VW Door hinge pin removal tool and tips

Ever tried to remove a hinge pin from VW bus door? After several hours with a punch and a steadily bigger and bigger hammer there is definitely a trick to this pin removal idea. Joey Cogdill makes these superb tools which make taking the pin out of a door infinitely more achievable than plain hand tools.

But why remove the pins anyway? For example – to gain access to the front nose area for welding and / or for painting – doors and the door shuts are better painted with the doors off the bus. Other reasons could be to put new mirror arms on – stainless oversize arms, or to replace the pins with larger over size pins to take out the door sag – once the pin has been reamed to the right size of course. Also there is a non obvious reason which is to preserve the door alignment before during or after paint or when doing the above work. Without disturbing the screws on the door hinge the paint is preserved on these screws, less chance of water getting in behind the hinge itself and a lasting finish. It is not necessary to remove the door to get the top frame on and off – this can be done with the door wide open.

When removing the door dont forget the 65 on door detent strap – holds the door open for better access. This is done by gently prying off the (metric 6mm) circlip on the pin.

This is what the tool looks like – it is supplied with a box of different length tool pins – starting with the shortest pin the 19mm bolt is wound in to easily push the pin up into the hinge. Click image for larger picture;

Steadily longer and longer tool pins are used until;

the hinge pin is all the way through. Time taken 10 minutes, no paint damage except maybe a small scuff to the top of the hinge. Nothing too serious and better than using heat or hammers;

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