Stainless Steel Compartment Door Hinges
One of the worst flaws on the exterior of my bus, was the battery compartment door. Apparently the rubber hinge had torn completely in two at some point, and the owner decided to repair it using gate hinges.
As you can tell from the picture below, the hinges in the middle and back were so bent that the back end of the door did not even close flush with the side of the coach.
I always wanted to fix the battery compartment door. Every time I did a walk around the bus and passed the battery compartment door, it was like someone was scratching their fingernails against a chalkboard. The hair on the back of my neck would almost stand up on end. I had read that a couple of the coach suppliers had the hinge material, but I live in the Los Angeles area and I know what smog does to rubber. Then one day I read on one of the bulletin boards that a guy in Rhode Island was experimenting with some heavy duty stainless hinges. I contacted him by email (contact information at the end of this article), and asked if they would work on a 4106. He told me that he owned a 4905, and wasn't sure. He was nice enough to send me four hinges and told me if they didn't fit I could send them back. The hinges arrived in the mail on Thursday. Bright and early Saturday morning I gathered my tools and my new hinges and headed out to my bus.
The first order of business was to drill out the rivets holding the gate hinges in place. Once the door was remove, I needed to remove the two halves of the old rubber hinge. The half of the hinge on the bus was easy. I remove the two #6 x 1/4" Phillips pan heads screws. Then I cut the hinge material in the middle, at the insertion hole. I was able to pull the two halves out with just my hands.
Before I went too much further, I wanted to determine whether or not the hinges would fit in the track. The insertion hole had to be widened, so I could get the hinges in. I am holding the hinge next to the insertion hole in the photo below. As you can see, the new hinge is about three times the size of the insertion hole.
I got out my drill and put a cut-off disk on it. It wasn't pretty, but I was able to open up the hole enough to insert the hinges. I slipped the hinges into the track, two on each side, with the edge of the folds facing away from the bus. Between each of the two pairs of hinges I inserted the plastic spacers that were included. The picture below, shows the hinges and spacers installed in the track.
Finally I turned my attention to the half of the rubber hinge still in the door. That proved to be the hardest part of the whole installation. The two screws at each end would not budge. I finally had to use my cut-off wheel to cut the heads off the screws, flush with the door. Then I dug out some of the ends of the rubber hinge. Next, I used the cut-off wheel inside the track to remove the ends of the screw. I ground them flush with the inside of the track. Now I was able to remove what was left of the rubber hinge.
About a five inch section of the old hinge was stuck in the middle of the track. I had to use a utility knife to slice it into little slivers and work the pieces out. With enough of the center of the material cut away, the outsides of the hinge materil collapsed in, and the remainder of the hinge slid out of the track. I used one of the new stainless hinges to clean out the track. I slid it forward and back in the track a couple times, to dislodge the dirt.
All that remained was to install the door. With the hinges and spacers in place on the bus, I lifted the door into place and slid it on to the hinges. Because this was the battery compartment door, I was able to do it by myself. With the door now on the hinges, I lightly tapped it into the proper position. Once the door closed squarely, I used a flat blade screw driver to move the hinges into place. When everything was square I drilled holes through the track and the hinges, and installed #6 x 3/8" Phillips Pan Head sheet metal screws. Next time I would use #6 x 1/4.
As you can see from the picture below, the end result was pretty nice. The hinges fit very nicely, and the door opens very smoothly. These hinges will probably out last the bus itself. I like the fact that I will never have to replace them again.
Now that I know they hinges fit, I'm going to have to replace the hinges on the rest of the doors.
If you would like to purchase these hinges for your GMC coach, send an email to Ed at edannbus@aol.com
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