waited for some help.

Check out the panel allignment post by MartinSR. He talks about doors there.

http://www.camaros.net/forum/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=3;t=002285

You'd have loved the production process. We had off-line subassembly fixtures that clamped the door and the hinges in place on locator pins and pads that set the hinges up-down and in-out to the door, and air-feed nutrunners drove the hinge-to-door bolts. The door then went to the body, with spacers on the sill and at the quarter panel, and we drove the hinge-to-pillar bolts. At 70 per hour, it had to be right the first time (the rear of the door was set about 3/16" high to the quarter in the Body Shop to compensate for the weight of the door glass and hardware that was added later in the Trim Shop). Fun stuff! graemlins/thumbsup.gif

Good reading John Z! Like Shoddy said the best way is to knock out the pins if you can.If you can't then mark the hinge/cowl/door with paint or a scribe then remove 1 hinge at a time, rebuild and re-install to the marks made. When you are doing a full resto,(front fenders off) leave the hinge pins loose so you can remove doors as needed. Once the hinges are set on door and cowl, drill 2- 1/8" in each side of hinge above and below bolt area this way the holes can be used for locating pins when you remove the hinges for the finish paint under them . This method insures the doors will go bach on the way you adjusted them. The holes can be filled with a bit of seam sealer and brush touched.

Originally posted by PDQUICK:
Much better off to have the "standing army". I must have hung a hundred doors by myself with the floor jack and rubber pads method, but the last time I did it, I dropped the door to my '68 off the jack!! Of course, this was 10:00 at night and the last thing to do before the car left for the body shop, and I had just replaced the door skin. I bent the front corner down at about a 45 degree angle!! :mad: My body man (old friend!) fixed it after telling what a dope I am but it made me kinda sick to look at that brand new door skin with a buckle in it!! graemlins/sad.gif Sure wish I had waited for some help.

an easy way to hang a door by yourself is to get about 4 bolts the same size as your hinge bolts cut the heads off and cut a slot in the top then screw these studs into the pillar and slip the door with the hinge over them,the studs will hold the door for you and line up your bolt holes you can then put in a couple hinge bolts, then you can screw the studs out with a screw driver and put in hinge bolts

is this topic still open? If so, is there a technique to knocking out the door pins? Both sides are sagging so I got a rebuild kit with new pins and bushing I hope will solve the issue.

I used to do it this way for ugly old Monte Carlo's etc... when I had my shop. I wouldn't really recomend it for a restoration though!

If your doing a lower hinge, you need a spring compressor to remove the big spring that holds the door in the open position. Grind the crimps on the pins with a die grinder and carbide burr. Remove the pins and replace the bushings. Drive in new pins.

Like I said, a good fixer-upper for a 150K mile beater, but I prefer to remove the hinges for anything nice

Paul D.