suicide doors
 

I know at least a couple of you used hinges from a mid 70s jeep grand wagoneer for your suicide doors.


I've got the hinges and it seems pretty straight forward on how to install them(thanks to a couple articles that where posted in other threads), how ever I have a couple questions,,,,

1 how far from the outter body did you mount the hinge. I measured on the jeep and the pocket was 1.5 inches from the outter skin. should i stay with this or move it slightly out(1/4" - 1/2") for alittle more room when the door is open? good placement of the hinges is my biggest concern with doing this.

2 how did you reinforce your door after you installed the jeep hinges? I was thinking after the jeep hinges were installed about connecting the two mounts inside the door with 1/4 flat stock and running a v with 3/4" dom tubing from the center of the flat stock. one leg to the upper corner under the wing window and the other leg to the lower corner. any other ideas or suggestions?

3 do I need to reinforce the cab where the new hinges are? I was thinking if I need to , of using a 1/4 flat stock backing plate and attaching braces from the flat stock to the rear cab wall? I was kind of thinking about enclosing the corners(from the floor to the lower window edge) anyway with 20ga and mounting speakers in it. that would strengthen the door jamb in itself. maybe use 12 or 16 ga to enclose the corners?

:hmm:

would love to hear any suggestions about useing these hinges and supporting/reinforcing the doors and cab

pics would be great

thanks in advance

Frank

Re: suicide doors
 

I have not done this yet but here are some pics I save for one day.
Yes I would try and reinforce the doors as much as you can and same with the cab corner. The factory did alot of reinforcing of the doors and if you have a bad door I would sugest you chop it open to see what was done and you might find some things you can copy. As for the corner you will need alot more suport if you want this to be trouble free and last for years. Again I have no pics of what to do here but you want to tie as much of the corner and rear cab into this suport to stop any flex. Have fun with it and keep us posted. Also you did get the hinges off a two door and not a four door right?

Kevin
LFD Inc.

Re: suicide doors
 

yes they are off of a two door, whats the difference between the two door and four door?


and because I know someone will post it,,,,,,,,,,two doors is the differennce :lol:

the two door hinges abit more stought?


thanks for the pics I saved those from a search I did as well. That thread is the reason I went and got the jeep hinges instaed of buying a kit.

thanks for the pics and the advice. after seenin your work rokcrln,,, I wouldn't mind payin you to to do it.do you offer free pick up and delivery in the lower 48? :lol:

I want to have the doors swinging backwards by the end of january so i'll keep you posted on how things go. I'll try and get pics of it in the process.

Frank

Re: suicide doors
 

The two door ones open up a full 90* or almost as were the 4 doors only open like 60*. Were did you get your hinges? I need a set but do not feel like hitting all the yards looking for a slop free set. Does any one know if you can still buy these new from anyone?

I was thinking about it last night or was it this morning (2am:crazy: ) and the best way to start the B post would be to make a card board templete that fit inside the post tight to the back side where the hinge will bolt to. Then transfer this to a piece of 3/16" or 1/4" plate and weld it to the post. You will be able to tap it for your bolts and then brace off to it for more strength. You can run a plate at floor heigth that ties into the floor and teh bottom of the new post plate then do the same thing up at rear window heigth. This would be a great start for reinforcing this area. Find me a set of hinges and I will send you pics of what else to do;) Before I forget make sure all your rust work is done and your doors and fender fit perfect before starting this mod or it will be a pain in the arss later!

The pic is my best PAINT work I can do but it shows yellow as the main plate you should add then the Blue is the sopt welds to hold it into place and teh Pink shows were to do your main suporting then add more were you can. Your 16 ga idea for closing off the pillar would work well as added suport but keep in mind what I would do is tap the plate for your hinge bolts then once the door is hung and adjusted were you want it I would back it up with nuts on the back side. Good luck.

Kevin
LFD Inc.

Kevin
LFD Inc.

Re: suicide doors
 

This quick post may not be helpful, but a member here was working on this about a year ago when I first started heavily using the forum and he had a post in this forum with lots of pictures and info on reinforcing them with latches and whatnot so they don't fly open while driving down the road. I cannot remember who it was? The search feature might be useful in tracking it down (just search for "suicide doors" and look for a post from 8-16 months ago).

Re: suicide doors
 

the backing plates are exactly what I was talking about. I hadn't thought about the upper and lower plates though.


apparently I got lucky,,, I grabbed the first pair of hinges that were tight. it happened to be a 2door. there may have been one or two other 2 door wangoneers down there,several 4doors and a even a couple trucks. are the truck hinges the same as the 2door or the 4 door? I will go down there this weekend and see if there are any other 2 door wagoneers with good hinges. I might pull a set from a 4 door and see how hard it would be to make them open a little further. because they are stamped steel it shouldn't be to hard to mod them to open a little further.

Re: suicide doors
 

ok frank looks like we got some work in the future to look foward to thanx rokcrin for the info we share the same but slighty different ideas in what we want our trux to look like...
Rob

Re: suicide doors
 

Hey Frank you forgot the B/B blazer in your list of projects

Re: suicide doors
 

Nsane68 Is The Guy Who Did The Suicide Doors..

