Knight wrote:
"Wrey Schelin offers the pins and bushings as a set. I ordered mine from a
different vendor, ( can’t recall which) and ended up having my own
machined
and didn’t use the supplier’s since they were not tight enough fit. Of
course, it is not difficult or expensive to have your own fabricated. On
the
other hand, I would guess that Wrey Schelin’s would work well since
everything he does seems to be first rate. I used Wrey for several body
panels during my restoration and the work is excellent.
Knight "
I can attest to the kits supplied by Wray Schelin. I removed my hinge
boxes, had the holes welded closed and re-drilled, along with the hinges, and
installed Wray’s SS pins and oiled bushings. The doors are now rock-solid.
Carl Hanson
Bedford, MA
1951 Jaguar XK120 FHC #679012
The hinge boxes are bolted in, not welded. Each has four 1/4” BSF nuts and bolts securing the 45 degree flanges to the A-post hinge panel and four more securing the 90 degree flanges to the dash frame. The latter four are in a confined space and a bear to get at, in particular the uppers and especially with the wing vent boxes in place - holding the nut in place whilst fumbling with a wrench to turn the bolt was just about impossible. I made up four rectangular plates out of 16 ga steel, drilled four 5/16” holes in each to match the bolt pattern of the hinge box flange, bolted the hinge box to the plate then tacked the nuts in place.
The hinge boxes are then put in place and loosely bolted to the hinge panel. Then I used a magnetic telescoping wand to position the nut plates sufficiently to get one bolt started, then the remaining three were easy.
Thanks Nick for your innovative solution to this quite vexing issue. I’ve owned my car since 1961, it has less than 100k miles on it. The hinges have always had lots of play in the. The doors always need to be raised to get the properly closed. The sills are pretty well rusted out. I have a new pair, the coachwork is off the frame now. I worry about the new alignment of the sills. Maybe I should leave the hinges the way they are as my concern is that if the new sill alignment is somewhat amiss the doors will never close…Advice please.
You will be best advised to get the hinge boxes sorted out before proceeding, Carl. They’re a primitive design with no provision for lubrication so the pivot pins and seats wear out and get sloppy, which is why the need to raise the doors manually to get them to close.
It’s an involved process, but essential if you’re going to get things fitting right.
Ok, I thought I had pics of this process but I can’t find them. Word salad will have to suffice. First order of business Carl is to determine if the pivot pin holes in the hinge arms are worn. They’re 5/16". If by inserting a new 5/16" bolt the fit is sloppy you will need to get them bushed, otherwise you can try reaming them out to 8 mm and go to a larger 8 mm pivot pin. While my hinge box pivot holes were sloppy as hell the ones in the pivot arms themselves were decent as is.
Next you need to replace the worn pivot holes in the hinge boxes and get them aligned with the hinge arms. For that you need to make a simple tool. It’s basically two short lengths of rod stock threaded at each end and joined together using a long coupling nut. I had a pic of it somewhere but can’t find it. It looks something like this - apologies for the lack of specific lengths:
I couldn’t locate a 5/16 x 24 coupling nut so threaded 5/16" rod stock UNF on one end and UNC on the other. You could otherwise simplify the fab by using UNC threaded rod stock and nuts but the result may not be as accurate.
To address the hinge box pivot holes I cut eight 1"x1" squares of 1/8" bar stock and then using a press precisely drilled 5/16" holes perpendicularly through each, centred about 3/8" in from one edge.
Leave the hinge boxes bolted firmly to the body but clean away any rust and paint around the pivot pin holes best you can for later welding in the repair pieces - not much room to work. Hinge arms positioned in place. You run each of those 5/16" threaded rods through the pivot holes of the two hinge boxes and their hinge arms while positioning the repair pieces, which you manipulate in place such that when the hinge arms swing out they’re as square with one another as you can get them. You snug up the nuts top and bottom, recheck your hinge actuation then tack weld the repair pieces in place. Remove the assembly and repeat on the other door.
Then you have to get the hinge boxes out to complete the welds on the repair pieces. Note that you’re not actually repairing the original pivot holes in the hinge boxes but replacing them with twice the bearing area. I used new grade 8 bolts bolts that I modified to allow lubrication while locking the pivot pin in place to prevent its rotation, this thread.
Hinge boxes and pins has been a perennial favorite on this forum. The pins get stuck in the hinge arms and then wear the holes in the boxes oval.
There is one basic solution but many variations on the theme. Here’s mine, done about 30 years ago, bushings welded over the oval holes above and below.
Thanks again Nick! This is a certainly the way to proceed. Your diagram is more than excellent and quite sufficient for me to build one of these interesting tools. This afternoon (MST) I rocked the hinge arm and measured nearly .125" slop at the end of the arm. The bolt is solidly rusted in place so the arm would have to be bushed. The 4, 1/4-28’s (?) are also solidly rusted, all on the upper left had side.
Best regards
Happy to help. Before you install the new sills you will need to put the coachwork back onto the frame, with the new sills shimmed level and bolted in place. You then need to mount your doors, now that the hinges are fixed, and work from there. You will likely need to tweak the positions of the front and rear sections a sixteenth here and there to help get the fit. You get everything fitting right and then you weld your new sills in place. That way no disappointments.
Here you go. I just picked 18-8 stainless, but they are also available in 316 and carbon steel. You can add a jamb nut next to coupling and securely lock the assembly at a specific length.
McMaster-Carr has a great catalogue – the best I can find for fixings of all types but they simply will not ship to anyone outside North America which is a huge pity.
There was a post on the E-Type list a couple of weeks ago asking a question about oil pipe routing that included a number of photos of the crankshaft and main caps. Prominent was the choice of socket head cap screws to secure the main caps. That’s a curious choice, although there’s no reason those won’t work, given screws of the correct specification. He claimed they were sold to him by a vendor as ARP. I’ve bought loads of ARP fasteners, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen one that was not plainly marked ARP. These bolts were clearly marked YFS - Fang Sheng Screw Co. Maybe OK, but certainly Chinese and for sure not ARP.
