Upper Door Hinge, is yours Straight or Bent?

How to keep the Cessna 170 flying and airworthy.

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Lfournier1
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Joined: Thu May 30, 2019 1:43 am

Re: Upper Door Hinge, is yours Straight or Bent?

Post by Lfournier1 »

Checked mine. 1954 170B. They are bent. If they were not the front edge of the door would stick out.
McFarlaneEng
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Joined: Wed Dec 11, 2019 2:55 pm

Re: Upper Door Hinge, is yours Straight or Bent?

Post by McFarlaneEng »

Hello everyone, this is Dan from McFarlane. I want to thank you all again for your input on the cabin door hinges. With the parts (especially good ones) so hard to find, all of your forum replies truly helped with development of the McFarlane PMA parts.
We wanted you all to be the first to know that the FAA has indicated we will be receiving PMA approval on our Cessna 170 cabin door hinges soon, possibly as early as this month. Once that happens, we’ll be working hard to get them available for purchase as soon as possible!
We’ll plan to post on this thread again when we have more information! If you are interested in preordering, please contact our sales department at sales@mcfarlaneaviation.com or calling (866) 920-2741 and we will get ordering information to you ASAP.

https://www.mcfarlaneaviation.com
https://www.mcfarlaneaviation.com/contact
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Bruce Fenstermacher
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Re: Upper Door Hinge, is yours Straight or Bent?

Post by Bruce Fenstermacher »

Dan, this is great news. Recently I worked on a fairly new 172 door and guess what. It had bent hinges.

I'm curious is McFarlene going to make them straight or bent?

Thanks
CAUTION - My forum posts may be worth what you paid for them!

Bruce Fenstermacher, Past President, TIC170A
Email: brucefenster at gmail.com
McFarlaneEng
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Joined: Wed Dec 11, 2019 2:55 pm

Re: Upper Door Hinge, is yours Straight or Bent?

Post by McFarlaneEng »

Bruce Fenstermacher wrote:Dan, this is great news. Recently I worked on a fairly new 172 door and guess what. It had bent hinges.

I'm curious is McFarlene going to make them straight or bent?

Thanks
Bruce, we currently offer PMA replacements for Cessna 172 hinges in both straight and bent versions. The PMA replacements for Cessna 170 hinges will also be in straight and bent versions.
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skifast13
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Re: Upper Door Hinge, is yours Straight or Bent?

Post by skifast13 »

I have a straight hinge on my pilot's side and a bent hinge on my passenger side. The pilot door is more appropriately sealed all the way around and the front edge is very slightly recessed. IMO, the passenger side front edge of the door is too recessed resulting in the aft portion of the door not sealing well. If I straightened the passenger hinge, the front edge would be slightly recessed with the forward skin, but would this draw the rear portion of the door in to recess/seal tighter? I don't really want to have to remove the hinge to bend, but also don't want to damage the door by bending with the hinge attached.
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c170b53
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Re: Upper Door Hinge, is yours Straight or Bent?

Post by c170b53 »

If you look at the hinge to straighten it you would have to stretch the metal which if you could, you would cause the center bowed metal to collapse / tear. Its my belief Its stamped steel and I do not believe you can significantly straighten it and I know you do not want to remove the upper unless you have to, they area pain to replace
Jim McIntosh..
1953 C170B S/N 25656
02 K1200RS
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DaveF
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Re: Upper Door Hinge, is yours Straight or Bent?

Post by DaveF »

skifast13 wrote:IMO, the passenger side front edge of the door is too recessed resulting in the aft portion of the door not sealing well.
Shimming the upper hinge might help. Remove both hinge pins and set the door in place by hand. Note the offset in the hinge pin axes and shim so they meet up. Worked for me.
8D549D06-B130-496D-9207-B173AC49D686.jpeg
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johneeb
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Re: Upper Door Hinge, is yours Straight or Bent?

Post by johneeb »

Capt. Skifast,
I had the opposite problem with my hinges the doors were to far out into the airstream the fix was to cut a pie shaped (small) into the hinge's re-enforcing rib, fitting the door where I wanted it and then tiging up the cut. I did this after the door had a new coat of paint and you can see the finish turned out ok. I think you could do the same with your hinge except just make a thin straight cut (Dremel cut thickness). The airplane is much quieter with the door faired and also easier to get the door to seal.
upper hinge showing bend.jpg
John E. Barrett
aka. Johneb

Sent from my "Cray Super Computer"
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skifast13
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Re: Upper Door Hinge, is yours Straight or Bent?

Post by skifast13 »

Thanks Dave and John!
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