Removing TJ Door Hinges...

[RRosenwald86]

Hey guys,

I posted a few days ago about my hinge problems and how the door wasnt opening quite right (making some nasty grinding sound trying to open the passanger door). Seemed like the best thing to do was simply unbolt the hinges on the body, line up the door correctly on the body, and retighten.

Well, I figured I might as well replace the hinges while I was at it, as the paint is all chipped and scarched from taking the doors off all the time (plus hey, the new black hinges would match the sheme of the TJ nicely). So I got em' here all ready to go on.

Now comes the hard part. Getting those 3 bolts off. I tried by hand, and it just aint happening. My friend has an air powered ratchet I could use to try to pull em, but I have this feeling we are going to break the bolts and/or strip the bolts in the body.

Now comes to the question. I went over to my local auto shop and asked if they could pull em for me. Id have to bring the car in Friday... So how hard are these bolts on there? Would it just be worth it to have them unbolt em off for me? I have no expierence with drilling a bolt out or retapping a hole...

What do you guys think? Thanks!

 

[TwistedCU]

Plain and simple, Jeep torx bolts are horrible.

They are a pretty soft material and are easy to round out. My best advice would be to use an impact wrench with the proper torx bit. That has worked well for me, but I have had to drill a couple out. Drilling them out won't be an option in the doors, so if you do happen to round them out then you'll have to weld a hex bolt on to it that you can back out with a regular old socket.

Personally I wouldn't pay a garage to do it, but I could see why someone might.