Ever since I've owned Luigi the driver door has sagged about 1/8 inch and been stiff to open & close. You know, you sort of "lift it closed and open". I read all about the dreaded door hinge tear / rip / failures and frankly decided what I didn't know wouldn't cause me pain, aggravation and money! But I had the door panel off to redo the upper section and thought it was time to just bite the bullet and see how bad it might be. So I taped the door off, marked it, supported it with a floor jack, loosened the hinges, and held my breath.
To my pleasant surprise, this is what I found:
At some point in the past a PO has made little boxed reinforcement plates and bolted them to the door through the inner skin and through the closure surface; pretty clever. Not a big weld but also didn't have to cut open the door to make the fix. By bolting new metal plates to the normal hinge locations further out and into the closure surface the PO spread the load nicely stopping any further damage and making it very easy to simply put it all back together and adjust away!
After a little time and finagaling I was able to eliminate most all the old sag and the door operates much smoother. No more weight lifting to open and close!
Also went ahead and replaced the inner and outer window wipes and lubed all the pulleys for the power window and it actually goes down AND UP unassisted. Now I'm just going to have to go back into the passenger side to get it to do the same!
