Door Hinge Screws + A Variety of Expletives

PhillyJake

PhillyJake

TJ Enthusiast
Joined
Sep 22, 2020
Messages
106
Location
Philadelphia
I've Googled, searched the forum, asked around, and prayed to the Jeep gods, but continue to come up empty-handed.

How, in all that is holy, do I get the bolts out that hold the hinges to the door?!?! To be clear, not the body-side hinges, the door-side hinges.

Torx key? Already bent one. Torx bit? Twisted it. Torx bit on a hand-held impact? Nothing. Hit it with heat and penetrating oil? Not budging. Hit it from inside AND outside the door? Stubborn like my wife when I tell her I need to buy more Jeep parts.

At this point, I'm going to drill out the screws. But before I do that, I wanted to see if anyone has a trick that helped them in the past. I'm a little apprehensive about drilling out the bolts in the door for fear of messing up the threading, but screaming curse words at the door is getting me nowhere and continues to traumatize my children.

I'm open to ideas. Thanks in advance. Sincerely,

My diminishing sanity...
 
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Sounds like you have the interior panel off and access to the back side of the screws? Still not working with heat back on the "nut" part of the door? Maybe maybe heat...?
 
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I had the same issue reviving some CJ doors. I did drill out the screws using a drill which is smaller then the screw size by a small margin whatever that was cause I cant recall. Once the torx heads fell off and the screws were drilled a nice new tap of the OE size did the job of cleaning the inner adjuster plates up.
 
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Vtx531 said:
Sounds like you have the interior panel off and access to the back side of the screws? Still not working with heat back on the "nut" part of the door? Maybe maybe heat...?
Click to expand...
Yup, I've got the interior panel off and I've blasted the backside of the screw with a torch turned to 11 - nothing. Though I haven't tried blasting the painted/exterior of the door b/c I didn't want to muck up the paint...is it worth trying? Seems like consensus is to just drill it out at this point.
 
I find some precision placed heat works well but if not drill the heads, remove the hinges and spin the remnants out with your fingers
 
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P man said:
I find some precision placed heat works well but if not drill the heads, remove the hinges and spin the remnants out with your fingers
Click to expand...
ok, looks like this is the direction I'll be going - thanks all, for the guidance.

One more question: When I drill the screw out - should my bit be the size of the screw head? Or the size of the screw itself - like the threaded part? Or does screwing out the threaded part eventually release the head?

**insert here: joke about screwing for the first time**
 
PhillyJake said:
ok, looks like this is the direction I'll be going - thanks all, for the guidance.

One more question: When I drill the screw out - should my bit be the size of the screw head? Or the size of the screw itself - like the threaded part? Or does screwing out the threaded part eventually release the head?

**insert here: joke about screwing for the first time**
Click to expand...
threaded part.
 
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1Salty Dawg said:
When I did mine I drilled all the way thru the threaded part, put a small flat head on the head of the screw and it broke free with hardly any effort. The new screw screwed right in without having to re-tap the hole.
Click to expand...
Very clear instructions, thank you. I'll give it a shot tonight and report back. Thanks!
 
I'd start by getting the torx-head bolt HOT to melt the Loctite on its threads. If you get it HOT enough my bet is it'll come right out. I get mine that hot by inserting a torx-bit into it and then holding a torch on the torx-bit so it heats the bolt good and hot... smoking hot.
 
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Jerry Bransford said:
I'd start by getting the torx-head bolt HOT to melt the Loctite on its threads. If you get it HOT enough my bet is it'll come right out. I get mine that hot by inserting a torx-bit into it and then holding a torch on the torx-bit so it heats the bolt good and hot... smoking hot.
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huh...this is an interesting approach, hadn't thought of heating the bit up first. I'll give this a try before I drill out, see if this does the trick. I figured the combination of Loctite + being painted over from the factory was the issue, but I'm astonished at how strong the hold is.

Thanks!
 
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PhillyJake said:
huh...this is an interesting approach, hadn't thought of heating the bit up first. I'll give this a try before I drill out, see if this does the trick. I figured the combination of Loctite + being painted over from the factory was the issue, but I'm astonished at how strong the hold is.

Thanks!
Click to expand...
A couple of bolts holding my RE transfer case skidplate to the frame on my previous TJ seized in the frame nuts. I stripped out the allen head sockets trying to remove them.

I welded a big bolt onto the top of them to give me something to get a wrench on to remove them. I braced myself for a strong pull on the wrench on the new welded bolt head and they were barely finger-tight, they came right out with zero effort. A 1/4" ratchet drive could have removed them. It was the heat from the welding that did the trick.
 
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PhillyJake said:
I've Googled, searched the forum, asked around, and prayed to the Jeep gods, but continue to come up empty-handed.

How, in all that is holy, do I get the bolts out that hold the hinges to the door?!?! To be clear, not the body-side hinges, the door-side hinges.

Torx key? Already bent one. Torx bit? Twisted it. Torx bit on a hand-held impact? Nothing. Hit it with heat and penetrating oil? Not budging. Hit it from inside AND outside the door? Stubborn like my wife when I tell her I need to buy more Jeep parts.

At this point, I'm going to drill out the screws. But before I do that, I wanted to see if anyone has a trick that helped them in the past. I'm a little apprehensive about drilling out the bolts in the door for fear of messing up the threading, but screaming curse words at the door is getting me nowhere and continues to traumatize my children.

I'm open to ideas. Thanks in advance. Sincerely,

My diminishing sanity...
Click to expand...

Wow, so I'm not alone! The one time I tried this, I too snapped two torx bits in the process. I bought some more and put them on a 3/8" socket driver and used some PVC pipe as an extension, then gave it some slow, constant force. After applying Kroil and taking this approach, I did eventually get all three screws out and was able to remove the hinge from the door.

Keep in mind that when you do, the interior slab of steel that the hinges bolt into will be loose, and may fall out of place. I was glad that I didn't unscrew the bolts all the way immediately, or it seemed like it may have failed down inside the door.
 
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PhillyJake said:
huh...this is an interesting approach, hadn't thought of heating the bit up first. I'll give this a try before I drill out, see if this does the trick. I figured the combination of Loctite + being painted over from the factory was the issue, but I'm astonished at how strong the hold is.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Yes, I wish I'd known that trick too. Like you, I was blown away by how strong the hold is.
 
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Just did my tailgate. Broke two bits at the end of my 1/2” impact. Finally used a pencil tip propane torch and aimed the heat in the torx hole. Took a center punch and an extremely big hammer and whacked the center of the hole. With my last t-40 bit I managed to get the last three bolts out using this method.
 
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I had this struggle when I did my half door project. Never could get them off, also didn’t try a lot of the above. I just painted over them, thankfully doors aligned right.
 
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