Upper Door Hinge Replacement

[06YarisRS]

No pics for this one as it's a job I hope to forget and never remember again. I bought a hinge a couple of weeks ago as my driver's door had a little play in it. You could see the little bushing had backed out of the hinge assembly. I primed and painted the hinge in Silver Streak Mica, just like the car.

This job can be done with the front quarter panel on the car. I didn't want to remove it because I would have had to remove my side skirts completely and reinstall them which would involve a lot of 3M tape or an expensive gasket kit. I pulled the top of the bumper cover out, removed the headlight, took out the top quarter panel screws and gently pried out the top of the quarter panel, placing a short section of rubber hose to hold the quarter panel out. I had to completely removed the door in order to access the body hinge bolts. About an hour later, I had the door back on and, of course, there was a big gap at the front and the back of the door hit the body. I had placed the hinge back in the same spot based on the remnant sealant lines from the original hinge installation. So, off came the door again and I moved the hinge a touch forward. This solved the gaps. Then there were adjustments to bring the top of the door out to line up with the top of the quarter panel.

My advice...pay a dealer or other shop to do this! It's a terrible job. Probably much easier if you remove the quarter panel.