[RHClarke]

With the young fellow away at camp (school break - for the teachers not for us), the better half working, and being a gummint employee (of sorts), what better way to spend the day than at the Hammond Barn?

There I met two other gummint employees (real civil servants) and we embarked on a number of small projects. Bob and Grant assembled a set of shelves to help keep things organized, and did some wiring, while I played with my Bronco hinge set.

The last attempt to free the hinge pin met with failure, so today, I drilled out the pin. The first attempt at drilling went OK, and when I repeated the process for the bottom half, things also went well. I took the hinge set to the vice to attempt to knock out the rest of the pin which resided in the center loop. While trying to rotate one of the hinge arms, the arm came free. Seems we busted up the pin while pounding on it yesterday. The upper and lower remnants of the pins were drifted out with ease. The center portion did not want to leave home. It was heat treated again and then came free after a few hits on the drift.

The next stage of the operation was to drill the hole slightly oversized to accept a nice stainless steel rod as a replacement pin. The holes drilled out quite nicely and the steel rod fit just like it was supposed to. I rounded over the top portion of the steel pin and reattached the hinge set to the rear door. Once the door was properly set in the opening, the inside hinge arms were then center punched. The hinges were removed and the center punched marks were drilled out. The tap finished off the job.

After reattaching the hinges to the door (for what seems to have been the twentieth time), the door was put back into the opening with vice grips holding the hinges to the frame. Three large flat head screws were turned into each hinge – I have to admit, my alignment was not spot on, so one set of screws needed to be “convinced” into their respective holes. Once in place, the door opened and closed for the first time in over seven years.

Now that the Bronco hinges have been modified after some intense effort, I am sure that a set of rear door hinges will fall into my lap in the near future. It is part of the Hammond Barn DNA not to let a scarcity of parts keep us from the ultimate goal. I think good things will happen in 2012 - unless you are Incan...

Photos:

1 - Outside view of the "new" hinges
2 - Lower configuration
3 - Upper configuration - the rear wall-mounted seat brackets are visible in this pic