[Private_collector]

Its rather late to be posting, but my son just got off bloody facebook!

This afternoon I was making the remedial repairs to drivers door hinge side, as recommended by Phil. I drilled a total of 9 holes to strengthen the door from future cracks, and also made three spot welds along the edge of the skin where it overlaps the inner frame.

While doing this, I was thinking through the forces & mechanics that would have caused the original cracks (now repaired). I kept coming to the conclusion that there must be more to the problem than I already understood. While pondering, I began to examine the hinges themselves. Thats when I discovered a rather devious little flaw with the hinges, or top hinge to be more specific.

Consider the upper hinge as three parts, one that bolts to the cab frame, one that bolts to the door, and the hinge pin as third. I found that when I moved the upper hinge to the 'door closed' position, the two parts came to end of travel BEFORE the door would have been closed. Only just before, but the hinge parts met in a certain place and would go no further, no matter how much force was applied. This would mean that the door itself would have had a load force placed on the frame to complete the close. I checked another door (also cracked) and saw that it too had this issue. I checked a third door, that did not have any cracks, and the hinge pin was worn to the extent that more movement was possible between the two main hinge parts. This hinge did NOT butt up in the same place as the others had because the worn pin permitted additional movement.

I had initially intended to replace the pin on the drivers door (passenger side was OK) but found a good set on another door in my spares. On the top hinge that will now be for drivers side, I used the angle grinder to remove a little of the height that caused the binding I had described above. This hinge now has a travel of another few degrees. I suspect this may relieve one of the contributing factors to future fatigue of the door frame. I will know more once the door is painted and fitted to the cab itself.

Drivers door and hinges will be painted tomorrow (weather permitting) and I will let you know how things go once hung in place.

I made the repairs to door outer surface this afternoon as well, and must say I am somewhat disappointed to find the door skin had a slightly dished in appearance that I don't believe I can remedy! It is not a dent as such, but may be a result of years of slamming the door. I will have to live with this unless I get brave enough to go ahead with an idea I had to have pressure applied from the inside to force the skin permanently out. It wouldn't take much, and I considered using a small amount of expanding foam in a plastic bag to do this. This would be sound in principle, but theory doesn't always hold in practice. I'll wet sand the door and see how it looks after that.

Excuse typographical errors, it's late, i'm tired and about to hit the hay!