Half Assed Half Doors........

**Swamp boy** · 03-23-2005, 10:49 AM

It started off much like many of my projects ...With an ill concieved idea and a shitty attempt at Photoshop....
And one of those....."What you guys think?" Post..

Then I set my plan into action with a sharpie and some precise sawzall cuts..
(well as precise as you can be with a sawzall...)
If you look closely you can tell that I cut out a section and left tabs that are big enough to fold over to the back panel of the door...

I cut the curved in portion off of the top section off where it narrows toward the window so that I could fold the rest in..
It all got folded over and tacked in place.. (You can finish weld at this point if you would like ..) then you cut off the inside panel of the door flush with your welds...

I cut a piece of 14gauge sheet metal out for the front section near the mirror and welded that in.. I also filled in all the little holes in the door that wherent covered by the sheet metal...

f you look closely at this picture you can see that I was not happy with the finished look at the back of the door so I cut out another piece of sheet metal and redid it...
Look at me Pimping the haf doors.. Kicked back and thinking about how cool I am going to be... (It didnt really work out like I planed.. )

Pretty much did the exact same thing on the other side...

This is followed by alot of grinding and some touch up welding to fill in any holes...

And of course the enevitable.....BONDO.......Passenger side...First coat of bondo...

Here is the drivers door after some serious grinding time.....

I added a piece of 1.5 pipe to each side to make a arm rest/ door brace..
You can see the piece of steel I added for the back of the door in this picture as well...

First coat of bondo on drivers door...

didnt get a lot of pictures but there are 3 coats of bondo.. Each sanded down till it was reasonably smooth ...Blah blah blah... you get the gist..

And here is the primered work of art...

Yes I made it to the Grand Opening sale at JC Penny's...

Then you just color match and you are done...
Simple as that...

Now for a few words of wisdom.........

1. Remove your mirrors ...

2. Cover all glass.. Inside and out.. (Hot metal will burn its way into glass and then rust... ) I have alot of tiny little rust spots on my passenger windshield and both mirrors..

3.Do all of your welding with the doors closed... (Heat tends to draw up the steel and shrink it some.. The door latch will keep the door nice and level and tight... (Ask me why I had to work so hard to get my drivers door to close good... And why I only have burnt spots on the passenger side windshield....)

4.. If you weld with your doors open a cleverly applied torch with a rose bud will make bending the door back to shape easier...( I intentionally left this out of the writeup. and you should try to skip this step it fucking sucked....)

5. Cover the dash carpet and seats very well before you start sanding bondo and grinding..(Use heavy painters tarps they are pretty cheap and you can reused them when you have to paint the house cause you r wife is pissed about all the time you have spent on your jeep...) Slightly dampening them periodically will keep them from catcing on fire and wasting your damn fire extenguisher.. (this will burn holes in the tarp and get paint on your new hardwood floors..Then your wife is pissed again...)
Might be safer just to cover the dash and remove the front seats...

6. If you suck at body work light I do.. Get a buddy who is good at it to come over and help out.. Have him pick up a 12 pack of whatever he drinks on the way.. (When he is drinking he forgets how long he has been sanding...)

7. When you start painting move your wifes car.. You are running out of rooms in the house to paint... Damnit...

I hope this has been informative and helpfull.. I doubt that to many people will attempt this but if you do.. Post up some pics so I can see if your buddy is better at body work than mine.....

When I finished.. I had a few "bad spots" on my seats so I bought these...(By "bad spots" I mean I set the fuckers on fire...)

Here is another tip... Dont drop a driveshaft on your big toe...

Damn you Tom Woods..

Beer will make it better...

Thats it ... You are done... Now you are coooooool....

**JeepinHank** · 03-23-2005, 11:32 AM

Informative and entertaining.

Doubt I'll be doing it anytime soon, but I know where to look if I ever do.

I loved the whole writeup until the "driveshaft on the toe" pic. I coulda done with out that.

I give it:

out of:

**ELLLLLIOTTTTT** · 03-23-2005, 12:15 PM

Originally Posted by JeepinHank

out of:

i agree

i got a couple doors from the junkyard the other week that i plan on starting on something like this. Mines gonna be just a tad bit different but now I know where to start. Thanks!

**BigDaveZJ** · 03-23-2005, 12:16 PM

Great writeup man!! Thanks for putting it up!

