[paulv]

Would like to find some replacement Door and Tailgate hinges.
Stainless would be nice.


These people make billet aluminium ones:
http://www.zuk-n-ovations.com/pages/bod ... inges.html

However they are in the US of A, and they are the removable type...
Not sure how our local department of transport would view obviously non standard removable hinges.

Anyone know where nice, solid stainless replacements might be found?

[lump_a_charcoal]

Why stainless? It is often not as strong as regular steel...

[paulv]

Stainless looks nice polished!

Not that fussed about breaking the hinge. Would imagine it would be more likely you would pull out the fasteners. It is only a door after all. Or a tailgate.

Guess it will be a moot point if Stainless ones do not exist, and cannot be found...

[Saam]

you'd kill anything that is not as strong as the standard hinges for sure, even the standard ones flog out, i am in the process of machining new High tensile pins for mine at the moment (they have heaps of play)

[Zook_Fan]

pull yours off, strip the paint off them and nickel plate them. very similar finish and a lot cheaper.

[BJPK]

have thought about this myself.
would it be possible to chrome the originals?
may just flake off though.

[Zook_Fan]

you could chrome it but that is expensive and yes i believe that after a while it would flake off. nickel is a lot cheaper and you can buy kits to do it yourself using a slow cooker and a battery charger for a decent price and you can do heaps of stuff with it

[hardknocks]

Zook_Fan wrote:

you could chrome it but that is expensive and yes i believe that after a while it would flake off. nickel is a lot cheaper and you can buy kits to do it yourself using a slow cooker and a battery charger for a decent price and you can do heaps of stuff with it

I'm interested in plating kit! Where would I get one ??

[paulv]

Guess you would have to buy new ones and plate them, rather than try and plate the 14 year old ones that are on the car.

New Tailgate hinges are 16.50 per hinge here: http://www.suzistore.com.au/shopexd.asp?id=982&bc=no
+ Chrome plating which would be 70 + per hinge.

Hmmm. the Billet Aluminium ones from the US arn't looking so bad.
Wonder what the legalities of removeable hinges are.
Wonder what the durability of a billet Aluminum hinge is.

[ball]

lump_a_charcoal wrote:

Why stainless? It is often not as strong as regular steel...

If you use the correct grade of stainless then you would end up with a hinge stronger than mild steel.

[Fatzook]

ball wrote:

lump_a_charcoal wrote:

Why stainless? It is often not as strong as regular steel...

If you use the correct grade of stainless then you would end up with a hinge stronger than mild steel.

I disagree.

I work with various grades of stainless on a daily basis, and the one thing I have noticed is that any structure that is exposed to movement and vibration with eventually stress and crack.

Go the ally, or just keep the factory ones.

Peter

[ball]

Fatzook wrote:

ball wrote:

lump_a_charcoal wrote:

Why stainless? It is often not as strong as regular steel...

If you use the correct grade of stainless then you would end up with a hinge stronger than mild steel.

I disagree.

I work with various grades of stainless on a daily basis, and the one thing I have noticed is that any structure that is exposed to movement and vibration with eventually stress and crack.

Go the ally, or just keep the factory ones.

Peter

You will get that with mild steel to an extent as well.

I used to make some rather expensive high end machine parts and the designer that sent us the drawings would specify the grade of material to use. It was often grades of stainless that were chosen due to having more desirable properties than mild steel.


Just out of curiosity what grades of stainless are you using ?

[2stroker]

All hinges on my sons LJ are chrome, they look pretty good

[paulv]

2stroker wrote:

All hinges on my sons LJ are chrome, they look pretty good

They do look good!

Did you chrome the originals? or buy new ones?
How much did the Chroming set you back?
Did you get the heads of the fasteners chromed as well?

[mrcurlywhirly]

How about switching to stainless cup head allen bolts? I saw somebody elses Sierra with that mod, looked very flash. I was thinking of switching mine over when i can finally get the friggin original bolts out... they need some serious impacting to remove.

[paulv]

Yep the cap head would looks better than painted phillips head for sure.

[paulv]

Have emailed these people:
ZUK-N-OVATIONS

to inquire as to if they ship their billet hinges to Australia...
And if they do a billet aluminum tailgate hinge.

[paulv]

So..ZUK-N-OVATIONS definitely ship to Australia.

However no tailgate hinge.
Yet.

[mrcurlywhirly]

...wierd, if you were doing flash aluminium on the doors you would surely be wanting to match up the tailgate too.

[paulv]

Well, apparently they are working on it.

In their words "At this time we do not have any billet hinges for the rear tailgate but hope to some time in the future."