Door Hinge Rivet Source

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Dennis Vogel
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Door Hinge Rivet Source

#1 Post by Dennis Vogel »

Does anyone have a source for the rivets used to attach the hinge to the door?

I'm repairing a door on our T5 coupe and the plate for the lower hinge is ate to hell. I will need to rivet our hinge to a new backing plate. I can't find a part number for the rivets and they don't seem to be for sale anywhere. I wonder if perhaps rivets used elsewhere on the car (i.e. seat rail or hub cap rivets) are the correct size and could be repurposed?
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Martin Benade
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Re: Door Hinge Rivet Source

#2 Post by Martin Benade »

I believe the T6 tow hook rivets are a match, 6 x 15 mm. Stoddard etc should have them.
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Dave Erickson
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Re: Door Hinge Rivet Source

#3 Post by Dave Erickson »

It does not look like it would be easy to buck those rivets. I wonder - did Porsche install the hinge before welding in the piece they attach to, or did they have a special tool for the job?

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Re: Door Hinge Rivet Source

#4 Post by james boyter »

Dennis, I used button head bolts, after fitting, welded the top to fill hex cavity and finished. Really difficult to tell from a rivet. Simple and easy. Someone had mention doing it this way and I followed the suggestion. Button head bolts are available at the local hardware store.

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Re: Door Hinge Rivet Source

#5 Post by Dennis Vogel »

Dave Erickson wrote: Sun Feb 05, 2023 12:16 am It does not look like it would be easy to buck those rivets. I wonder - did Porsche install the hinge before welding in the piece they attach to, or did they have a special tool for the job?
For better or worse, ours was completely ate up. So I have clear access to the back of a new bracket. I plan to install the hinge to the bracket before welding it to the door. Even then, I haven't yet figured out how I'm going to set these. I read somewhere that Trevor Gates used a air chisel, but I don't have one of those. I wonder if a bench vice on the back and the hubcap rivet install tool used on the front with a small sledge hammer would yield a good result. :?:
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Re: Door Hinge Rivet Source

#6 Post by Dave Erickson »

Hubcap rivets are pretty small compared to the door hinge rivets. Eastwood and Zoro Tools both sell 3/16" rivet sets for an air chisel, and Zoro also sells a nice set of hand rivet sets. You could use the air chisel rivet set with a hammer. However, air hammers are pretty useful.

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Re: Door Hinge Rivet Source

#7 Post by Martin Benade »

If you back up the formed head and keep hammering around the edge of the other end it will peen over and hold securely and look fairly reasonable, but not factory.
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ScottBerry
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Re: Door Hinge Rivet Source

#8 Post by ScottBerry »

Save yourself some grief and use bolts. I used round Allen head screws with a steel backer plate with threaded holes. Easy to make up and also easy to take the hinge on and off again a number of times as I welded on the new support piece. Once done and happy with the vertical alignment with the upper hinge I welded the support hinge bracket in place and when done I filled in the Allan head screw with a little weld bead followed by a little grinding to make it smooth - it looks just like a rivet head. The Allen screws can be pulled really tight and tighter than you will likely be able to do peening a rivet without using a lot of heat
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Martin Benade
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Re: Door Hinge Rivet Source

#9 Post by Martin Benade »

That’s sounds good, or if one was lazy like me, nuts and washers would be almost as good.
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Re: Door Hinge Rivet Source

#10 Post by Greg Newton »

I fabricate the door hinge rivets and sell in packs of 20 so you have a few spare. There is a few ways they can be hammered over and fastened down. I use an air hammer gun with a concaved head designed to cup and support the head of the rivet while a rounding off tool is supported against the back of the rivet inside the door cavity. I do them with the outer door skin off, but can still be done with the door skin in place. This process can be done with a hammer and dolly or modified piece of heavy steel, (just need to be cautious that everything is squashed together neatly with no air gaps between the hinge and the door)
Nothing wrong with using a high grade bolt if that's what you have available but I would caution against using stainless steel for this application.
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