Making Door & Hood Hinges

[Mike Chernecki]

This is for the exterior pinned doors only: I generally take a piece of 1-16th inch I.D Brass tubing and cut it into alittle less than 1-8th inch pieces. Then, I place two pieces of very fine brass wire inside the tube about maybe an inch long. Then take you're two pieces of wire and bend them in OPPOSITE directions. With a pair of needl nose pliers, , put an"L" in the two pieces at each corner. If you have done this correctly, it will resemble an insects legs. Then take 5 minute epoxy and CAREFULLY glue one side of the hinge to either the door or the body. AFTER the glue has cured, THEN do the same for the oposing part.

Anyone not understanding this , please write me at my shop/office 5343 White Pickett La. Richmond Va. 23237 Yes Ill send you DRAWINGS for this procedure!

Ed Shaver

Thanks Ed, I will keep this in mind.

Model Car Garage has a PE set of hinges that are just sweet to work with the only problem is they are all one size a original looking 32 ford has a longer hinge on the bottom Jairus illustrated and Greg had the Article in MCM that showed how to scratchbuild some out of brass strip & wire they were not extremely hard to do but I am sure it could take a few tries before you get them to line up right

The MCG hinges are nice, but like you said they only come in one size. Do you know which issue had the article on making hinges? I just found some older issues at a local hobby shop, maybe they have that one in particular.

[gseeds]

sorry guys but i had to do this in two parts,could not post all photos at once,Ok some guys may know this aready,this is for the guys that dont and want to, , once you cut a hole in the top of a 42 year old model you payed too much for : - there's no turning back, after repairing the cut out rear wheel wells and making a set of fender skirts for the car, I wanted to open up the drivers door and trunk lid, Ive taken photos for you guys that may like to see how its done,at least how i do it, - First I start by scribing along the door\trunk lines with the back side of an #11 blade slowly { see photo } until it's cut all the way through, once you have the door\trunk cut out, take a look at how thick the edge is..... Way too thick to look like a real car ! , so your going to want to sand or file the inside edge thinner ; so when the door \truck\ hood is open it looks more realistic . - Now to make the hinges ; - For 1\25 scale cars I use .032 rd.brass rod and 1\16x.014 rd brass tube, - These ; I buy at hobbytown usa

and you will also need the tools ( as shown ) { see photo} next you will cut 3 pieces of tube and one piece of the rod ..... { see photo } -Next ; take the rod and center it in the tube , and bend { see photo } ,then tape same part down to table { see photo }

then use a slightly bigger tube , and tape down on top of the brass tube with wire { see photo }; then bend wire over top of bigger tube on both sides { see photo } - Now , you should have something like this {see photo }

please go to part two.

[gseeds]

PART TWO, then , one more bend on both sides with needle nose pliers , & it should look like this,{see photo } ok this is Very Important ....... - In the center of the big rod , give it a slight tweak, - This will make your trunk\hood stay up ; and not fall down when open , -Next ; - From outside of car ; tape the trunk lid in place ; and flip car over and center and glue new hinge in place, THERE !!, - You should now have working hinge's !! with doors, trunks and hoods that open and close, good luck guys..HOPE THIS HELPS.Gary

[RodneyBad]

Nice job.

Those are the style Hinges I like to use.

and you solved my one major issue I have with them.

how to get both bends equal.

Edited April 21, 2009 by Zukiholic

[Helipilot16]

This is a tutorial on how to build hinges which will allow the door to swing in at the hinge side.

1. Here are the materials needed; a short piece of 1/6 brass tube; a slightly longer piece of 1/32 brass rod; some small pieces of sheet styrene, and one door skin.

2. Carefully cut about a half inch of the tubing and about one inch of the rod. Insert the rod into the tubing and bend the rod on each side of the tubing

3. Bend the rod back at 90 degrees about 3/16 back from the previous bend and 90 degrees to it.

4. Glue the tubing vertically near the hinge side of the door skin. The amount of the door skin that will move into the body will be set by the distace you glue the tubing from the back of the door

5. Glue on enough sheet styrene to build the wire hanger out from the inside of the body.

6. Glue the bent rod to the sheet styrene. Leave enough room for adjustment.

Here are two views of the completed hinge.

Edited May 15, 2009 by Helipilot16

[JDMcorolla]

wow. that body needs some tlc. but great idea on the hinges. i might do that on my next build.

