Can someone post pics of their hinges?

[rickjames8]

I'd like to see how my hinge bases compare to what others have.

My hinges appear to be made of a very thin material. As such, it looks like it's bent in a few places. I don't know if these are what came from the factory (mine is originally a UK car, so it would have been from ADD), or if someone tried to remake these at a later date. Here is what they look like:

As you might be able to see, that lower bolt has moved to the left a fair bit. The mount on the other side is just as bad. I took some measurements, and it looks like the arms are 34mm wide at the bottom, and I found some square tubing with an ID of 36mm, so I'm thinking about cutting off one side of the tube and making a new mount. I was also able to get some really nice plate steel, which I could use to make the triangular piece that sits down in the body. I have a friend who works at a metal shop and I get free access to their scraps, which is often really nice chunks of metal.

Do people typically put any needle roller bearings in these? Or just grease them up and use a partially threaded bolt?

 

[letterman7]

Yeah, that's pretty typical construction. I'll have to crawl up on my lift and take some photos of my hinges. Typically they will have a nylon bushing in the eye that the bolt goes through. If you can make a new lower mount with that cut-off, do it. It's nothing special. Personally, once you have those hinges apart (take photos so you know how they go back together), I'd take the arms to your buddy to see if they either have or can make bronze bushings to fit the sleeves. Self-lubricating, and make the entire rig a bit more stable.

 

[Brett Proctor]

One side measures 38mm, other side measures 39mm
This is the oem american version. European version may be different. Lifting arms are the round version
Later in my build I made a stainless steel version. These are the original brackets that came on the car

 

[rickjames8]

Thank you!! I'm surprised yours are so wide at 39mm. Do you have some free space between the arm and the bracket?

I'll see if I can find a proper sized brass bushing. I don't know that roller bearings would work.

One thing I recall from my other Sterling is that the canopy jolted at the end of travel. I had a massive pump that used to raise the top in about 5 seconds. It always bothered me how abruptly it stopped. Has anyone found a way to slow the travel at the end rather than bottoming out on the travel of the ram?

 

[letterman7]

That tells me the rams were too long and it wanted to push the canopy past travel. You could put a limiting switch for the 'up' circuit to keep it from over-centering, or use shorter throw rams. There's probably a circuit somewhere that has a 'soft close' feature in it, but I haven't found one.

 

[Brett Proctor]

I'll see if I can find a proper sized brass bushing. I don't know that roller bearings would work.

First redesign of the arms
I made, I think about 4 different styles. This one was replacing the bushings with bearings. If this was done to the stock arms (I made all new ones) the ends would need to be cut off and a larger section of tubing would have to be welded on to accept the bearings
First page on my build shows them.