Sinking Creek 4WD Association

I picked up a set of doors to cut up. The plan is to keep the "frame" of the entire door so that I can have some canvas/clear plastic pieces made up to zip into the opening for those rainy days, so that I can run the halfdoors for the entire summer.

Now I just need to decide exactly what shape I want them to be. These are the two ideas I'm playing with so far. The first would allow me to keep the stock mirrors which would be convenient. What do ya'll think?

Half-doors??? Sounds like you need a Jeep....

Just messing man, I'd go for the first one, just nicer to keep your mirrors.

Unless you plan on running 2 sets of doors then I'd go for the second one...

I do plan on having two sets of doors. The doors on there now are still perfect and I'll keep them as they are. The doors I bought are not as nice, and will get cut up. I'm only going to swap them seasonally- halfdoors for the warm part of the year and the windows for winter. If I went with the second cutout I'd just need to rig some other mirrors on there.

I'll prolly go with the first, or something close to it.

about what I'm going for, but keeping the top half of the door...

I would go for the first one,trying to rig mirrors on is going to make it look messy. That red truck looks cool with the top of the frame chopped, makes appearance of being bigger. give a little extra sight when offroadin also. either way it looks fine

yeah... only reason I'm keeping the frame is so I can zip jeep-style windows into it. The top frame doesn't really sit any lower than the interior trim pieces in my truck anyway.

I made the rough cut for the first door. It's like the first pic above, but not cut nearly as low. The interior side of the door had to go too- because of all the holes and depressions and stuff I decided I'd be better off just making a new sheet metal skin for the interior. Problem is I will need to find one of those tools that rolls a bead into sheet metal to stiffen it. So right now it is a very empty looking door. Plus side is that it's very easy to hammer out dents!

I wouldn't worry so much about trying to get some sort of zippered window thing... its gonna cost a pretty penny unless you got a sewing machine, and even then the DOT clear vinyl is still pricey (unless you get a deal and a half, your half door covers are gonna be ~$150)... i'd just hack 'em up, keep the mirrors, but lose the top half and suck it up if the seats get a little wet.

Crap, I hadn't considered whether the vinyl windows would be DOT legal. The cheap stuff I was looking at is plain rolled vinyl at $10-$15 per yard at 54" wide (http://www.canvasdealer.com/clear_vinyl.asp towards the bottom). I have a couple friends at boatyards and canvas shops if I needed more expensive stuff. Can you tell me anything about what's DOT acceptable and what's not? I really want to have some kind of weather protection so that I can run the half doors for the entire summer and not have to swap doors often.

-Eric

i went to a place in c-burg to price out a canvas topper, a la can-back, and to put one decent sized dot clear vinyl window in was gonna run ~$80 in materials... total including materials was gonna be about $350. i'd figure each side will cost you about $80 materials and labor. seriously, i'd just try and make the doors as quick release as possible. it takes me about 10-15 mins to swap mine out by myself. most toy guys just notch out the top hinge and make the doors drop on... 3 mins with a grinder and you're done. if you've got power windows and locks, just get a multi-pin connector and splice it in.

Made a steel run today. In the last pic I'm using the paper to make a template. I got 22ga steel, which is kinda cookie-sheet, but I think it will be okay once it's all welded together. I would've liked to roll a couple beads into it to stiffen it up, but that tool's still on my wish list.

By the way, this is my first time working with sheet metal.

My dad commented that these will offer less protection from foreign objects coming at me. I guess he meant Nissans or somethin. Neither of my parents are at all into cars or trucks or anything cool, and they never really understand why I do things.

Where is your door latch/handle? Or are you gonna cut it in once you weld it up all nice and stuff?

leach

the second thing you said. I was gonna cut a speaker hole too, but I worry that with the thin thin metal it will sound shitty.

Where did you find the pic of the first gen?I have some extra doors around and that looks killer.Ever figure out what you will do about windows?