Hi all,
Sorry I've taken so long getting round to finishing this off.
My recently acquired facelift Z3 was suffering from broken hinges on the small rear cubby.
I didn’t want to go to the trouble and expense of replacing it with another with the same weak hinge arrangement, so I devised a fix.
The hardware required is:
2 metal angle brackets
2 small countersunk screws with nuts
strip of self adhesive foam draught excluder tape
Firstly the cubby doesn’t need a hinge, just a means of locating it.
The first and most tricky job is to remove the broken remains of the old plastic hinges from the horizontal mounting pins. Look down the hinge holes in the recess and you’ll see them and a couple of spring fingers which don’t need to be removed. I started by snipping away at the remains with a pair of wire cutters.
I then fitted a Stanley knife with a genuine original strong Stanley blade, there are a lot of thinner brittle ones about which can be dangerous. I can’t recommend this method to everyone, it depends how experienced you are with a Stanley knife, your personal safety is of paramount importance, always use strokes away from your body, not towards it.
I cut through the hinges with the knife until I could see the brass hinge pins. I then used a wood chisel to prise open the cut and crack them off the pins. The bits will fall into the tunnel area but that doesn’t matter. Don’t hammer the chisel or you will crack the fragile plastic housing.
The brass hinge pins can be seen in the pic so once the remains of the old hinges have removed it will look like this.
I would imagine that my hinges broke in a common place, just below the box (pic).
In the pic you will see that the central rib has been removed, I removed mine with a wood chisel.
You will also see a couple of extra holes, I'll cover that in the next steps.
I now took the two angle brackets and filed them to fit between the walls of the broken hinges.
Here are the before and after pics.
Once the brackets have been prepared the holes for the mounting screws can be drilled as per the earlier pic and below.
Screw the brackets on to the cubby with the 2 countersunk screws, don't use anything other than countersunk as they will foul the lower edge of the recess. If you get trouble getting the nuts onto the scews inside the cubby try sticking them onto the flat end of a pencil with Blu-tac.
Now stick a length of foam tape in line with the screw heads, this pushes the cubby up to engage with the upper rails of the recess and also to prevent rattles.
The finished result should look something like this.
I finished mine off with a spring finger at the back of the cubby, this pops the cubby out when the button is pressed, I got it from a scrap battery holder. A piece of foam glued to the back of the cubby would do but this of course is not essential, just a refinement.
The 2 pins under the black inner tub will have to be cut off.
If anyone is interested I have a number of the brackets going spare and I could order a stock of the correct screws and nuts and supply it as a kit complete with a length of foam tape.
Regards to all!
Sorry I've taken so long getting round to finishing this off.
My recently acquired facelift Z3 was suffering from broken hinges on the small rear cubby.
I didn’t want to go to the trouble and expense of replacing it with another with the same weak hinge arrangement, so I devised a fix.
The hardware required is:
2 metal angle brackets
2 small countersunk screws with nuts
strip of self adhesive foam draught excluder tape
Firstly the cubby doesn’t need a hinge, just a means of locating it.
The first and most tricky job is to remove the broken remains of the old plastic hinges from the horizontal mounting pins. Look down the hinge holes in the recess and you’ll see them and a couple of spring fingers which don’t need to be removed. I started by snipping away at the remains with a pair of wire cutters.
I then fitted a Stanley knife with a genuine original strong Stanley blade, there are a lot of thinner brittle ones about which can be dangerous. I can’t recommend this method to everyone, it depends how experienced you are with a Stanley knife, your personal safety is of paramount importance, always use strokes away from your body, not towards it.
I cut through the hinges with the knife until I could see the brass hinge pins. I then used a wood chisel to prise open the cut and crack them off the pins. The bits will fall into the tunnel area but that doesn’t matter. Don’t hammer the chisel or you will crack the fragile plastic housing.
The brass hinge pins can be seen in the pic so once the remains of the old hinges have removed it will look like this.
I would imagine that my hinges broke in a common place, just below the box (pic).
In the pic you will see that the central rib has been removed, I removed mine with a wood chisel.
You will also see a couple of extra holes, I'll cover that in the next steps.
I now took the two angle brackets and filed them to fit between the walls of the broken hinges.
Here are the before and after pics.
Once the brackets have been prepared the holes for the mounting screws can be drilled as per the earlier pic and below.
Screw the brackets on to the cubby with the 2 countersunk screws, don't use anything other than countersunk as they will foul the lower edge of the recess. If you get trouble getting the nuts onto the scews inside the cubby try sticking them onto the flat end of a pencil with Blu-tac.
Now stick a length of foam tape in line with the screw heads, this pushes the cubby up to engage with the upper rails of the recess and also to prevent rattles.
The finished result should look something like this.
I finished mine off with a spring finger at the back of the cubby, this pops the cubby out when the button is pressed, I got it from a scrap battery holder. A piece of foam glued to the back of the cubby would do but this of course is not essential, just a refinement.
The 2 pins under the black inner tub will have to be cut off.
If anyone is interested I have a number of the brackets going spare and I could order a stock of the correct screws and nuts and supply it as a kit complete with a length of foam tape.
Regards to all!
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