painting door hinges - on the car,off the car...?

[Rick]

Starting to think about doing the restore of my 65 (many more questions on that at a later date). I'm thinking about the hinges and the paint jobs my dad used to do. If I remember correctly he would leave the hinges assembled, pin in, when he painted. However, I do remember cracking paint on the hinge in the years to come. So what is the best method? It seems that painting the doors off the car would be best, but can you really re-assemble the hinges without damaging the paint?

[3Bugs]

Reassembly is not the hard part. Getting them out is where you will have a problem. If your doors are not sagging or you have no play in the hinges with the door open; pushing up and down then leave them alone.

I painted one car on and another off, both with doors off the car. Both worked out for me. I can tell you that if you paint them on and your paint is too think you will have a problem. VW had a very tight fit between the two hinges and it varies in thickness as the door swings.
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3Bugs
Well, actually a 67 Bug, 72 Super, 61 Ghia and a 2004 Beetle Vert (sorry)

[kjono09]

I have raw metal hinges to replace a set of broken ones, How should I prep them to not rust? Should I paint or powder coat before install?
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84 Retro-Westy GW 2.2L (Vincent)
67 Bug 2007cc (WBX in progress) (Davey)

Submariner

[FL-Frank]

[OtisGore]

Any further input on this topic?

[bomberbob]

As a previous post said, if the paint is too thick you are going to have a problem. The way the hinge pivots, it rolls over itself. On my car I left the existing paint on because I thought it was too much trouble to try and dig all the paint out. Painted over the top of the existing paint. After it was dry I opened and closed doors and it tore my new paint off. I don't have an answer to the question of whether to remove them completely, but I can tell you that if I ever do this again I will strip down to bare metal and paint.
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1968 Beetle (storage)
1990 Jetta GLI megasquirted, burning E85 (currently in heavy maintenance)
2004 Jetta turbo GLI
Marion, Iowa

[OtisGore]

Thanks Bob

[buguy]

If you have hinges that are bare metal i would just spray a coat of etch primer (you can get it in a spray can) on it. It has no build and is very thin. Fine to put on bare metal too.

[VintageVulture]

Seems like more and more new oversized and now mostly double oversized pins are needed to truly get doors to align and function as good as most restorations demand. Last Beetle in was a 61 Rag. Both doors had been "sprung" so alignment was best if we pulled the original pins after straightening out the door shells/hinge rivet areas, straighten loose hinges, ream holes, install new pins and then double check alignment. I've painted more Bugs with original pins in than with new pins installed. I've had to install new pins only after finding excess weight of body filler messed up the alignment capabilities of borderline/iffy/old pin and customers hoping to not spend too much. Anymore EVERY job is twice as much work as it was 20 years ago. I just do new pins and forget about worrying whether it should be done or if the doors will align after paint. TLDR.... Pull doors. Install new pins. Install and align doors. Paint body. Only thing I recommend is to mask off the threads for mirrors. Put grease on threads to block water from causing stains.
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