Wildgoody:
That is a nice truck:
The yellow crewcab we have is a 2 wd 1300. The original axle boke the R&P so we put a 1 1/2 ton ford dually rear end in it. worked great for hauling a 30' 5th wheel stock trailer, but we had to take the box off.
back to the topic
As requested Here are some more details on building the doors (hope its not too wordy)
-I took the windows out. Pass side was broke already, and all the hardware, Latch, window track, window regulator, etc.
-Next I took a grinder with a cutting wheel on it and cut off the upper window frame.
-I then marked out were I wanted to cut the door down. I angled down from the front just past the mirror mounts. I wanted to mount stock mirrors to it. I then went down and back to the creased body line just below the stock door handle.
-I cut on the dotted line using a jigsaw with a metal blade in it. When I got to the back part I had to use the grinder and cutting wheel again. The inside back part I had to go up about 1/4" to clear the door latch. I then cut the inside to match.
-Next I got some 22 ga steel and cut it 5" wide and bent it over at 3". this is light enough that I was able to cut it with the jig saw and bend it over by hand on the edge of a table. The 3" side goes on top and buts up to the outside of the door with the 2" overhang going to the inside and down to mount up.
-I then cut slits in the one piece and bent it over to match the contour of the door to make a 1 peice cap.
-I then went to my scrap pieces I had and cut out the outside door handles and marked them in for the new location. I then cut out a hole for them to go into with the jig saw. I Didn’t get exact. I overlapped them I just made sure I had enough room to clear door handle.
-I then welded the door handles back in. time consuming. I kept blowing holes in the sheet metal at first. I then finally got a process down of stitch welding and letting it cool, and got it all welded in. (My welding skills made it look like I used bubble gum to hold it on with in someplaces. Oh well that is what the grinder is for right. I got better as I went along.) I also had some trouble with the metal warping some. If you look at it closely you can see it below the handle. But I this is a trail rig, not a show car.
-once I got the handles in place I then marked out the linkage for the latch. I cut it near the handle where the adjustment is and turn it pointing up and weld it.
-I then finished fitting my sheet metal. Important. Make a cut out so you can access the latch.
-once the sheet metal was fitting. I then tack welded the cap to the outside only. I butt welded this. I then ground down the cap towards the front and top where it narrows up to match the door, and finished tack welding it in place. I only welded to the outside at this point. When I cut the doors apart they tended to lose some of their shape and warped. The bottom was warped out when the door was in the vehicle and would not latch correctly.
-I then put the door in the vehicle and held the door straight and used sheet metal screws to fasten the inside lip to the door. I put the lip to the outside of the door. I had to twist the bottom of the doors back in about ½� to get them straight again. Doing this made them rigid again and line up properly.
-after this I went back to finish welding the butt weld on the top outside edge. The passenger door I welded it the whole way using the weld and cool method. I still had some warpage problems though, and being I had to use the bondo anyway and the drivers side I just stitch welded it using short welds along the top, ground them down and covered it all up with bondo.
-The Drivers door ended up better than the passenger door. I did the passenger door first, and that one was bent up more too due to the vehicle I took it from was in a roll over. I’ll get them painted and mirrors on before memorial day. I may also add some padding to the top for an armrest, gotta keep comfy when on the trail.
Here are a few more pics. also
http://groups.msn.com/SiouxlandJeepScoutFJ404x4FunFactory/farmboysstuff.msnw?Page=2