Iāve done this kind of surgery on a few MGAās, TDās, etc. A and B pillars, hinge mounting plates, shut panelsā¦ Iām absolutely nuts about door gaps and sagging. One finger, 2 inchesā¦ click closed.
Holy Cow. Iāve seen you guys complain about the hinges on these carsā¦ how do you do this without cutting a hole in the fender? Please tell me you can get to them though the inside of the cowl.
BTW Jim, good work. Looks like youāve got a handle on it.
Marvellous work, Jim. Obvious youāre enjoying yourself, too. Thatās the important part.
Early XK door hinges are painful remnants of the Dark Ages. Like the Rack and the Iron Maiden. Steel moving on steel moving on steel with no provision for periodic lubrication. Absolutely designed to fail over time. Fixing the pin in place to eliminate the major wear points is right on. I did it a bit differently but the result is the same. Iām using 5/16ā grade eight bolts for pins. I will clamp each into the drill press and drill a 1/8ā longitudinal channel midway down the shaft through the middle of the hex head, then a lateral egress hole to a groove in the outer radius matching the width of the hinge arm pivot. Zerk on top of the pinās hex head. It will require removing a couple of trim panels every few years to administer a shot of grease but still a lot easier than installing replacements!
The hinge pin and box arrangement is truly dreadful, a very lazy piece of design on Jaguarās part. When the doors got heavier with steel skins and wind-up glass windows the hinges must have failed in very short order from new.
Whatever you do, do not be tempted to try welding the pin bolthead to the box to stop it rotating. This will cause serious problems that will complicate proper repair.
Just to help, Mitchell, I managed to replace all four of the boxes on my 140DHC without cutting the wing. For rebuilding, I used the same new heavy duty boxes as Jim, but went up to ā " for the pin size, used shoulder bolts modified for lubrication, and welded a boss on top and bottom of each plate to give a better location. Each hinge arm was drilled to take an Oilite bush. The pin head was given a āflatā to lock against a welded tab on the top pivot bush, and a grease nipple was fitted to this bush to align with a small recessed reservoir made in the pin. All this will be detailed later in the series Iām writing for the XK Gazette. Photo:
Hope this helps,
Roger
HI Roger and Nick; Not wishing to highjack Jimās video thread (which I have been greatly enjoying 
) but I was looking at Rogerās photo and noting that you are both putting in grease nipples/zerks for future lubrication. Would it be easier than removing the trim for greasing, to instead have a hard extension line ran out to a more accessible area. Maybe underneath the car out of sight?
I thought about doing that, but itās not easy to find anywhere to take them to, especially the upper one. I know some folk have included a nipple on the actual hinge, which works for the top but not for the bottom as the sill is in the way.
I reasoned that given that they are greased on assembly, are now better materials, have an Oilite bush in the mix and are not rotating parts in the normal sense, lubrication is an added luxury that should not be required on a regular basis. Nick Green has suggested my hinge solution might already be over-thought, and I think he has a point!
They were just such a horrible job, and hard to get to, that I never want to think about them again. Ever*.
*This may come back to haunt meā¦
I think youāll be safeā¦:-
The 140 Iām considering can flap itās wings about 3/8". Needless to say, the dovetails have packed it in.
Roger, Why not sealed ball bearings? It would be easy enough to weld a cup at the top and bottom, the pinās head at the top and a collar at the bottom would hold the whole shebang together and make future replacements a snap.
I considered that, too, but as this is not a rotating shaft I felt that a solid bush would give a better bearing surface with less chance of brinelling.
I really donāt think brinnelling is a concern on a door hingeā¦