I had the bold idea that if I was to remove the cargo doors and give the roller pins a whack they would just pop out so I could fit the new ones. Of course not. If you're thinking of doing this to your van it is better to remove the doors because if you hit the hinge while attached to your van you may buckle the frame around the hinge.
Also get some muscley help to do this, it was not easy trying to hold a door and hit it at the same time. I started drilling the roller pins with a drill bit the same size as the hole to clear out the rust and crap. Then worked up to a 3/16"- 4.7mm, drilling from either end into the pin just past the second hinge points to free up the tension in the roller pin. I used the smaller drill bit poked in the other end as a guide to make sure I was drilling straight.
With still some material left in the centred of the pin I was able to knock the whole pin out with no problem but made sure I had some thing solid to push against the hinge to knock it out.
With all the pins out you may be able to see the damage on the old roll pins. The new pins are stainless steel so they won't rust. There was also a strip of felt with a twisted wire in the center that came out of one of the hinges, not sure if this was meant to be there from the factory.
I sand blasted the hinges while they were off, then with plenty of lube squeezed the new pins into place with a vice, double checking the hinges were in the correct position. Get someone to help you with this as it was a ball ache holding the door squeezing the vice and making sure it went in straight, then taking a picture.
With the hinges fitted on the door and a bit of paint I fitted the cargo doors back on the van. There was still a bit of play on one of the hinges. I think this is because the roll pin was not able to expanded enough in both parts of the hinge due to the different diametre of the holes due to the aforementioned 40 years of wear. A run through with a reamer smaller than the pin would have probably solved this.
Now the cargo doors are fitted I noticed that the lower corner of the door was sticking out, this may be from the panel beating I've been doing on the van or where I spot welded the outer skin again in a couple of places but probably in the wrong position. Hopefully a big hammer and block of wood will sort this out. Any volunteers?
