My car has a funky fix done by a PO for a broken hinge point that I'm trying to sort out and return to original parts. I've got the replacement sheetmetal parts for the hinge point but was wondering how to locate the part while having it welded in place.

My question here is does the shoulder bolt go thru the inner fender/wheel house or just into the hinge point piece. If so, I'm thinking I could bolt it in and weld it to the inner fenderwell.

Kev

Shoulder bolt only goes into the hinge piece.

How to locate it correctly? Good luck .... I used the original spot welds to locate my new one when I welded it in.

I was afraid of that. The new non-OEM sheetmetal hinge point base I have looks to be larger then the original and doesn't fit in the area that looks to be where the orignal welds were. The fit was poor on my lid or I'd just bolt the new non-oem thru the hole the PO made in the fenderwell.

Now what?

Use your rear lid with the hinge attached, place on the car in it's correct position.

Bolt on to the good side and place the new one into the hinge and secure it to

the hinge. With someones help to keep the lid from moving put the new piece

against the sheetmetal, copy the angle from the otherside so it looks the same,

and mark it around the perimeter on the sheetmetal. Remove lid, hinges and

tac the new piece in place. Placement will be with in the marking. Have fun.

I just welded a set in yesterday. It's a challenge by yourself, easier with two people.

Here's the FULL start to finish:

1. Remove the rear trunk lid and set aside.
2. Unhook the torsion springs and remove the hinge arms from the car.
3. Grind, clean, prep the area to weld. This includes removing the old busted hinge and repairing any cracks, holes, or tears in that area. Now everything is clean and ready to accept the new piece.
4. Bolt the hinge arms to the trunk lid. The arm has oval holes for adjustment. I like to center the bolts.
5. Carefully slide the trunk lid into place on the car. It's possible with the hinge arms in place, but it's a tight fit. Having a friend and communicating really helps here.
6. Use the shoulder bolts to attach the new bracket to the hinge arm. You should now have a fully assembled hinge that's ready to weld to the body.
7. Now the important part. Align the trunk lid with the body. Make sure the rear/trailing edge matches and make sure the height matches. Having the seal in place helps hold things and having a friend around really helps. You want to get the trunk lid into 'perfect' position. Approach this step as if there is no adjustment and where you weld it is where it is going to sit forever.
8. Having a friend hold it steady (remember - perfection) tack weld the hinge bracket to the body. You'll need two or three good tack welds to hold it into place. On my Lincoln Weld-Pac 100 MIG with 0.023" wire I used the C-5 setting. If you've removed the torsion springs you can access both sides of the bracket to tack them into place.
9. Carefully remove the shoulder bolts that hold the hinge arm in place. Remove the rear trunk lid (you can remove the hinge arms from the lid if you want).
10. If you bumped or knocked a hinge bracket out of place at this point GO BACK TO STEP 3. Remember - perfection.
11. Completely weld the bracket to the body and add some weld to secure the screw boss to the sheet metal. That center section has been known to rip clean out with only the existing welds.
12. This is one of the most important steps of this process. Clean your shoulder bolts and the holes in your hinge arms. Rust on these parts is what makes the lid hard to open and places stress on the brackets, causing them to tear. Clean with sandpaper until the rust is gone. A bit of sand paper taped to a drill bit makes a good way to clean out the hole quickly. Also, lightly chucking the bolt in a drill (don't mess up the threads) will spin it for quick cleaning with sandpaper.
13. Lubricate the shoulder bolts and re-attach everything to the car.

14. Keep an eye on them because they will break again, then buy the JWest Engineering fix so you don't have to worry about them anymore.

Attached is a photo of the replacement bracket that I have that has a shoulder
bolt installed.

This brings up a question:

So is there more than one style of hinge bracket? i.e. did the early
cars have a full rounded bracket like the one in the picture attached?

The one my 74 is cut off on both the top and bottom.

I kind of like the full rounded version as it seems to add more strength
but I think it will need a weep hole drilled into it to allow any potential
water to drain out.

--- bill

Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment

IIRC that doesn't look like the bracket on my brother's '70, tho it is possible his have been replaced.

McMark-
Thanks, that will help alot.

So, here is the shit I had in there before on each side

Click to view attachment

Here is what I'm replacing it with, minus the bolt.

Click to view attachment