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Making Door & Hood Hinges


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Romell, that looks good! A little different than the way I do it, which is good because my method's more complex! B)

Yes, an exacto blade is what I use practically all the time, as scribing tools never work well for me (takes too long)------and I can't do the model between the knees bit with the string!

There would be nothing to build after it gets crushed! ;)

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Romell,

Thanks for the tip, clear and precise, I have to try on a future build, looking forward to seeing how you construct the door. I tried a scriber to open a project that got put away (for the time being) and it just seemed to cut wider as I cut deeper, so finished with the back of exacto blade, worked great, just have to be patient and let blade do the work. Would a variation of this work for hoods and trunks or do you do something completely different for those?

Did Mr. Obsessive do a hood & trunk hinge write-up, I have his article on the door hinges in my magazine collection. Thanks.

Mike

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Romell,

Thanks for the tip, clear and precise, I have to try on a future build, looking forward to seeing how you construct the door. I tried a scriber to open a project that got put away (for the time being) and it just seemed to cut wider as I cut deeper, so finished with the back of exacto blade, worked great, just have to be patient and let blade do the work. Would a variation of this work for hoods and trunks or do you do something completely different for those?

Did Mr. Obsessive do a hood & trunk hinge write-up, I have his article on the door hinges in my magazine collection. Thanks.

Mike

Hey Mike thx for your comment and compliment. as for the hood and trunk lids I still use the tube and wire but in a different setup its also very simple to do and works very well. Maybe I'll do a write up on it. :rolleyes:

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Romell, that looks good! A little different than the way I do it, which is good because my method's more complex! :lol:

Yes, an exacto blade is what I use practically all the time, as scribing tools never work well for me (takes too long)------and I can't do the model between the knees bit with the string!

There would be nothing to build after it gets crushed! :rolleyes:

I totally agree with you there would be no model left and that darn string is always breaking. When I want to get a super fine fit with doors I'll use the two kit method, where you use one kit to get the doors, trunk, hood, gas filler door ,and whatever other parts you might need. You basically trash that one. And do the exact opposite the the other body. Then sand all parts down to the kit scribe lines. Talk about perfect fitting parts. The draw back though is it can be exspensive. :P

Edited by Aftashox
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Did Mr. Obsessive do a hood & trunk hinge write-up, I have his article on the door hinges in my magazine collection. Thanks.

Mike

No, I never wrote an article on hinging hoods and trunks..........may do one in the future though! ;)

Using an Exacto blade should work just as well for cutting the trunk open----------patience is the key here however as with anything else.

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--and I can't do the model between the knees bit with the string!

There would be nothing to build after it gets crushed! ;)

I use the string method and it does take a little bit of time, but it cuts a thin line. If you have the "Flex-O-File" "U" shaped sanding tools (available from Micro Mark), you can tie your string to the two ends, similar to a wood coping saw. I actually used a coping saw once, with the blade removed, and the string in place of the blade. It frees up a hand so you don't have to hold the model between your legs.

Also, to cut down on cost, instead of two kits, cut out your parts, and then use a strip of Evergreen of about .020 X .020 (Or more if you need it) and glue it flat to the edge of the door with Tenex7R or the like, let it sit for an hour or so and then you can file and sand it to fit the opening. I soak the joint in the glue so that it softens the door plastic and the evergreen plastic. The Evergreen will melt the quickest, so I focus the glue more on the door. As it softens, you can push your strip into the door and it will actually "squish" plastic out of the seam like glue from under a part when you press to hard. If you allow this to dry, you can sand it just like bondo and in most cases there is no seam, or one that will be covered in primer. You can do the same for the opening and file & sand it too. Much cheaper than cutting two kits. The gap does not have to be that tight because your primer-base-clear will add some to it. And you do need a gap.

If your door is curved and you can't get your 20X20 strip to match the contour, stand your door on it's edge on a piece of Evergreen sheet and glue it the the sheet standing up. Then trim and file away what you don't want using the same method above.

David

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  • 3 weeks later...

wow this is something i've been wanting to learn how to do for a long time. now my only question is how do you deal with the interior side of the door and the door jambs? have you writen anything on that subject yet? also what about trunk and hood hinges? keep up the good work and thanks for a good how to article.

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  • 2 weeks later...
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  • 1 month later...

This topic comes up so often on so many forums that I can't believe there aren't aftermarket solutions to the issue. I know that there are some PE parts that say they have hinges, but there are no instructions on how to put them together and they're totally incomprehensible. That said, we're all stuck with tutorials on how to use brass wire and tubing to do the deal. Dollhouse furniture hinges are usually too big (I haven't found any that are even close to the simple external hinges I need for my large-scale 1/16 vintage cars).

SURELY there's someone on this board who has influence with aftermarket suppliers and could cause working hinge assemblies to be offered in a variety of scales. I can't think of another modeling question that is repeated so often.

Edited by sjordan2
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  • 4 months later...

Justin, others may have different methods, but the best way for me is to use the BACK edge of an Exacto blade. This will take some time and you'll need to be patient-------but you simply want to keep rescribing the door lines on each side of the door until it breaks free. Now you may need to add some plastic back to the door to keep the door shut lines realistic (no huge gaps), but since you haven't done this before, I highly recommend you practice on a junk body (bodies) until you get the hang of it.

When I have a door that's overly thick in the door section (molded thick), I might take my dremel tool and grind out some of the plastic around the perimeter of the door opening, so that my knife doesn't have to do so much work.

HTH!

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  • 2 weeks later...

So the morning started the usual way with a cup of coffee, this time from Dunkin Donuts where I stopped on my way to take my daughter to school. And I was driving along, singing a song, sipping my coffee when all of a sudden Roy Orbison's "A Candy Colored Clown They Call The Sandman," came on . . . and I reached over to take a sip of my coffee only to realize that the top of the lid looked like this:

001-vi.jpg

I tried to sip the coffee but nothing came out because the sipping hole was shut and when I flipped it open, LIGHTING STRUCK!!!

002-vi.jpg

The lid was hinged with a thin plastic top . . . and I thought HINGE!!! HINGE!!! HINGE!!!

These things are put on there so that you can seal your coffee and keep it hot, also to keep the coffee from spilling, in short it just moves up and down as many times as you want without breaking!

Edited by Dr. Cranky
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Of course in order for all of this to work you have to set up the door or the trunk with tape just to get it all squared and framed, etc . . . exactly like the old fashion way with brass rod and tubbing, but you are using a thinner material here.

In my case I am suing this on a 62 Impala junker and the trunk is going to be opened half way . . . etc . . .

Give it a try, folks, and see what you come up with . . .

On the doors I think you can use a very small magnet to keep the door shut and then you pull it open.

It's going to work well, Doctor Cranky believes.

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Way cool Doc! this has to be one of the biggest pain in the BEEEEEEEEp aspect of building that jus gets my feathers ruffled up I have fab'd so many door hinges without much success! Sure will try as "Tito runs on dunkin everyday lol!! nice heads up!!

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I posted it here in a hurry because I want everyone to try it and see what kinds of results everyone gets, but rest assured that I think it will work. I mean, the half circle of plastic should go around the panel edge allowing plenty of clearance for the door or trunk lid to open.

Of course, the only problem is that the material is two thin and it will not hold the weight of the panel, which is okay. It should work on doors.

I hope you all experiment and get good results.

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The plastic of these lids is a different type of plastic than what comes in our model cars . . . I think the chemistry of this sucker is there to make it more elastic and pliable, and endure the punishment of you opening and closing your coffee lid.

Yes, I would imagine that it will eventually crack . . . but then again, you can reinforce it with tape or more plastic . . .

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