Battery Locker Hinge- replacing

The battery locker hinge has been has always been broken and I have not tackled it before now as the main part of the hinge is attached to the battery box and I could not think of an economical fix. (It looks like it may have been glued, since failed) And I did not relish the idea of spending a great deal on a new box, just for the sake of one hinge!

After posting a question on UK Campsite for suggestions, I decided to give it a go by making a replacement using materials that were to hand.

The hinge in question on the battery locker situated on the front nearside of the caravan.	Closer view. I did not want to replace the whole battery box, but this is not an "off the shelf" hinge!	This is the probable cause, with the EHC in place when the lid gets to here, there is a strain put on it.
View underneath, the cable is definately squeezed and the lid does not fit flush.	Extracted the hinge by knocking the plastic pin out from the right hand side.	Took some measurements from the box to give me overall dimensions for the new hinge. The materials am going to use?
(Sorry for the bad photo) For the hinge, pressure treated timber, just fashioned it using the original as a guide.	Found some metal for the back of the hinge, an old coat hanger!	This shows basically how the hinge will fit. At this stage the wooden bit is not attached to the metal backing.
Have to remove this screw which is in the way, so that the new hinge will fit flush to the box.	Then to accommodate the new hinge, removed some of the surround with a hacksaw.	Wood screwed to the backing plate, then the plate screwed to the box surround, the hinge is in place.
So that there will be less strain on the new hinge a round file was used to ease the box.	With the lid closed, the new hinge is not that noticeable.	View from below, I'm pleased the way it turned out.

The finished result works well and for some scrap materials and a bit of time it turned into a satisfying fix. The only thing I had to be wary about was getting the new hinge to sit the same distance from the surround as the original so that it would work as intended.

Thanks to Michael and Wizard for your suggestions, I'd had a mental blank on this one before they came to the rescue.

Page Created 5th March 2009