Removing Doors

[Sinister]

Is it possible to remove and replace doors by myself, or should I line up some help? Early Classic's tech tip says you can do it by yourself with a floor jack.

[Fitz]

How much patience do you have? There is a trick a friend showed me about doing this by yourself. If you drill a small hole through your hinge into the door when you re-install the door aligning this new hole and the bolts that hold the door on it is straightforward to re-install the door in the same position as it was in before you took it off. Inserting a nail, piece of welding rod or any small rod acts as an alignment pin for the door making aligning it to the body by yourself much easier. The only problem is actually drilling the hole...takes half a lifetime and you need to do both hinges.

[txriverrat]

It's possible, but much preferred to have another person, especially if your doors are in good shape and you're worried about scratches, dings, etc. I pulled my doors off by myself by basically rolling down the window, opening the door, and setting the top of the door frame on my shoulder for support while I unbolted the hinges.

Course, I'm also just shy of 7 ft tall too, so that technique might not work for everyone.

[Sinister]

Thanks for the input guys. Lol, I don't think my shoulder will reach the top of the door frame. Might just get some help for this.

[leddzepp]

Sin- If you can get help, I recommend it. I have done it by myself with a floor jack, but it sucked. Much less chance of scratching it up or dropping it with some help. I marked my hinge locations with a sharpie so I could re-align them. The above idea with drilling a hole is cool too. Are you replacing your hinge pins and bushings?

[Sinister]

Originally Posted by leddzepp

Sin- If you can get help, I recommend it. I have done it by myself with a floor jack, but it sucked. Much less chance of scratching it up or dropping it with some help. I marked my hinge locations with a sharpie so I could re-align them. The above idea with drilling a hole is cool too. Are you replacing your hinge pins and bushings?

Hey, Scott. Yeah, I'm rebuilding the hinges. Would like to get it done ASAP, but might wait til I can get somebody over here. Still waiting on the kit to show up anyway. Turp, sounds good. My paint isn't great so no problems there. Still debating whether to do it myself.

[turp mcspray]

I've done this alone for years. I work for myself so I have to figure out how to do a lot of 2 man jobs alone. I use my knee instead of a floor jack. I hang freshly painted fenders and doors all the time, by myself. However, I would recomend getting the hang of it on stuff that doesn't have nice paint!

[Erl]

I use my engine lift with a strap around the top of the door.

[lks dcvn]

I do it by myself - I also drill holes in both hinges to line it back up...

removal by yourself = not bad
putting them in by yourself = not fun but doable

If the fender is off and the door is latched at the B pillar - it will usually stay in place for your to take it off easily

I took it off the first time with a floor jack - then after having to rehang/remove the door a few more times on my Blazer - I just did it by hand and lifted the door into place and then lined up the door and bolted it back in...

[eagleuh1]

And another use for the engine lift. Good idea if you have the room on the side.

[piecesparts]

If you have a floor jsack that has a removable pad, then you could make a bar to sit in the hole and have it run up the indise face of the door. The initial seating surface would be the door's bottom, but the strap that goes up the inside face would be capable of hooking into the door's top opening (where the window goes up and down in). The whole assembly would hold the door to the jack. This way you have support and rolling control of the door and it is not on your shoulder.

[Sinister]

I went out and messed with it some. I think I'll be able to stick some jack stands underneath it to hold it up. Should be alright, not concerned about the paint. Thanks for all the replies.