Fritz made the bracket and I received it just a few days later. It's a quality part, made of really strong steel. The screw holes were counter sunk, he included the screws and the whole thing was painted matt black.
I followed the included instructions and managed to remove the two hinge pins that held the glove box door, and removed the door. Here's a shot of my broken hinge:
The bracket Fritz provided fit the curves of the hinge perfectly. I spent some time making sure it was lined up properly, drilled four 1/16" pilot holes for the screws, and installed the bracket. I also put a liberal amount of crazy glue on the break, but it really wasn't necessary.
While I had the door off I removed the piston that is connected to the door. Just unclip the wiring harness, and twist the piston around until knob that connects it to the glove box lines up just right and it will pop off. I tried to move the piston in and out and had to really use a lot of force, clearly this was the reason that the hinge broke in the first place. I considered leaving it disconnected, but if I did that the light wouldn't work. So, I drilled a small hole in the end of the piston, and dribbled some oil in there. After I worked the piston back and forth a few times it started moving easily. The hole isn't very big, I used the same 1/16" bit, so there is still some negative pressure that slows the piston's movement a bit.
Here's where I drilled the hole:
And here's the piston attached back to the glove box, it just needs to be rotated back around so the back of the part (with the hole) is pointing toward the front of the car:
When I reinstalled the glove box door I found that the hinge bracket was rubbing against the part of the glove box that surrounded it, so I used my dremel to sand just a tiny bit off the front of the surround to make it a bit bigger. I didn't take any pics of that, but it will be obvious where you need to sand if you run into the same problem. Problem solved, so I reinstalled the pins holding the door to the glove box, connected the piston and the wiring harness, and that was it.
I can't say enough about the quality of the part that Fritz makes, it was well worth the $25. The bracket is practically invisible from inside the car, you have to be looking for it to even see it, and the repair makes it just like the glove box door was never broken. If you have a broken hinge on your glove box this is the way to go, just pm PCYC and he will set you up.
Dave
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Originally Posted by 12sA4
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