Unable to unbolt luggage door

[Stuart Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Stuart]

Hi Folks

After many thousands of kilometres of corrugations and pot holes, our luggage door (the rear one) had dropped about 5mm making it hard to close. I looked at the hinges and I can see the the lower hinge is flogged out and there's no shims left around the centre pin.

I ordered a set of new ones intending to fit them - seemed like an easy job. But I cannot get the hinge off the car! The bolts connecting the hinge to the door unscrew OK (takes a bit of effort, but they come off). But the ones going into the body won't budge! I have started stripping one of the bolt heads so I stopped. The other 3 bolts seem to be just as stubborn.

Does anyone know if there's a way of doing this? The only thing I can think of is to take the bolts off from the door, then use a rattle gun on the bolts into the body. It worries me doing that because of the wires going through to the rear door.

Any help or tips gratefully appreciated!

Cheers

Stuart.

[Fake athlete Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close Fake athlete]

Hi,
The rear door on my prado 120 dropped and I had problems with the door closing properly. Found these shims at kaon and fitted two of them to the top hinge. You only need to loosen the nuts on the back of the door and slide the shims in. I mounted a jack on a tressel to lift the door slightly while I loosened the nuts then slid the shims in. They work really well and the door closes properly. Was a 15 minute job.
Door Hinge Shims to suit Prado 120, 150 & FJ Cruiser (kaon.com.au)
Hope that helps.
Cheers
Simon

[pnewfield Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close pnewfield]

Excellent tip, I made up a shim for my door today. I installed it to the lower hinge and my door latch came back to perfect alignment with the door catch.