removing bottom hinges question...

[lotussutol]

Am I over looking something or is it a pain in the butt to remove the bottom hinges on 55 chevy trucks?

I have the doors off and the front hinges are easy to get to the bolts on the backside. However, the bottom hinges I do not see an access door to easily get to the hinges. Do i just have to find something that fits and drop down on them or do I drill an access hole or???

My hinges need to be rebuilt badly so they have to come out.

[chevyrestoguy]

You should be able to access the lower hinge bolts from the door jamb. The upper and lower bolts are easy to access, but the center bolt can be a challenge due to the fact that it's deep inside the pocket. You have to swing the hinge away (like the door is open) to gain access to it. Now......these bolts are famous for spinning because Chevy liked to used nutplates because you can't access the backside. Both sides on my truck were spinners, and I had to use a 2" cutting wheel on a radiac and grind the head flush and knock the remaining bolt out the backside. Once the hinge is out, you have decent access to remove what is left of the factory nutplate cage. Now, you've got two options. One is to cut an access hole and fish a nut inside on a wrench when it's time to re-install the hinge. The other is to buy nutplate that installs with rivets and shoot it in. You could even buy the rust repair panels for the hinge boxes and cut the nutplate off and weld it in your truck. Keep us posted, we'll try to help in any way we can. By the way, the truck is looking good!

[lotussutol]

Originally Posted by chevyrestoguy

You should be able to access the lower hinge bolts from the door jamb. The upper and lower bolts are easy to access, but the center bolt can be a challenge due to the fact that it's deep inside the pocket. You have to swing the hinge away (like the door is open) to gain access to it. Now......these bolts are famous for spinning because Chevy liked to used nutplates because you can't access the backside. Both sides on my truck were spinners, and I had to use a 2" cutting wheel on a radiac and grind the head flush and knock the remaining bolt out the backside. Once the hinge is out, you have decent access to remove what is left of the factory nutplate cage. Now, you've got two options. One is to cut an access hole and fish a nut inside on a wrench when it's time to re-install the hinge. The other is to buy nutplate that installs with rivets and shoot it in. You could even buy the rust repair panels for the hinge boxes and cut the nutplate off and weld it in your truck. Keep us posted, we'll try to help in any way we can. By the way, the truck is looking good!

I went out and soaked the nuts and bolts down with wd40...i am going to attack them when i get home from work on monday.

everything looks like it will be easy except for the bottom bolt/nut on the bottom hinges. I am not sure how I am going to get a wrench or socket on them. I think I have to cut an access hole.

I can touch the nut with my fingers from the area where the kick panel is at but there is no way to get a wrench on it.

The big bolts holding the hinges in (two on each braket) are the type that have a rounded base on the door jamb side.

you can barely see it in this pic.