So our Land Rover's side door would not close properly. Slamming it shut harder seemed to do the trick for awhile. Upon closer examination, the lower hinge seemed to be loose and pivoting on the upper hinge bolt.
Root Cause: Rust
The bottom bolt of the bottom hinge did not actually connect to anything other than rust. I had started to remove the sideframe, then called to order the part and the part had already been backordered for 6 months. So I cleaned up and POR-15'ed all the rust and bolted it back together with new hardware liberally smeared with anti-seize. I had added a metal plate and spacer tube (pipe nipple) to support the lower hinge, it seemed to work OK. A few weeks later I called to order the part so as to get on the list and the shipment had just arrived.
Outside view: the hinge obscured some of the rust, while a thin facade of rust pretended to be solid metal below the hinge. Trying to lift the door to close it showed the weakness of the hinge connection.
Inside of the lower hinge attachment location.
Front end of the sideframe attached to the bulkhead. This was not too rusty and the bolts came off easy. The horizontal sections were not badly rusted.
At the back though there was a little rust.
OK, more than a little rust.
There is a 5 inch piece of the horizontal section that I threw away. Over Engineering kept the rear quarter panel and the rear floor in place and sturdy.
Removal:
Douse all nuts and bolts with anti-seizure/WD-41.5
Remove doors
Remove front seat belt brackets
Remove all nuts and bolts
Chistle off rivets on the inside of rear bodyside panel
remove side frame
remove side panel extension from side frame
Reassembly:
1 - RCN831 sideframe (works for both a 110 and our 109)
1 - new stud plate
6 - 6mm x 12mm bolts
15 - 1.5 inch bolts and corresponding nuts
New bolts and stud plate at the front end of the side frame.
New bolts at the top, no need for the seat belt bracket anymore.
Crossbar connection and the top hinge nuts.
Seatbase to sideframe connection, 6mm x 12mm bolts. 4 on this side, 2 on the front side.
Rear sideframe to chassis connection and body to upper sideframe flange.
This section needs to be riveted to the bodyside.
Followup to come.
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