Broken Hood Hinge Rebuild

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captspillane
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Years Owned: 1966 Toronado

Broken Hood Hinge Rebuild

Postby captspillane » Thu Feb 24, 2022 2:47 am

Both of my 1966 hood hinges are broken. I'm attempting to rebuild them now. The rivets are mostly loose and some have already been replaced by bolts. There is also a piece of the mechanism that has broken on one and is about to break on the other. I'll be drilling out every single rivet and replacing them with bolts. I'm replacing the broken curved piece with a flat piece and hoping to use washers to make up for the mismatch of surfaces that caused the factory to use a curved stamped piece. I also notice cracks around the same bolt hole on both sides. I'll eventually post pictures and descriptions here as I muddle through it.

Has anyone else encountered the same problems?

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Otto Skorzeny
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Re: Broken Hood Hinge Rebuild

Postby Otto Skorzeny » Thu Feb 24, 2022 5:24 am

Wouldn't it be easier to buy decent used hinges from a parts car?

John Dorcey has plenty of them. His contact information is in the parts section of this forum.

My car, which recently burned, being parted out by the guy who bought it for the fenders.

Check out the Oldsmobile Toronado facebook group and contact Glenn Felts or just find him on facebook.

captspillane
Posts: 19
Joined: Mon Oct 18, 2021 8:04 am
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Years Owned: 1966 Toronado

Re: Broken Hood Hinge Rebuild

Postby captspillane » Wed Mar 09, 2022 2:59 pm

I'm not interested in buying new ones. I want a fully greased thrust washer and ability to adjust tension at every pivot point. I want the factory fail points resolved. Another stock unit doesn't meet those objectives. Either way the rebuild requires the same effort. I've finished one of the two already and Im rather happy with the results. I did one and left the other alone to compare before and after.

This is the link that failed and broke. This is the better side. The other side was already deformed and split in two.

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captspillane
Posts: 19
Joined: Mon Oct 18, 2021 8:04 am
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Years Owned: 1966 Toronado

Re: Broken Hood Hinge Rebuild

Postby captspillane » Wed Mar 09, 2022 3:04 pm

This picture shows my new link set over the broken one. You can also see the second link and the donor angle that was cut down.

Image

captspillane
Posts: 19
Joined: Mon Oct 18, 2021 8:04 am
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Years Owned: 1966 Toronado

Re: Broken Hood Hinge Rebuild

Postby captspillane » Wed Mar 09, 2022 3:09 pm

Most of the rivets were very loose and needed to be replaced. One fully broke years ago and the previous owner put a bolt in its place. You can also see the split point at the bolt head. Both sides cracked here. I havent fixed it yet because I suspect it only cracked from the twist put on by the loose rivets. Ill monitor it from here and maybe sister more metal and weld it there eventually.

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captspillane
Posts: 19
Joined: Mon Oct 18, 2021 8:04 am
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Years Owned: 1966 Toronado

Re: Broken Hood Hinge Rebuild

Postby captspillane » Wed Mar 09, 2022 3:17 pm

I flattened the deformed pieces as a comparison to my new pieces. I also include two pics of my accelerator repair happening at the same time. One pivot head broke off inside the pedal so I smoothed it for a new hinge to bolt where the pivots used to be. After this picture was taken I did clearence the outer holes for the 3/8" bolts. Only a 5/16" could fit as pictured. These came from hardened angle and only cobalt drill bits will work. I burned up all my old cheap bits before giving in and buying a new cobalt bit.

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Last edited by captspillane on Wed Mar 09, 2022 3:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.

captspillane
Posts: 19
Joined: Mon Oct 18, 2021 8:04 am
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Years Owned: 1966 Toronado

Re: Broken Hood Hinge Rebuild

Postby captspillane » Wed Mar 09, 2022 3:33 pm

I used Grade 8 3/8" bolts at each of the seven pivot points. Six of them were 1" long and the seventh was 1.5" long. I would have used 7/16" bolts for the larger five holes if those were readily available. I'm happy with the results despite the lack of precision in those holes.

I used downsized 5/16" washers because those fit snug to the 3/8" bolts. Real 3/8" washers fit snug to a half inch bolt and are too loose for this purpose. Three washers had the same thickness as I needed to overcome the difference between the old curved metal and the new straight metal. I added a washer inside every pivot so the one long bolt had four washers instead of one. The hinge operation greatly improved. I would bet the extra grease and added washers make it work even better now than new. I may cut down the 1-1/2" bolt closer to 1-1/4" with a portable bandsaw. I've found the bandsaw works much better in preserving the threads when cutting down threaded rod or bolts.

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Otto Skorzeny
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Re: Broken Hood Hinge Rebuild

Postby Otto Skorzeny » Wed Mar 09, 2022 6:13 pm

Pretty cool.

captspillane
Posts: 19
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Re: Broken Hood Hinge Rebuild

Postby captspillane » Fri Mar 11, 2022 12:15 pm

I had to add a couple washers to get everything to swivel correctly. This side has the old broken rivet that popped off with the hood on so that piece and the piece below are both twisted out of whack. A little tweak on the vice and a couple extra washers and it looks great.

Image

captspillane
Posts: 19
Joined: Mon Oct 18, 2021 8:04 am
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Years Owned: 1966 Toronado

Re: Broken Hood Hinge Rebuild

Postby captspillane » Thu Mar 17, 2022 5:42 am

Hinges are both done. I made a Prusik from 10G wire scrap and then parked two trucks next to each other for two ratchet straps between their hitches to pull the springs apart.

I think the rivet heads used to put pressure on the holes as they mushroom out. I attribute the crack to that pressure and you can even see the marks on the hole where the head used to push the crack open. I now have bolts and washers there squeezing instead of spreading. It should hold up well.


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