W123 Hood hinge repair (nightmare)
 

G'day Folks,

I'm struggling with an awkward hood / bonnet hinge on my 1981 W123.

I thought I'd post some pictures of the nightmare so far - just in case you good people can help.

The bonnet - sorry I mean hood - was always a little wobbly when it was opened and closed because the right hand hinge had loads of play in it. When I unbolted the hood to make space for the engine removal I found that this hinge could be waggled by about 5cm from side to side whereas the left hand side one was a lot steadier.

Removal of the left hand side hinge assembly was quite straightforward for my repair work to the spring pocket structure (see http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/showthread.php?t=286079 for the progress there) - but the right hand side hinge is still stuck in there.

I have tried hitting it

I have tried heating it

I have tried a combination of the above with penetrating oil

I have also tried to turn the bolt that goes through the bushing into the engine bay (from inside the spring pocket) with mole grips

It is still stuck.

I'm now drilling the bugger out - see the photographs.

(I have just found an advantage to not having an engine in your car - you can stand in the engine bay and get real good access to this pesky bolt!)

Done it!
 

Well that took some time - I went through 5 (cheapo) drill bits.

My method was to drill as much of the bolt away as possible without damaging the structure. I used a heavy duty hammer drill (without the hammer action - although I did loose it at one point and gave it a quick go!) and HSS bits to weaken the bolt as much as I could. I then got a pair of mole grips on the end of the bolt - the end in the spring pocket - and wiggled it out. I still had to use a hammer and punch as well as the mole grip wriggling to get the *^&^*&%^ thing out.

All things considered I think it went well - only a small part of the mounting hole on the chassis has some scaring.

I did a google search to try and see if there were any other solutions - you know you are alone when the first hit you get is your own Peach Parts thread!

Right I'm now looking for bits to build it all back up again. Best link found here so far is:-

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/showthread.php?t=170844