Screw repair door side on an Austin RP

[SneezerUSA]

Looking for suggestions on how to repair the door side hinge screw holes. It appears the screws are no longer biting into the inner wooden structure. Any help would be appreciated.

[Ian Williams]

Drill the hole slightly oversize, make a tight fitting round wooden plug and glue it into the hole.

[SneezerUSA]

Thanks. Exactly what my brother recommended.

[John Mason]

Here in the Uk you can buy thread inserts for wood. They screw into wood but have a metal internal thread for metal studs. These would make a strong . Available on eBay and Amazon.

John Mason.

[Chris KC]

It's probably the best repair short of new timber. I recall in my student years regularly stuffing rawlplugs, matchsticks or anything else that came to hand into the door hinge holes to give the screws something to grip, but none lasted very long...

The only realistic alternative is to use a long countersunk machine screw and put a nut & washer on the back of it.

[SneezerUSA]

I like the idea of wood insterts. I'll check Ebay here in the USA and the UK.   Thanks: Arnie

[Reckless Rat]

Arnie, all this depends on the current state of the timber support in the door. If it is rotten, or badly cracked you may well have to do more remedial work than just using a screw insert. On my RP saloon I used the "drill out and replace with dowel" method, secured with epoxy. Remember to drill a pilot hole in the new wood or it will just split. I replaced the fixing screws with new ones with "torq" heads so I could get better leverage when tightening. The rivet counters will probably have nightmares, but it's my car and I don't care. They are difficult to spot anyway, particularly when the door is closed!

Good luck!

[Martin Prior]

.........and if all else fails, we can supply complete, new doorframe kits (plus all other A7 woodwork) and are happy to ship to the USA.  The RP doorframe is a nasty, badly-designed compromise whose construction can be quite baffling!    

[Bob Culver]

Martin is sure correct about the RP door frames. Especially puzzling when little to work from  but a pile of borer frass.
Curiously here any sign of serious rust in the ultra heavy metal within a considerable radius from the hinges is basis for a w.o.f fail!
Apparently it increaes the risk of injury in a crash. The door would likely depart complete at mild provocation, esp as retained at the other end only by the small engagement of the catch. (Although various safety measures can be applied).

[SneezerUSA]

I am going to have to remove the door from the car to see what is really going on. The A-pillar is solid as the hinges are threaded and mounted to steel.  The rear has the wood fram and who knows what the condition actually is. It may be that I will have to order a wood kit from Martin Prior as a winter project.