Re: suicide doors
 

thats the thread I saw those pics from originally. it looks like he's done a pretty clean job on his. I did actually get out into the garage today with the hinges and the cab. the backing plate on the door jamb, the upper and lower plates are very good ideas instead of putting the second plate on the rear wall of the cab im thinking it should go at the back of the hinge for the third bolt and weld to the upper and lowers. along with the the 16ga to enclose the corner should make it pretty strong.

Re: suicide doors
 

well I got the doors mounted and aligned, door handles, locks and mirror holes filled and smoothed. I will start the rear door jamb probably tomorrow afternoon. get it cut open and smoothed before the hinges go in.

also filled in the gas filler hole while I was in the area.


just a quick update


Frank

Re: suicide doors
 

Better start posting pic's if you know whats good for ya!! :lol:

Kevin
LFD Inc.

Re: suicide doors
 

those hinges look like they would work well on the hood too , maibe an idea for the lowered framelaying 20+ inch rimtrucks here

Re: suicide doors
 

cool idea

Re: suicide doors
 

my digital died. I was gonna try and barrow one and get some pics. i'm gonna have to get some soon because I was thinking about doing a write up with pics.


I ended up removing the passenger door and changing the factory hinges. there was a bit of slop in the ones that were on there and it wouldn't adjust right.
between removing the door and reinstalling it with differant hinges and sanding both doors some more that is about all I got done on it today.
I should be off work early all this week(around 130) so I should be able to get the door jambs cut out and new plates welded back in. before I started the door conversion for what ever reason I had it set in my mind that there wasn't THAT much involved. guess I was wrong! everytime I look at it there is something else to cut out and smooth for it to be as clean as possible. thats part of the fun! guess i'll get back to it tommarrow afternoon.

Re: suicide doors
 

I suppose if you mounted them in your cowl area you could use them for hood hinges aswell. I don't see why it wouldn't work. personally I like rokcrln's forward flip hood. just my .02 though

would be interesting in seeing it done.

Re: suicide doors
 

dunno wat it is with you guys and those digicams i have one of the first ever a HP 1 megapixel digital cam its bout 9 years old now eats the power out of 4 penlights rather fast but it has never let me down yet its only slow .... you need to wait for a second to get the pic and another second to load it on the memorycard

Re: suicide doors
 

I think we have the similar cameras. mine is about 7 years old and acts about how you described. and is also a HP

in my case though I think it was more the fact my kids wouldn't leave it alone than a camera issue. I can still take pics with it but the pics are extremely pixilated and fuzzy. thats how they are viewed on the screen and how they download. the lense apparently gave up the ghost or is sliding in the grave. up until last month it has never given me any problems other than eatting batteries like there is no tomorrow

Re: suicide doors
 

it just might be a settings thing ......i believe there is a setting for getting the most pics on the memorycard you might want too scroll through the menu first to see if that gives any relieve before getting a new one

Re: suicide doors
 

i'll give it a shot and see what happens

Re: suicide doors
 

didn't make a difference at all . its done

Re: suicide doors
 

well I got a little done today. the passenger door jamb is smoothed and the new hinges are in. thats as far as I got before the truck decided it was time to "bond"!

after getting the hinges in I walked across the inside of the cab to the drivers side.I wanted to double check a measurement. when I tried to come back to the passenger side apparently I felt my head needed to fill the exact space where the rear view mirror was!!!!

the glass and the plastic/rubber trim had already come off and was laying on the dash so what remained was an empty sheet metal shell.

did I mention SHARP sheet metal shell?

as you guessed it,,,,,,, after sitting in the ER for a couple hours getting 13 stitches and a tetanus shot(been about 12 years since the last tetanus shot,,,the last time I needed stitches) I didn't get much else done today.

I did go over to a friends house and got his passenger door on and aligned for him.

I'll get pics up tomorrow night of the progress so far.


Frank

Re: suicide doors
 

glad your alright..man those tetanus shots hurt..i hate them...wel hope you feel better,,and get more done over the holidays...

Re: suicide doors
 

the last shot for tetanus they put in my upper leg they trew in the needle like it was a dart it felt like they put a big mable between a muscle and a nerve i dreath the day i have to get another one , hope you face will heal up whell .
put some foam and tape over that mirror .

whell you know wat those brai........not so smart kids on skateboards say : pain is good, chicks dig scars

Re: suicide doors
 

Would these hinges work to do suicide doors on a 64-66 and a 75?

Re: suicide doors
 

these hinges should work fine on 64-66 and 75 trucks. its all a matter of carefull planning and as stated above make patterns of everything before cutting

Re: suicide doors
 

ok so here are some pics of the passenger side. for what ever reason the pics before this point didn't come out very well so i'll have to get some of the drivers side

http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p...sdoorjamb4.jpg

http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p...sdoorjamb3.jpg

http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p...sdoorjamb2.jpg

http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p...sdoorjamb1.jpg

I still need to cut the reinforcment plates for the back of the jamb but I can make a pattern from the jamb now that I have the holes cut.

