Re: [VAL] door hinge noise

[John Sellers <sellersj@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Alan,

If lubricating the hinges doesn't quiet the noise, there is another more
sinister cause that should be investigated.  We have this problem on our
1960 Pacer and I haven't attempted to solve it yet.

Our door makes a deep "creak"--almost a "grunt"--when opened and closed.
Upon examination it is apparent that the lower hinge was bent (possibly
torn off) at some time in the past, bent back to the correct shape--more
or less--and reattached.  (The upper hinge is attached to the shell with
9 pop rivets; the bottom hinge is attached with a combination of pop
rivets and sheet metal screws.)

If I watch the lower hinge when opening and closing the door I can see
oil-canning of the skin around the hinge which coincides in time with
the "creak".  I'm afraid the sound is due to the skin rubbing against a
rib or similar internal reinforcement which probably came loose when the
hinge was damaged and never properly reattached.

At some point I will have to decide to either fix it myself or let
somebody more familiar with the internal structure of the shell, like
the factory or P&H, take care of it.  If the latter, probably 'twon't be
cheap.

On the other hand, it may be possible to straighten the hinge out enough
to eliminate the misalignment of the hinge pin and resulting
oil-canning.  That might make the noise go away, even if the internal
structure is not quite right.

In the mean time, the door works OK, so we put up with the "creak".

By the way, we just got back from the WBCCI Region 7 rally in Winnipeg,
Manitoba.  Not too many vintage units there, so we got a lot of
attention.  We had the best parking place at the rally, right between
two trees.  By actual measurement we had four inches clearance to the
tree on the left side and less than a foot to the one on the right.  A
persnickety parking job, but worth it for the shade.

Best regards,
John & Barbara Sellers
WBCCI/VAC #1587
1960 Pacer
Dayton, Ohio