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Hotrodders.com Project of the Week
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Part 8: Suicide Doors
(Click photo to enlarge)Here's the passenger side door jamb. I cut the recessed areas on the jamb to mount the hinges here so they look factory. The section of box tubing is the quarter post reinforcement/hinge mount. It gets welded into the jamb area behind the quarter skin, and gives me a solid structure to hang the doors from.
Left and right side box tubing sections for hinge mounts. I re-used the original hinges and they went back in on the rear with the same general placement as they had up front.
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(Click photo to enlarge)The front post, showing the hinge mounts. I simply copied the dimension from jamb face to the hinge mounting surface, for proper depth. I also tried to locate the hinge pins as far out as practical, using these as a guide. Since the doors swung out and away from the fenders, I reasoned by duplicating the hinge placement in the B-pillar, the doors would work as well as stock.
The rear face of the door. This will need the hinge mounting slots cut in to duplicate what is already up front.
(Click photo to enlarge)
(Click photo to enlarge)The B-pillar, with the hinge mount welded in and the hinges bolted up. These have slotted holes to allow for in-out adjustment, and I can shim if needed for up and down at the front of the door.
Hinge placement at the door-closed position. Now I have an idea where to cut the slots in the rear face of the door.
(Click photo to enlarge)
(Click photo to enlarge)Inside shot of the support structure. The tubing is tacked to the inside of the quarter skin at the top, and to the rocker reinforcement at the bottom. You can see easily in this pic that the hinges maintain the as-stock positioning inboard of the B-pillar for a proper door swing.
I measured from the hinge face to the outer skin of the quarter panel, centered on each hinge arm, and duplicated these depth measurements on the door face. I used a straightedge to mark the cut line, then drilled holes and some more cutting to make the hinge pockets. They look the same as stock.
(Click photo to enlarge)
(Click photo to enlarge)With the door in place on the body, and the hinges in the closed position, I transferred the mount holes to a cardboard pattern, then cut out 2 identical mount plates from 14 gauge sheet. The panel was put into place in the door, welded from the inside and flush on the jamb area, the welds ground, and the door reinstalled so I could transfer the bolt holes with an ordinary pencil. I then removed the door, drilled and tapped the mounting holes, and reinstalled the door.
Looks like stock. What cannot be easily seen in this pic is the door gaps are a little off with the weight on the hinges, I'll shim the bottom hinge from the quarter support to compensate. I plan to copy the hole pattern from a hinge to some pieces of sheet, and just drill some holes and they are ready to bolt in. I plan to make up 4 thin ones and 2 thick ones, that should be enough and I'll just keep whatever spare shims are left.
(Click photo to enlarge)
(Click photo to enlarge)Now THAT'S the way the doors on a Kustom are supposed to open. Looks like I have a few more holes to fill.
Halfway open. Once I have the doors adjusted right, I have a set of Audi door latches and pins to install in these. The set on the '28 have never popped open on the road, these should work much better than the stockers.
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(Click photo to enlarge)All the way open, look how easy it will be to get in. The door opens wider this way, since I cut the slots in the B-pillar a bit wider than the original A-pillar holes were.
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