'92 535i Door Hinge Cracked??

[Mike Gruby <gruby@xxxxxxxx>]

On my car where the Door hinge bolts onto the door, has a the metal on the
door all cracked where the hinge is bolted on.  The dealer told me if this
breaks, the hinge will go through and put an outer dent in the door and
break something with the window in the door.  I got an estimate for 300
dollars at twin citys body shop in champaign, but took it home to have my
dad take car of it with his body man.  Don't know how much he wants, but it
won't be 300 bucks.  Anyways, has anyone expierenced this problem? I don't
see how this can happen on a '92 car even if it has 140k miles on it,
unless the last owner just kicked the door open everyday for 6 years.
Seems to me like a design flaw or poor craftsmanship.  While being fixed I
have to settle with a '87 Mercedes 300 turbo diesel with 240k.  I used to
drive a '82 300 turbo diesel, and man was that slow and it kicked you in
the ass on every shift, but when I drove this '87, I couldn't believe it,
it took of fast and shifted smoother then many gas automatics I've drove.
Won't keep up with the bimmer, but I'll have to settle with saving some
cash w/diesel fuel and great mileage till next week when I go back to
premium fuel and umm... decent mileage.. 




- ------------------------------------------------------------
Michael Gruby
e-mail: gruby@domain.elided
University of Illinios
http://www.students.uiuc.edu/~gruby

------------------------------