Removing Door

[Old Bleu]

I want to replace my outer rocker panels because of rust in the flange that the door weatherstrip mounts on. I think it will be easier if I remove the doors. I've been advised that I should remove the doors by unbolting the hinges from the cab. By removing the upper cowl, I can easily get to the upper hinge, but I don't see how I can get to the lower hinge to unbolt it from the cab without removing the fender.

Any thoughts on this? It would sure be easier to unbolt the door from the hinges, but I don't want to have problems getting it aligned when I put it back on. I've read that some have drilled 1/8" holes through the hinge and door and then insert 1/8" drill bits to realign things. Does this sound like a reasonable compromise?

Thanks for any thoughts or advice.

Tim

[AcampoDave]

You can get those bolts but it's hard. You need to remove the bottom fender bolt (down there in the rust pocket.) This will allow just enough flex to gain acces with a wrench. Maybe you could also mark the hinge positions with that spray on blue stuff machinists use for marking metal, then you could just wash it off when you're done.

[bj383ss]

I just removed my doors and used the drill bit trick. I also removed the front fenders so no help there.



The front fenders are real easy to remove. You don't have to remove anything else except the cowl piece which you will already have off.

Bret

[BigDan3131]

Unless your bolts have never been touched or welded themselves in place with rust like mine.

[slorio]

Tim:
When I replaced my rockers, I kept the doors in place. The benefit of doing so was to make sure I had the rockers lined up with the same door gap across the bottom of the opening. If you decide to take the doors off, you lose this ability. Make sure you take good measurements from the top of the doorway before you cut the old rocker out if you do remove the doors.
Regards,
Steve

[1963c-10]

You can always leave the lower hinge on and remove the bolts from the door.

[Old Bleu]

Thanks for all the information guys! To think this all started with just cutting a hole in the floor for my T5 shifter.

I was thinking the just removing the outer rocker panels woudn't alter the door opening. I am hoping that the inners are intact ans will only need some clean up and primer, but guess I will see.

As '63 suggested, I may remove the top hinge at the cab and then the bottom from the hinge after drilling that 1/8" hole for reference.

[rideblue00]

Aligning doors isnt that hard. I did it without any help too. They came out pretty close.

[61K10]

I took a center punch and marked my hinge corners.