Re: suicide doors
 

and here is what you get if your careless and have a captian dumba** moment

http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p...9/stitches.jpg

Re: suicide doors
 

I didn't get hardly anything done today. made the door buckets today, just waiting on the snow to stop so I can hang/align the door and cut the holes for the buckets.

tomorrows plan,,,
get the hinges in the drivers side
cut the hole in the backing plates for the hinges on the drivers side
weld the backing plates/support plates together

if I get that done tomorrow all i'm waiting on is the weather to clear up a bit so I can push it out and align the doors again.( man it kinda sucks working in a small one car garage sometimes) once the doors are aligned again I can cut the doors and get the buckets welded in. put my window channels back in and figure out the supports inside the doors.

kinda thinking about using s10 latches, i've heard alot of people complaining about the aftermarket bearclaw latches.
whatever latches I use ,I'm thinking about reverseing those aswell.
put the latch portion on the cab and the striker bolt on the door. it will be alot easier to attach an emergency cable this way, so i'm not locked out if my battery dies. i'll have to go looking at the junkyard tomorrow and see what I can come up with.

anyone have thoughts on the latches?

Frank

Re: suicide doors
 

wow nice gash. little bit of jb weld will fix ya right up. lol sorry man i've been there myself. i had a run in with a grinder last winter.

as for your s10 latches, it sounds like a pretty straight forward idea and would make it easier to adjust everything. just make sure you put a plate in the door behind the striker to both hold it together and as a precaution against a side inpact. something as small as 4in x 4in would be plenty.
ondrew

Re: suicide doors
 

this has become project "stitches"!

the last time I worked on it was in between my kids births and I ended up with 14 in my chin,,, now 13 in my head,,,,:crazy: well like I said thats what happens when you have a captian dumba** moment

I have to agree on the reinforcement piece on the striker bolt.
i'm going to wonder around the jy tomorrow and see what looks like it will work the best for what I want to do. at this point s10 latches are looking like the ones but we'll see


Frank

Re: suicide doors
 

Love the Frankenstien look :lol::banghead: :lol:
Seroiusly though, work lookin good

Re: suicide doors
 

:lol: chicks dig scars!!:metal: well mine does anyway


Frank

Re: suicide doors
 

I went to the jy yesterday and picked up the S10 latches for 10.00 a pair and the doors seals for 5.00 a pair

the S10 seals are about 1" to short ,,,no big deal I can hide that in the back.
for all those doing this make sure you get the 2 door seals as the 4 doors have smaller doors.

I know I know the thread is worthless without pics! I am going to get a new digital camera this week so there should be some new pics soon.


Frank

Re: suicide doors
 

here are some new pics. these things will be swinging backwards by the end of the week end! bracing inside the doors, welding the pockets to the doors and they will be off the stock hinges

http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p...69/hinges1.jpg

http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p...k69/hinges.jpg

http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p...69/hinges2.jpg

http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p...69/hinges3.jpg

http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p...69/hinges4.jpg

Re: suicide doors
 

looks good , can you still adjust the doors with those hinges ?
it could happen the doors sag forwarth once you disconneted the original hinges

Re: suicide doors
 

Loking good so far! The only thing I would recomend is bracing your plates off to anything but the exterior body. I see you have the plates cut to match the body contour and I do not know if you planned on welding them or not. If you do you will get stress marks showing up on the out side at some point and time. The yellow would be added plate to weld to the floor and upper interior brace. The red is the weld locations. Just my un-asked for .02 but what the hell I had some left over from that Christmass bonus $1 I got:lol:

Kevin
LFD Inc.

Re: suicide doors
 

Looking good so far ;)

Re: suicide doors
 

watahyahknow,, yes there is some adjustment with those hinges. to try and help to eliminate sag when the factory hinges come out i'm welding in an x brace from the new hinge pockets to the old hinge points. the first one will have a little preload tention build into it.

Rokcrln,, don't apologize for putting in your .02! part of the reason I started a thread and have been posting pics is for the input. i've seen alot of great work from the members of this board and welcome any ideas. everything from custom scratch built frames to unbelievable bodywork and everything inbetween

I was going to weld to the back wall, but I agree with the stress marks point and will probably go with your idea. at this point I had a friend put all his weight on them (weighs 250ish) while I held up a straight edge next to the jamb and couldn't see any flex in the jamb area at all with the hinge open all the way, open halfway and closed. as soon as the doors are working correctly I have both rockers and the passenger cab corner to replace. then i'll weld in the lower plates to the floor. I know I should have done the corner and rockers first,,, what can I say I got anxious to do the doors!

and thanks for all the encouragement from everyone.

Frank

Re: suicide doors
 

well I got the passenger door swinging but I still need to get it outside so I can open the door all the way and make sure nothing hits. doesn't look like there will be any issues at this point.

I did run into an issue with the door sagging due to the amount of inner door that I cut out. :crazy: but I got that taken care of. still need to clean up a couple spots with a grinder but had to stop and get something to eat. if all goes well it shouldn't be a problem getting the driver side done tomorrow and pushed outside to open the doors up.

I'll get pics up as soon as I can get it outside with the doors open.:metal:


Frank