Door hinge check spring

[Gordon]

Thanks for that Mike. I'll be in touch as soon as I take delivery. Can't wait to bin my wooden blocks 

[Gordon]

Hi All, just a quick update. There has been a delay in getting access to a fly press needed for one of the spring bends, but the good news is that we are now next in the queue so I'm hoping to get on site to test fit the prototype later this week. I'll provide an update after the test fit

[VanWolf]

Thanks for keeping us updated.

Mike

[Gordon]

Much excitement today. I got the call just after morning smoko to say that the sample spring was ready for inspection, so I shot over with a spare door hinge and the spring slotted in to position perfectly. I then shot back home to test fit the hinge and to make sure that there was enough tension in the spring to hold the door.

So after quickly pulling off my drivers door, the first thing that I discovered is that there isn't sufficient clearance to mount the spring to the hinge with the nut and button head bolt combination that I was thinking of using. However Plan B which is using a 4.8mm blind rivet worked like a charm.

With the hinge fitted up I test mounted my door and then gave the check spring a test run .... what absolute bliss. It holds the door perfectly even on a steep incline.

So I've just given the green light for the production run. Happiness and Joy 

[Bedford Fever]

    Hey Gordon , am i going to have to take the doors off to fit them ?

    Thanks Frank

[Sammy]

looks good Gordon!!

and I would say if you want to do the rivets like in the picture then yes doors off!

[Gordon]

Yep fellas, the doors definitely have to come off and the upper hinge needs to be removed to fit the check spring. There is no way to do it in place. You may have heard horror stories about trying to realign yours doors after removing them from the hinges, but its a piece of cake. All you need to do is get a sharpie with a very fine point and draw around the heads of the bolts that hold the door to the hinge as well as the outer two bolt heads that hold the hinge to your door post. When you put everything back together, get the bolts in but not tight.Then  just pop an axle stand or a few blocks of wood under the door until the bolts all sit back in the sharpie circles and then tighten everything up and you are good to go.

I'd never removed a door from my van until today. Took me about an hour to remove and re install. Hope this helps. 

[mezzmo]

Show me where to sign Gordon, i need 4

Cheers

[Gordon]

All good Mezz. Shouldn't take too long now. They have had all of the blanks cut and drilled and a bank of presses are all setup and ready to go. They did harden the prototype in house but the main batch will be sent elsewhere to go through the process, so that will probably take the most time.

[Sammy]

worth the wait