Hot Rods roadster/rpu door hinge ideas

anyone use cheap, easy to find hinges for their roadster doors? reason being because i dont feel its necessary to pay 105 bucks to make my doors swing, when i could buy something at the hardware store, and make it work. anyone using fence/gate hinges? cabinet hinges? house door hinges? if you have, please include how you put them on, and if you have pics, i could use that too.

thanks!

 

guess i'll find out for myself!!

 

McMaster-Carr has a pretty big selection of hinges made from different materials, all sizes and shapes. I got some un-drilled un-plated bare steel piano hinges from them to make some stuff for the bed of my truck. Check out their website and search under hinges, and maybe you'll find something that'll work -- and a lot of them are even cheaper than the hardware store hinges. If you need to weld on them, the un-plated steel hinges are nice. You can get steel hinges with brass or stainless steel hinge pins too. I think they might have some heavy duty forged steel hinges that might be good for door hinges.

 

Speedway sells some mega cheap hinges for use on T's and such. I tried some cheap shit on my roadster and they drove me nuts from the rattles. The voice of experience, I have deuce bronze hinges from Speedway on now, expensive but tight and truly worth the cash. You need to think about how they will respond should the unthinkable happen and you get wacked. Ditto for door latches. A good set of bear claws can very well save your live, or at least take less time to heal. There's always the swap meets if nothing else works. Staying alive didn't cross my mind so much when I was younger. Is this a bad sign?

 

i just want cheaper hinges, i am definitely getting bear claw latches though.

if i use house door hinges, i'd modify them to make the pin removable. i dont really see any down side to using them, house doors are a hell of alot heavier than a roadster door, and those hinges get used more than roadster doors, so i think they should be ok. the bottom hinges would need to be extended so the doors clear the cowl.

 

I know a guy who used "cheap" hardware store type hinges on a coupe. They look really cheap too. Nice for the rodent car fans, I supose. I looked at all sorts of them for my pile of parts. The new repops were too rich for my blood, so I went with the cheap ones from Speedway. I noticed that they bind right out of the package. The pin has a splined section at the top that extends too far down the shaft. I replaced the pins with 1/4" bolts, and they seem fine and are not sloppy. If I live long enough to finish this thing, I'll find out if they were worth it. I'll probably swap the bolts for stainless ones at some point.
Good Luck!

 

I used roller chain. Works great. It's probably not as clean of a look as you are going for on a roadster though. It definitely looks mean as shit, though. They may not be as cheap as you want them though, unless you already have some plate steel and roller chain laying around.

The prototype is mild steel, but I am going to make some out of stainless steel, too. They require backing plates.

 

wow! thats a pretty cool idea

 

Couple things to consider-

As mentioned, cheap hinges won't fit tight enough with any use and will rattle like hell.

Why bother with bear claw latches, if 50lbs of striking force will shear your hardware store hinge and open the door the wrong direction?

Ya may not know this but hinges are fairly interchangeable, my hot rod uses half ford, half chrysler hinges. They fit up like they were born together, probably purchased from the same hinge maker. Moral of the story, start looking for half-sets that are super cheap and combine em. If they're loose you can over-drill and bronze bush the hinge pin.

good luck

To me, nothing makes an old car like real, old car, exposed hinges.

 

Is a hundred bucks really that much anymore? As much time as you'll spend making the cheap crap work, then cutting it off and putting good stuff in there when you realize it looks like shit, you've wasted your money and time.

 

Van cargo door hinges you can cut and weld longer arms on them and they also have pins and bushings

 

+1 on the van door hinges, that's what I used on my wife's A. Also, VW Beetle hinges would work nicely.

 

one word.......Jeep

 

if i had a extra set i would give them to you do you have a way to get up to holbrook on wed night around 6 wiked hot rod shop has a coffee night till about 9 he might have some around or he might even show how to make them your self i know your still in school john

 

It's tough enough aligning a Model A door with stock hinges, why add to the build time with makebelieve hinges?

 

i've gotta get over to wicked hotrod soon for the weekly open house, i've been meaning to go since october.

 

he may be there on sat morn you could call him his name is john

 

I'm looking at Soss as hidden hinges, if they can hold a large door, they should hold a roadster's
Anyone tried them?

 

Someone on here recently posted about making a set of hinges in a Tech post thread. It was a pretty nice setup.

EDIT: Try this thread

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=298292&highlight=tech+cheap+door+hinges

 

some round stock, flat bar, drill press, hacksaw, welder = hindges

 

HINGES, Who needs hinges, weld em shut. It's a roadster pickup.
CCL

 

It happens. Great minds think... or something along that line.

 

anyone looked at MGB door hinges?

 

I got mine from a engineering supplies called back flap hinges, they are identical to standard model a (28,29) and were around $15 each.
Just trim to length and they are good to go(the car is in mock up tho so don't if they rattle but they feel pretty tight.)
If you want some pics i can shoot some tomorrow.

 

ol school rodz an tech artical this month check it out

 

http://www.ovesco.com.au/products.php?catname=Hardware&cat=1&sub=4&subname=Hinges&subsubid=44&subsubname=Back%20Flap%20Hinges

 

were do i get those roller chains