

| Subject: | Drivers door hinge assembly - spot welds failed? |
| From: | Dennis |
| Date: | Fri, 12 Aug 2005 10:36:23 -0400 |
My 90 Westy driver's door recently became hard to latch. Upon closer inspection I realized the lower hinge was floating at the door insertion point. Optimistically thinking that the hinge assembly bolted in the door, I removed the door panel and realized that the hinge was welded into a fairly large sheet metal assembly that itself is spot welded into the door. No less than 10 spot welds were "broken" with no rust. I say broken because I've never seen spot welds fail. When repairing panels before, they have to be drilled out, and often coaxed with a cold chisel. There is no indication that the van has ever been in a collision. From the outside, the welds look stamped as they normally would. The sub- assembly and attached hinge however is floating around in the door. I removed the door, drilled out the bad spot welds, and redid them. Nothing in the archives on this. Has anyone seen this before? I could only explain this as a factory assembly flaw.
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