So i since finally found the time to finish one of my half doors, i decided id throw up some pics. The other door isnt done yet, but obviously its gonna look the same.
First things first, ya gotta have a way to remove the doors, so i took both my hinges and my spare hinges and chopped the pins in half
For those pre-92 guys, these are the two connectors behind the kick panel you unplug to remove the door w/o cutting any wires
The upper plug is the power for the windows/locks & the smaller is power for the speaker. On the driver side, the connectors look the same but the green one is gray.
Then i got some 3/8*4½ bolts, cut most of the threads off em, and drilled a small hole in the end for a pin:
The shoulder on the 3/8" bolts dont fit the brass bushings on the hinges, so i drilled them out a bit to clear, and then put a set of hinges together to try em out:
Then i reinstaled my original doors with the new pins
the reason i pinned both sets of hinges is so that i can leave the original A-pillar side half of the hinge bolted to the truck, and leave the original door-side half of the hinge bolted to the doors, this way i can align the doors once, and when i swap betwen doors theyll already be aligned and i wont have to mess with the bolts getting em adjusted properly.
So now you can remove your doors any time you want!
For some of you this might be all you need. But in the NE, whether you like it or not youre getting muddy, even on the rockiest of trails. So i needed a way to increase visibility, yet still keep as much mud as possible out of the inside of the truck. So that means half doors!
So ya start by taking your spare doors, and stripping them down
Next is to draw a line, and start cutting! i used a sheet metal bit in the air hammer to get a nice straight (sorta) cut.
The top of the door is cut at the body line where the door bends in for the window. The lower cut is directly below the hole for the doorlock, so i didnt have to mess with filling that hole. its just an inch or two taller than the lower portion of the seat, which should work great for keeping mud off the seat while driving.
Half-finished door mocked up, hinges not aligned
Ok, so this is where it gets hard. Or atleast i thought so, since ive never worked with sheetmetal before.
Anyways, after much confusion and carboard cutouts, we came up with a way to close the door in using three pieces of steel (used 16ga since it seems to be the same the door was made out of). One will be a flat part to close the top where you arm is, and bend down towards the inside. the second will be a flat piece screwed on the back to serve as an access panel, and the third part will be a strange combination of bends to close in the 'peak' of the door. Unfortunately i didnt think to get any pics of each piece before they were attached to the door, so these will have to suffice:
this one looks like its bent, but its just the angle of the pic:
After a shitload of welding and grinding, you end up with this:
The front lip was recesed to allow it to be ground flush after welding. The plan was that once the door was done youd never know it was welded there. So after the grinding was done, i took some bondo and went over the seams to try and smooth em out & hide em. Well, i guess i picked the worst possible time (100º + very humid) to learn how to use bondo, and ended up doing it a couple times :toothless In the end i was able to get a half-way decent layer down and then sanded it smooth with a DA. I snapped a pic of it but didnt notice at the time that the lense fogged up when i brought the camera ouside. Told ya it was hot!
next up i needed a way to open the door, so i took the original linkage for the lock and shortened it up a bit:
Getting painted:
The finished product:
here is where the linkage for the door passes thru the door. it is connected (IIRC) to where the inner door handle originally connected.
To open the door you just press down on it, and it pops open :thumbup
Long term, i plan on adding a set of mirrors for street driving, and 6" marine speakers to the door so i have tunes. Now i just gotta make the other door :toothless
