Well I finally got around to changing out the welded in hinges in my Son's 72. First off, I would like to find out who all of the engineers and design team that decided it was a good idea to weld the damn doors to the cowl, and weld all of their door completely shut, dipsh!ts.
Anyway (sorry for the rant), the reason I had to do this was because I bought a goodmark 2" cowl hood and the drivers side front fender was a good 1/4 inch too far forward. After looking at the door gaps on either side I found out why. I had nice tight 3/16 or so gap on the passenger side between the door & fender and the door & quarter panel. On the drivers side I had 3/8 or so on the door to fender and also the door to quarter panel...WTF? I had read on here that it seemed to be a problem with a lot of the later Gen 3 Nova's on the drivers side. Plus the spring was missing on the lower hinge, so I bought new hinges from Classic Industries.
I started by removing the door and drilled out the 4 spot welds in the hinge halves that were on the cowl, that went pretty smooth. I then tried to find the spot welds on the hinge halves that were still on the door...Not so easy. I must have drilled 2 dozen holes to find them, but got them out. I then tried to line the new hinges up where I had scribed where the old ones were.....NOTTA, the new hinges were a bit different in shape and size (figures huh).
SO......I put the door on and latched it shut, I went to the other side and got the gap size on the bottom of the door to the rocker. I then put a box beside the door and put a screwdriver under the door until I got the gap that I wanted. I then put the hinges in one at a time and tack welded them in. I checked and I was a bit off so I ground the welds down and repositioned it and moved it closer the the rear to close up the gap. This time the fit was where I wanted it so I welded them in place. I had to make a minor adjustment with a 2X4 and lift up on the back of the door, now it fits pretty good. All in all it was a long day, took about 4 or so hours because the drilling was a b!tch. Make sure to have some new/sharp bits on hand before attempting this....Here are some pics:
Mike
Anyway (sorry for the rant), the reason I had to do this was because I bought a goodmark 2" cowl hood and the drivers side front fender was a good 1/4 inch too far forward. After looking at the door gaps on either side I found out why. I had nice tight 3/16 or so gap on the passenger side between the door & fender and the door & quarter panel. On the drivers side I had 3/8 or so on the door to fender and also the door to quarter panel...WTF? I had read on here that it seemed to be a problem with a lot of the later Gen 3 Nova's on the drivers side. Plus the spring was missing on the lower hinge, so I bought new hinges from Classic Industries.
I started by removing the door and drilled out the 4 spot welds in the hinge halves that were on the cowl, that went pretty smooth. I then tried to find the spot welds on the hinge halves that were still on the door...Not so easy. I must have drilled 2 dozen holes to find them, but got them out. I then tried to line the new hinges up where I had scribed where the old ones were.....NOTTA, the new hinges were a bit different in shape and size (figures huh).
SO......I put the door on and latched it shut, I went to the other side and got the gap size on the bottom of the door to the rocker. I then put a box beside the door and put a screwdriver under the door until I got the gap that I wanted. I then put the hinges in one at a time and tack welded them in. I checked and I was a bit off so I ground the welds down and repositioned it and moved it closer the the rear to close up the gap. This time the fit was where I wanted it so I welded them in place. I had to make a minor adjustment with a 2X4 and lift up on the back of the door, now it fits pretty good. All in all it was a long day, took about 4 or so hours because the drilling was a b!tch. Make sure to have some new/sharp bits on hand before attempting this....Here are some pics:
Mike