S4 Boot / Trunk Hinge Braketry!

[AHM]

Hi All,

This should be simple.....
For the hinge mounting I have
1 long U shaped channel
1 Stay bracket
2 hinges
On the right hand side should it be
Hinge
Gasket
Bodywork
U channel
Stay bracket
or are the U channel and bracket the other way round? - neither way is pretty.
How is it all held together? stud/nuts? bolt?
I don't have the fastners so how should it go? any washers?

[MickG]

Hi Simon,
I think you have got it right with the exception that the stay bracket fits on before the U channel ie to the underside bodywork.

On the right hand side should it be
Hinge
Gasket
Bodywork
U channel
Stay bracket

The fixings are studs screwed into the hinge with washers and nylock nuts, that's how I did it anyway.
The attached photo's give some idea they are not that easy to look at but the confines of the boot make it difficult to get a good picture.
Hope they are of some help.

Regards Mick G

Hing to body

Underside right hand

Left hand side

[oldelanman]

Is the U shaped metal channel just for the FHC?
My DHC does not have it - just a stiffener rib moulded into the body in that area.

[MickG]

Sorry Roger didn't explain but as Simon knows my car I felt he knew it would be for a DHC.
My cars is a 71 DH Sprint and as you can see it has a metal U channel as a strengthener between the two hinges. Maybe not all cars are the same

Regards Mick G

[oldelanman]

Maybe not all cars are the same

Surely not !!!!

[AHM]

Many Thanks Mick,

That was just what I need.

A bit of bracket bending required - I knew I shouldn't have painted it!

Simon

[DJ908]

One of the issues which I complained to the factory about on my 1968 car, when the car was still under warranty in 1969, was the cracking in the fibreglass around both the boot hinges and the boot catch/lock.

Mick G comments that ?maybe not all cars are the same?. He is indeed correct!

The design coupled with the workmanship involved in laying up the fibreglass in the moulds was changing all the time and in the case of some of the earlier S4 bodies both the design and workmanship was simply not good enough.

Here then is a photograph of a modification which the factory applied to my car in March 1969 (as I remember) in order to overcome cracking around the boot hinge caused by the stress put on the fibreglass as the boot was opened passed the boot stay.

Simple, effective and I think quite an elegant solution for it sits in front of the petrol filler and gives that a bit of protection to the filler pipe too. I have no doubt the U shaped channel came later, or was a retro fit to some of the earlier cars which were showing cracking around the right hand boot hinge. And could be fitted without drilling any holes and which would not be seen either.

Others have answered Simon?s/AHM?s query but this is perhaps an alternative for those who do not have that U shaped channel.

I am happy with what I have got. Any stresses caused in opening the boot lid are transferred to the side of the boot which is inherently much stiffer than the skin of the car itself.

The factory also fitted and fibreglasses in an extra plate below the boot catch/lock, on the inside of the boot itself and which was roughly the same shape and dimensions as a conventional number plate. Added a bit more weight to the car perhaps but certainly stiffened up that area of the body.

Clearly not all cars were, or still are, the same!! I claim mine modification to be just that, a factory modification!

Robert