My driver side door is wasted from both rust and heavy use. I found a good replacement at the local junkyard for $25. It has good glass and it even has a good mirror on it.

I'm wondering if I should just swap the door or if I should also change my old hinges for the better hinges from the junkyard. Changing the door alone looks like cake from what I can see, just a few 9/16" bolts and voila.

The hinges, however, seem to be bolted to the body from the inside and it looks quite difficult. Any advice from someone who's done this?

 

The bottom hinge shouldn't be that bad, it's the top one that can be difficult. I suppose you can reuse the existing hinges and store the junkyard ones in case you ever need them. Who knows, you might end up getting rid of the van before the original ones ever fail.

 

At the rate this van is rusting away I'm sure you are correct.

 

The existing lower hinge is completely shot and must be changed. There is visible wiggle room where the pin goes thru the hinge vertically, especially at the bottom. Anything I should know about changing this out for my salvage yard part? The hinge appears to have some adhesive or body sealer around it.

The striker bolt has a small flat spot on it so I should probably transplant that part also?

 

Well, this forum is making me think for myself - I keep answering my own questions.

Changing door hinges is quite a difficult job on the Ram van and my 270K mile junker is not worthy of the effort. In order to remove the hinges from the inside of the vehicle the battery must be removed along with vent kick plate, the parking brake assy and a good portion of the driver's side dash including the instrument cluster.

So I figured "ter hell with it" and just shimmed the lower hinge between the door and the outer hinge plate with two flat washers at each of the three bolt locations.

Ten minute operation that worked like a charm. The door gaps are now perfect all around. The door closes with a "thunk" and the lock mechanism catches the striker bolt tightly 8 out of 10 times. Good enough.

 

You might see if you can adjust the striker bolt and make it 10 out of 10 times.

 

That's a good thought. I might try adjusting the striker to get it perfect. Assuming you just loosen, tap it down a bit, then tighten?

 

I believe that should work. It should move up/down & side to side. I have not needed to do it on my Van but I did have to on my Impala.