Just bought a driver-side door hinge for my 1997 SC300 in Pearl White from (Australian) Daryl and wanted to share the experience. Daryl had the part in stock and shipped it immediately. It took several days to make it through customs, but otherwise it arrived when I expected. The hinge was perfectly packed and sustained no damage. I also received hinge replacement instructions in PDF by e-mail.

The hinge is a rebuilt OEM hinge in the car's original color, Pearl White. As outlined elsewhere, the hinge is rebuilt using new bushings, etc. and includes grease fittings to grease the upper and lower hinges. I purchased a needle adapter for a grease gun from Daryl, also. The hinge comes pre-lubricated and pre-painted in the appropriate color


I replaced the hinge on my own, which I would NOT recommend -- the door is heavy (90+ lbs per other member's measurements) and has an inconvenient center of gravity which makes it unwieldy. You'd be highly at risk hurting yourself or the car. The only tools needed were a 3/8" ratchet and a normal sized 12mm socket -- getting access can be a pain but patience goes a long way. I dug up the left-foot side carpet in the driver-side well and disconnected the three door connectors, and then pushed them through the hole to the door. Then, I set the door level on a wood 2x4 on top of two jacks. When I was assured the door was being supported from below, I loosened all 4 bolts attaching the hinge to the door, then removed the two bottom bolts, easily enough. I removed one of the top bolts and the door immediately started to try to rotate -- be cautions here. I was able to hold the door steady on the wood plank while removing the last bolt. Then, the heavy door was lifted and placed on top of a carpet to prevent scratching. The hinge removed easily from the side of the car. There are two guide pins that position the hinge on the side of the car-- the new hinge slipped right on and bolted easily to the side of the car. Next was positioning the door which was the hardest part of the job, given its weight and the precision by which it must be placed. The two jacks were helpful at keeping the door level and at the right height, but their tops were narrow and the 2x4 can close to slipping. Soon as the two top bolts attached, the other two attached easily. I closed the door a few times and noted the latch was hitting the door receiver a bit low, which made closing the door a bit less smooth. So, I loosened the six bolts just a bit and opened/closed the door a few times, then tightened all six bolts again.

The door opens and closes (with a satisfying thunk) smoothly, but requires more effort than before which should improve as the hinge breaks in. Even before the minor adjustment above, the door has uniform gaps all the way around. And the door will now hold at any angle-- very useful when getting out of the car into traffic. The new paint matches this 23 year old paint nicely. The grease points should be great at keeping the hinge alive forever compared to the OEM. Overall, this is an improvement on the Lexus hinge and absolutely worth the money to have the door open and close like a Lexus door should. Highly recommended.

 

Thank you for sharing!

 

Thank you for this writeup! I always heard good things about his work rebuilding Soarer/SC door hinges and this confirms it! Aside, thanks for noting that the center of weight on our 90lb+ doors are not where one would expect them to be. I always figured a hinge swap would be a 2-3 person job at a body shop.

 

How would I get a hold of Daryl? My driver door is slowly starting to get worse, so it would be nice to have a new hinge.

 

Here you go...
https://planetsoarer.com/hinges/index.htm

 

I also purchased a hinge from Daryl. Good quality - but I didn't know that I had to grease them annually.

 

I ended up buying the hinge brand new from Lexus. It comes unpainted, so I had to pay extra to have it painted.

 

Good info, might buy two myself just to be on the safe side since they are getting up their in age.

 

Guys, thanks for your comments about my reconditioned hinges. Have been sending a few to the US lately, the exchange rate makes it very favourable for you at the moment. For contact my email is: ddemarte@bigpond.net.au
Stay safe,
Cheers,
Daryl.

 

The doors have to be some of the heaviest out there. Mine just snapped one day, Kahn is right, it's definitely a body shop job. Hard to line up the heavy door

 

For those that have my reconditioned hinges, the needle nose dispenser that is required to grease the 4 nipples are made by various vendors, Blue Point has one, Plews/Edelman have two, model 05-045 with steel tip and 05-041 which has a rubber tip. Thought this might help.

 

Good to see you on the forum, Daryl. This is Brian from NY. Thanks for the 1A0 hinge - took about a month for it to get from AU to US due to the pandemic, but received it finally this week!

Are there instructions anywhere on where and how to grease?

 

Brian, I saw via Australia Post tracking that your hinge finally arrived, so good news.
With regards to when to grease the hinge, it depends on the use of the door, but I would think every 6 months would be satisfactory, never hurts to do it more regularly. I just use a normal hand grease gun with a short angled solid extension with the needle fitting suggested above. I use marine bearing grease as the lubricant. Note that the bearings don’t take much grease and because of the close tolerance of pins and bearings, takes a bit of pressure to have the grease go through the bearing.
Hope this helps.
Stay safe people.

 

I put one of those re-conditioned hinges in nine years ago and it's still in great shape. It was a good investment. I had some pictures of the swap here: https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sc-...-pictures.html