weld on door hinge - reweld?

Hi All,

I have a '92 XJ with 170K miles on it. The front door hinges are welded to the body. On my driver's side door, on the upper hinge, the vertial weld between the hinge (just where the bend is) and the body has cracked. Crack appears to be down the middle of the weld.

Has anyone had experience with re-welding this joint? I have a good MIG system and am considering trying to re-weld. Anyone know how thick the metal is on the body side of the weld (I need to know to set the MIG power so I don't blow through it)?

Thanks!
Mike

The guys at my work stick welded my door hinge about a year ago. It is still holding strong and looks likes great. I say weld it!!
Oh, The metal in the body side is thin too, so you should not have too much trouble.

I've done this job. You are best off if you remove the fender and the door, and get the hinge aligned as well as you can first. There's more metal beneath the thin skin on the body side, so it helps if you penetrate to that. It might depend on how badly torn the hinge is. In my case, the first time I did it I attempted to correct a badly done repair, and it came off again. The second time, I ground it down and went for deep penetration. I've seen several repairs done in which the rear-facing edge of the hinge has also been welded in, with some material to fill the gap. I did this on the last weld, and I think it helps to keep the hinge from flexing out again.

If you have a good MIG system and have practiced a little on metal of that gauge, it should be pretty straightforward.

While you're migging, especially if yours is a 2-door, I suggest that you weld shut the hole in the door check where it pins to the body, and redrill it about a quarter inch shorter. This will help a lot to prevent the hinge from ripping out again.

Good idea on the door check. It seems that my door comes up against the maximum hinging point just prior to coming against the door check limit.

The present door welds aren't too bad just yet. The horizontal welds at top/bottom of the hinge are ok, just the vertical one on the hinge. This weld is on the rear side of the hinge where it bends away from the body. I guess this is the weld you refer to as being one you added. Mine's already there and is where the crack is.

It seems from inspection that I could get away without taking the fender off. Any reason you suggest this?

Thanks
Mike

Just Weld what you can see, It will probably hold, Mine did

Weld on the rear?

Hi,
I have the same problem of a hinge breaking from the A-pillar on my '95 two door.
But there is no weld at the back of the hinge, it's only welded at the top and bottom. What looks like a weld at the rear is only a PVC-sealant, which can be easily removed with a sharp knife.
In the picture (taken from the top) you see the white spots, where I removed the sealant.

On my XJ both welds start to break, the upper is nearly completely broken, also beneath the hinge.
I wonder if grinding the hinge of the body, welding the cracks shut and the weld the hinge back on is possible. Only renewing the welds won't close the crack under the hinge.
Any comments?
Kai

Thanks for the tip on sealant. I believed that it was just a painted-over weld. This is good news in a way since I can plan now to remove the sealant and replace it with a weld.

My hinge weld is not nearly so torn as yours is. I'm careful about how far I open the door, but unfortunately the previous owner was not. I plan to re-weld and also shorten up the door-stop mechanism. It appears that they don't do their intended job and allow the weld and body sheet metal to flex.

I haven't had time to get to this task just yet.

One question... The door has wires leading to it through a rubber boot. I'll need to disconnect the wires when I remove the door. These can be disconnected within the door of course. But perhaps there's a simple over-all connector within the body panel near the door...?

Mike

Cables

Hi,
since my XJ is a '95 Sport, it has only the wires to the speaker. I tried to remove the body panels to look for a connector, but found nothing. So I removed the door panel on the front and bottom, then removed the speaker cover, disassembled the speaker and disconnected it. 10 Minutes work. But if you have more electricity in your doors, it will be a little bit harder...

There is a repair kit for this problem. MJR posted the part numbers about 2 or 3 days ago.