What a pain in the ass. I tried heating the hinges, hammers, regular and pneumatic. I used a socket and a c-clamp until the c-clamp was ready to break. I guess I'll have to grind each head flat and then drill them out. The have that serrated thing going on like lug nuts and there's not much room to swing hammers or drill.
Yep, that's what I meant when I said I had tried "hammers, regular and pneumatic". I found a video on line where a guy had similar problems and had tried an air chisel and pin too with no success. In the video he found a tool that's made for some modern econo vans that have similar hinges. I guess I'll try making a tool similar to that. Sort of like a glorified version of the C-clamp and socket I tried.
^^^^^^ The air tool works great IF the pin hasn't been mushroomed. With a tool made for the purpose, gently rattle the base of the pin for a few seconds, re-lube with your favorite PB type spray stuff, repeat ...
Thanks. I soaked the pins a couple of times with PB Blast about a week before trying to remove them. The air hammer just bounced off. The front door pins came out ok but they didn't have the press type pins with ridges like wheel lugs. The back door pins have the press type with ridges.
It doesn't look like you applied any heat. You need to get that thing cherry red and then quelch and drive it out. It takes a lot of heat.
I feel your pain, having taken the hinge pins out of dozens of vintage vehicles. My recommendation is this: Before you start beating and banging, grind off any excess pin extending past the hinge as once the pin is "mushroomed" you'll never be able to punch it out. You might try taking a cold chisel to the head, sometimes that's enough to get the pin to move, if that doesn't work the next step is to heat both ends of the hinge red hot and then wack away. If you don't want to ruin the paint (or maybe set the vehicle on fire) it's time to start drilling, I start at the bottom, drilling out the center of the pin so there's just a shell left, then grind off the head of the pin so you know exactly what is pin and what is hinge then drill out the center of the pin. Find a drift the same size as the hole you've drilled in the bottom of the pin and wack away. What complicates this process is most times you can't get a "straight shot" at the pin, the best solution is to go to a tool supplier and get some 12" long # 30 drill bits so you can "whip drill" the pin (I.E., center-punch the pin, start drilling the hole then bend the drill so it drills the pin straight) Ain't life fun.
found the door pin remover tool that MAC's sells very helpful.....worked on some 1930 door pins on my model A....think it was about $25 bucks....
Your going to have to get the door out of the way to get that pin out. grind the top and the bottom flush with the outer shell. Center punch the pin, and drill the top 1/4" and the bottom 1/4" to remove the door. Then if you still have some pin above the hinge, grind it flat again, and center punch the pin. Heat the housing cherry red, hit it with the air chisel pin driver. Apply heat as needed. Once it starts moving, keep hammering it until its out. If you stop while its moving, you will probably be screwed and will have to drill it the rest of the way out. That pin has been frozen in that hinge for a long time. It will need to have the door removed before it will ever come out because the top of the pin is probably mushroomed, and is likely a larger diameter then the hole is. Anything above the top of the hinge will have to be ground away so you are sure your not trying to drive a larger diameter through the pin hole. It takes a lot of heat. Gene
The problem with using a lot of heat is things will shrink when they cool down. The hinges expand when heated up, and shrink smaller than original size when cooled. This, to me, means I need to get the pin out as soon as possible after heating. One thing I have done in the past is too split the hinges with a thin cut-off wheel. This allows the hinge to expand, and allows penetrating oil to actually penetrate. The cuts can be welded back up when done, or if done nicely, left open to allow some lubricating. I just went through the same issues you are having, and this works quite well.
I saw this tool on Youtube ( ) and figured I'd make one with a C-clamp. FAIL! I just bent the clamp out of whack and that was after drilling the top of the pin out.
It doesn't look like the c clamp is straight. If you're going to use something like that it has to be pressure straight on
You can scroll thru I believe. This was how I had to support the hinge to get this hinge bolt to move. Turned out that bolt was rusted into three pieces. It took solid support under the hinge to even get it to budge.
Can't seem to link a pic for illustration but I had one pin rusted into three pieces. It took rock solid support under the hinge and a. 'I'm gonna kill something' attitude in swinging the BFH before 'they' would budge at all.
The Jalopy Journal
