Suicide Doors for Kaiser

By -

The suicide door hinges arrived from Electric-life and after several unsuccessful tries at mocking up the rear doors on the car I decided to just cut it and get it over with.


An opening in the rear of the door frame where the latch use to be was cut. When the new hinge was tried in the hole it hit the inside of the wheel well, that also had to be cut.

The mounting plate was trimmed down and fit into the opening then leveled vertically, and horizontally (be sure to set the car up level on stands before starting) and clamped into place. I made templates for the support plates that fit to the door frame on one side and to the inner fender support on the other side, cut and fitted support plates the tack welded it all in place. The hinge was bolted into place keeping it centered in the mounting holes to allow maximum adjustment and double checked that the hinge arm was level in both open and closed position.


A hole was cut in the end of the door then slide the hinge over and into the door opening. With the door & hinge in the permanent position the support plate supplied with the kit was tried in several positions until the most accessible for welding and that gave the most support was found. The trimmed down and bolted to the hinge arm.

Before welding anything I put the glass channel back in the door where it hit the hinge arm and support plate. After more trimming and fitting for clearance of the glass channel, the support plate was tack welded on.

I supported the door and opened it with everything just tack welded and found that it would only open about 75% before hitting the side of the car and the rear vent window point on the rear of the door hit and scrapped on the car when opening and closing.


The directions said to put the hinge pin as close to the outside of the car as possible and I found that I could move the hinge about 3/4" before it hit the inside of the rear fender. After welding the hinge mounting plate and support into place permanently I welded up the bolt holes and drilled and tapped new ones 3/4" to the outside of the car. Also had to cut the mounting plate using a cut off wheel and sawzall.

I re-installed the hinge and door and tried opening it again. The door opened to 90 degree but the vent window point still scrapped. I could not move the hinge any further so to solve this problem I cut off an Inch of the door point and welded it to the body retaining the same line and shape of the door point at the vent window.

After the other door hinge is installed I will tackle the door latches.

MORE LATER ----

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

By -
Image
  CHOPPED 51 FOR SALE By  Ron's Hot Rods   -  August 19, 2019 We are considering selling our very special 51 Ford 4 door that has been heavily modified.  We have won multiple awards including Grand National Radical Hardtop 2nd place and Sacramento Autorama Radical Hardtop 1st place.  All information regarding complete build and description available upon request.  Contact Ron Austin via email:  austinpeakrd@gmail.com or comments in blog post. Paint - Sky Blue with Sunset Flames, Custom designed flames with pin stripping, Top chopped 3", lengthened 4", rain gutters removed, Hood peaked & louvered, Nosed, decked, door handles & side trim removed, seams filled, Gas filler relocated, Headlights frenched, Fire wall & inner finders filled and smoothed, Bumpers filled, One piece front & back glass custom made, Custom made rear & trunk floor pans, Bottom of car finished and painted, Hand formed interior trunk panels, One piece door gla...
Read more

RV shelter mezzine extension and inclouser

By -
Image
 I guess I was on a roll after the solar project as I continued to look for an additional project to use up some of the materials that has been collected over the years. The largest being the 4'X8' & 4'X10' AIRLIGHT building panels from Wanessa-Sue Inc. that are the same construction as the ones used for the caboose project, posted a few years ago.  The RV Shelter is completely home made from 2' heavy wall conduit for posts and trusses, 2x4's, and Home Depot metal siding and roof panels. The side and end wall have been insulated with 5 1/2" panels that were free from Wanessa-Sue as they were flawed and not sellable. The existing mezzine is 20' wide by 8' deep built in 2007 that has been used for storage and car restoration projects. The concrete slab is 20' X 10' and we were going to extend it 20' but decided the cost was too much. A Laser level was used to get the elevation level correct for the 10'exrension to the next 2' p...
Read more

Solar Project

By -
Image
Our existing solar system is 20 years old and needed to be updated. I contacted Wind and Solar (NAZ Solar) in Flagstaff for advice and cost for a new system and they recommended a Hybrid Sol-Ark inverter with 400-watt solar panels and had all components in stock. We ordered the new system, and I started taking the old one down. Existing main panel with solar disconnect. Old solar panels. Existing 3000 watt inverter. Next 3 is the existing 20 year old panels. Existing 18 panels are 175 watt. It took 2 weeks to take the existing system down and to receive the new components. New 18–400-watt panels are 5' 8' tall and 3' 8' wide and too large for me to handle myself. My son and 2 of my grandsons came from California over the weekend to put the new panels in place. New Sol-Ark 15K inverter and battery system. Below is the existing support system that was reused. Hope this new system will last another 20 years.
Read more