I want everyone to know that I am persuing three options on fabricating the hinges.

The first in already known: a 'replacement' non stock steel hinge.

Secondly, I am lookin into having the metal casting hobby guys make small quantities of castings . . no news there yet.

Die casting is not feasable because of the small quantities.

Today I had a meeting with an engineering prototype firm to assess the feasibilty of the third option, which is an extreamly close copy of the original part CNC machined from what laymen call 'aircraft' aluminum.

I will need a physical hinge to give them to scan and make a 3D model. They will then do stress analysis on it to assure it will be strong enough and then send the model to some high end shops for a quote on fabrication in lots of 50.

They will give me a quote on the engineering work before they proceed and I would have to pay for that even if we do not make a single part.

I believe there is a part number cast into the original, so to reproduce that I think we need GM's blessing, but the fellow at the engineering firm said he knows who to ask to get the whole scoop on that.

I will continue to work at this as long as there is sufficient interest and support from the CE community. We can move on to making the latches and some other parts if the hinge works out.

This might open a door for a retrofit hardware kit for 80 - 82 provided someone could find or adapt the glass, but that's another story. For now, I just want hinges for my wife's CE.


So I have two questions for the group;

Our CE is my wife's daily driver so I can't take the hinge off it for a week. Does anyone have a hinge they can spare for a week? It doesn't matter if it is 'stretched' or not, and I believe they are simply mirrored for left and right so we only need one hinge.

Second, if we have a beautifully machined high strength aluminum part that exactly matches the original and can be pained or polished, would that be preferable even at a higher cost. I don't know what that cost would be yet or if anyone is willing to pay more for an exact reproduction.

Answer to your first question. My CE is in the garage for restoration,and I can donate the hinge we need at any time.
Second question can only be answered with a guess on the price. You know the price will be the issue. Everyone has a different tolerance to that, so we will see.
Jules

My ignorance is without bounds. I would like to thank you and Dawg and anyone else who has expended time and energy in this endeavor for hinges and excuse me for not mentioning this before.
Jules

DITTO....

Just on the cost. It will depend if I will buy some or none.

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Iron82

Are you sure l&r are the same? Someone said there is a diff.I might have missed something.Anyway I'm in for a pair.

L&R are different, but are close enough that a 'universal' hinge is possible with very lmited machining which would reduce the cost a lot.

I got a response from the casting hobby, but return e-mail bounced, so we're still at zero on that front.

Also got a query from another prototyping shop, but haven't had a chance to folow up.

There are a couple of places in town that can make castings from a wax original, which I can make, but we're still talkning about a lot of money for very limited production.

Look how much these things stretch. This is the hinge from my wife's CE. Note the actual profile which would be cut from steel plate.

http://www.thecubestudio.com/pictures/H ... e01Web.jpg

I've been down with flu and very busy catching up, but I'll get back to the hinge project shortly.

Man that is quite a bit off.I don't think mine are that bad.I've seen where people have had to notch out the area where the pin goes into the body just to get it to work.Mine has not been messed with thats why I don't use it.But like I said if you can make them and they fit I don't care what they look like,just want them to work.