91-96 rear glass hinge alternative

So when I went to look at my 91 OCC from the guy I bought it from, we were going over the car, and I asked him if the tailgate was working good. Oh ya, it works great, and he proceeds to open the glass when the hinge breaks. The DS was broken at some point before that, since there was a nut and bolt holding that side together. A couple days after buying the Olds, I got around to removing the PS hinge to see how bad it was, and I was surprised the hinge worked at all for the other guy ( nothing but brown dust ). I did quite a bit of searching, but was not content to buy used hinges, no matter how good they looked, for fear they would not hold up for very long. During my searching I saw a hinge for a Ford Explorer liftgate and thought, that looks like it may be a close enough fit to work. Well during my run to the Jacksonville PaP to look at the 92 OCC they had I decided to check out the Explorers there, and picked up a pair of all aluminum glass hinges. Well the half that connects to the body is similar to the plastic half of the hinges on the B bodies. I have been slowly disassembling the Ford hinges, and I think I have a fix ( at least until we find out if Strokedimpala's neighbors can make some).

this is what I got from the jy, I am only after the smaller side of the hinge, but if you decide to do this grab the whole thing. I removed the stud from the smaller half and used the torx head in its place ( which is the same size as the stud, no modding needed). You will also have to remove the pin next to the stud ( its part of the casting ), and make sure to smooth it out.

I used a small cut off wheel to separate the two halves because the pin is a blind hole on one end, so you can't tap it out. don't just cut the exposed pin between the two halves or you will have to drill a hole in the blind side to tap it out ( not that I did that with the 1st one ). I cut both sides of the larger hinge about 1/8 to 1/4 inch from the sides, broke out the small pieces on both edges and had enough of the pin sticking out to easily remove with pliers.

Once you get the two halves separated you need to grind both edges down to be able to open and close the hinge without interference between the metal half of the old hinge and the half of the new hinge. I didn't have to take alot off the aluminum piece, but put the two halves together loosely ( don't tap the pin in ) and check for clearance.

My old plastic bushings in the metal half of the hinge were toast after 30 years, but I found some small plastic anchors from an install kit I didn't use that were identical to the old ones. I cut 2 in half and inserted them in each end of the old metal hinge. You can see them in the pic above.


It got a little tricky when I tried to install the new hinge on the ps. I originally installed it with both right hand pieces together, but the angle of the hinge didn't match the angle of the glass. I switched the new left hand piece for the right hand one and it matched the angle of the glass ( I didn't think about it at the time but the new piece I used was originally attached to the body not the glass). This is the test fit, its not 100% but it is working. I had the hinge tightened to the body but the lower latch was rubbing against the metal around the bear claw. I loosened the hinge slightly and it cleared the metal, but I will try a spacer between the body and the hinge, to lower the glass slightly. I am also getting a little flex from the old metal hinge when I latch the glass, and I am hoping the spacer will help with that also. There are a few other things I want to check over, and see if I can improve, like the new bolt being smaller than the old one, and making sure there is zero binding or rubbing anywhere. Once I am satisfied I will clean it all up, paint it and show yinz how it turned out. ( the arrow is where I had to drill a hole to remove the piece of old pin, see above why. yes I will cut the current pin down or see if I can get a shorter one that fits).

Nice work!

Impressive!

New forum blood brings new ideas! Great job.

Tom