Having a second person who now occasionally drives the car has highlighted some of its indequacies. One of these is that for some time, the driver's door has been a pain to close properly. Only a gifted operative, such as myself, had the necessary skills to shut it first or second time.
Various attempts at the adjustment of the striker-plate had a bit of success but the time came when I had to do something. So I bought a couple of sets of the surprisingly inexpensive repair kits. Each hinge has a plain pin and two plastic (nylon?) top-hat bushes; the job looked easy although I was a bit nervous of hammering the pin on the unsupported hinge.
Seeing that the original pins were clenched in at the top and probably at the bottom (I didn't look) I was obviously going to have to grind them flat. But on close inspection I noticed that it was the holes in which the pins were designed to be fixed in which were worn......the pins had come loose and were not swivelling in the bushes as intended. As I would be grinding the tops anyway I thought it worth trying to weld the existing pins to the hinge as an alternative to clenching and seeing if that removed the problem. I had to be quick and precise as I didn't want the heat to linger too long and melt the original bushes.
Once cooled it took a bit of force to move the hinge, which was a good sign. It seems likely that the hinge has been like this for a very long time and there's no reason to think other than that many other Fiats with original doors will share this problem. Having refitted the door it required no micro-adustment whatsoever and fits first time, shutting better than it has ever done. I still have the repair kits sould this just be a temporary improvement.
So now I can self-isolate inside the car much more easily and completely....result!
Various attempts at the adjustment of the striker-plate had a bit of success but the time came when I had to do something. So I bought a couple of sets of the surprisingly inexpensive repair kits. Each hinge has a plain pin and two plastic (nylon?) top-hat bushes; the job looked easy although I was a bit nervous of hammering the pin on the unsupported hinge.
Seeing that the original pins were clenched in at the top and probably at the bottom (I didn't look) I was obviously going to have to grind them flat. But on close inspection I noticed that it was the holes in which the pins were designed to be fixed in which were worn......the pins had come loose and were not swivelling in the bushes as intended. As I would be grinding the tops anyway I thought it worth trying to weld the existing pins to the hinge as an alternative to clenching and seeing if that removed the problem. I had to be quick and precise as I didn't want the heat to linger too long and melt the original bushes.
Once cooled it took a bit of force to move the hinge, which was a good sign. It seems likely that the hinge has been like this for a very long time and there's no reason to think other than that many other Fiats with original doors will share this problem. Having refitted the door it required no micro-adustment whatsoever and fits first time, shutting better than it has ever done. I still have the repair kits sould this just be a temporary improvement.
So now I can self-isolate inside the car much more easily and completely....result!