[bob29579]

Very important, in the center of the big rod, give it a slight tweak.... Could you define slight tweak a little more? Thanks. Greg.

[Foxer]

Very important, in the center of the big rod, give it a slight tweak.... Could you define slight tweak a little more? Thanks. Greg.

A tweak would be a very slight bend .. just enough to bind the inner rod in the tube so friction will hold the hood/door open.

and very nice hinge tutorial, Gary.

[Romell R]

Hello My fellow modellers!

As I have noticed a few request for a tutorial for opening doors I decieded to write this for those of you who are interested. This tutorial wont include cutting the door off. As most of us already know how to chop up plastic. And there are a couple different ways you can go about getting that perfect fitting door.(but thats a totally different tutorial).

What i will teach you is how to make a correct hinge, one that will swing the leading edge of your door inside the front fender. This will be a very brief and to the point tutorial that i hope will help you in your door removing endovours.

Im going to assume you already have your doors removed and your ready to move forward...but what materials will I need? you ask. well you'll need a thin piece of stiff wire I like to use piano wire which can be found at you local hobby store. You'll also need either some brass or plastic tubing, CA glue, and a pair of needlenose pliers or something to bend the wire with.

This illistration is to help you with the shape of the wire and the placement of the tube.

Use your needlenose pliers to bend your wire into a shape like this. Im not giving diamentions because I just want to show you the basic shape, you can fine tune this to any size you need it to be later.

Take a look at the next photo to see the placement of your tubing and your wire once you have it cut to the right size. DO NOT GLUE THE TUBE TO THE WIRE! But do glue it to your door. next glue the bare end of the wire to the inside of the fender. I recommend taping the door to the outside of the body to support it.

Once the glue is dry and you have fine tuned your hinge..you will have a correct swinging hinge.

And heres the cool thing about this hinge....If you ever need to take the door off you can without destroying the hinge or the car. I hope this was helpful and it will help you advance to the next level of modelling.

Edited June 2, 2010 by Aftashox

[vaughn]

where is it ???

[whale392]

Thanks Romell.......I think I can take this, fine-tune the hinge for appearances sake, and use it to hinge the doors on my FOX Mustang project!

[impcon]

Thanks kindly! I think that I have a grasp on the process so far. Now, would you be so kind as to get into how to actually construct the 3 dimensional door with the inner door panel attached?

[Romell R]

Thanks kindly! I think that I have a grasp on the process so far. Now, would you be so kind as to get into how to actually construct the 3 dimensional door with the inner door panel attached?

I will do that just for you but give me a few days because im prepairig to do the doors on my project car 67 Chevelle build

[cazxr2]

Cool cheers mate, think am gona give this a try on the next project. Looks like I would manage it. Thanks again craig

[High octane]

Romell,

Nice job on the tutorial, thanks I'll have to try it your way.

[charlzrocks]

Cool Tute! I'm gonna use it to hinge the engine hatch on my Olds Aerotech.

[Kaleb]

Thanks...really lol ive been pondering how these things work and they are as clear as relays when I tried to figure out how they worked.

[diymirage]

very nice write up

you know, if you would replace the solid mount with a second pipe you basically got a flip flop hinge

theres a how to here for flip flop hinges

http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=28665

[JamesW]

Thanks kindly! I think that I have a grasp on the process so far. Now, would you be so kind as to get into how to actually construct the 3 dimensional door with the inner door panel attached?

X2, jambing the door is where I get confused.

[bob29579]

Very simple and easy to understand. Thanks. Greg.

[charlzrocks]

Wow, it works very good!! Thanks!!

[CustomFerrari]

about to try on a ford gt

[Janne Herajärvi]

Thank you, Very nice and simple way

[wayneman]

Great! This is good stuff and I an thinking of hingeing a camaro I am working on. I know most folks probably know how to cut the door out, but would it be best to use a scribing tool or just work slowly with an exacto knife. Yours was really clean. Thanks for the info!

[Romell R]

Great! This is good stuff and I an thinking of hingeing a camaro I am working on. I know most folks probably know how to cut the door out, but would it be best to use a scribing tool or just work slowly with an exacto knife. Yours was really clean. Thanks for the info!

Ive never used scribbing tools although I have heard the good and bad about them, its really a matter of personal preferance. the back of an exacto is what i use. And sometimes I'll use the two kit method but that gets exspensive (but I believe its the best way). thx for your question

Edited June 18, 2010 by Aftashox