**Forwheelin49** · 03-23-2005, 02:32 PM

GOO that toe is gross, but great write up

**Swamp boy** · 03-23-2005, 05:16 PM

My toe is much better now.. And thanks for the compliments...

I do what I can Dave....

**OverkillZJ** · 03-23-2005, 08:55 PM

Great writeup, NASTY TOE!

**TrojanMan** · 03-24-2005, 12:46 AM

that last pic = most pimp ever.

**ELLLLLIOTTTTT** · 03-24-2005, 02:33 AM

Originally Posted by TrojanMan

that last pic = most pimp ever.

more like slightly disturbing

cajuns are grungy

**Swamp boy** · 03-24-2005, 06:37 PM

Hey...... I represent that remark...

**TrojanMan** · 03-26-2005, 01:54 AM

you could be a pirate carl..

..arrrr

**Swamp boy** · 03-26-2005, 01:58 AM

You should have seen me when I had the piece of metal go in my eye..

I had to have my cornea buffed to remove the rust ... And I wore and Eye patch for a week...

I must admit... I looked pretty cool with an eye patch...

**trailzj** · 03-26-2005, 11:17 AM

Man that rocks!

I thought I had my mind made up on making tube doors

Al

**AprilzWarrior** · 03-26-2005, 02:09 PM

Good write up....

Now get some damn boots... I dont want to hear anyone rag on Chase for wearing his sissy sandels, especially after seeing that picture.

YUK

**Swamp boy** · 03-26-2005, 02:43 PM

Funny thing was I wast really working on anything when I broke my toe..

I was sanding and having a few beers when my buddy came over to show me his shaft he had been having problems with... He picked it up to hand it to me and it slipped apart in the middle and the bottom landed on my toe....

MY daughter was standing right there and I tried to play it cool and just walked in to the bathroom and stuck my toe in the tub to clean it off...

Then drove myself to my doctors office...

I brought my Digi.. and actually took that picture at the doctors office..

He sent me to the emergency room since the bone was crushed and they just bandaged it .. And I had to go back to my doctor in one week ..
He would cut open the wound and clean it and wrap it back.. I had to do that for 5 weeks so that the bone could heal before they let the toe heal.. So that no infection would set in , in the bone.....

It sucked and I can tell you I do not go out to my garage for any reason without wearing steel toe boots anymore... I even wear them taking out the garbage...

And after having metal removed from my eye twice .. I wear safety glasses to do everything as well... I even invested in one of those big huge grinding shields...

Eyes and toes are important....

**Fry** · 10-19-2005, 11:04 PM

Originally Posted by Puma297

i agree

i got a couple doors from the junkyard the other week that i plan on starting on something like this. Mines gonna be just a tad bit different but now I know where to start. Thanks!

Gives me an Idea... I should do that to some junkyard doors and stick them on my DD for the summer...

**TrojanMan** · 12-07-2005, 07:34 AM

what did you do to latch them?

**ILikeMud** · 12-07-2005, 02:38 PM

I think Carl is using the stock latches.
I'm picking up some doors this Friday to chop up, can't wait. I'm gonna see if I can put CJ/YJ/TJ door handle on the outside though.

**LouisianaZJ** · 12-08-2005, 07:11 AM

he is using the stock latch assebly. all that was modiied was the inner latch was relocated and the connceting rod was bent so it would reach the new location

the outer handle was cut off except for the back section of it

**Swamp boy** · 12-09-2005, 12:15 AM

Sorry didnt see your post sooner.. They are correct.. I just cut the outside handle off and left a little piece that you can grab with your index.. (Sanded it smooth.. And even used a heat gun to give it a little curve...)

For the inside I bent the stock release rod til it cleared the cut out section then hooked it to the handle and manuvered the handle around till I found a suitable placefor it.. (there is a cut out that it fits in to the rear of the speaker... ) If you do your doors and you need some help with the inside handle I can take off my inner door panels and get you some pics...

Carl

**Swamp boy** · 12-09-2005, 12:18 AM

You can see the outer handle here ... And Look at those pimp ass rock lights...

**Sonar** · 12-09-2005, 05:27 PM

Swampy... that toe... sweet jeezus....

**Swamp boy** · 12-09-2005, 11:21 PM

If you think it looks bad.. You should know that it felt much much worse...

Beer only stopped the pain for a while..

**fsjtrash** · 07-25-2007, 12:39 PM

Is that a snorkel completely camo'd into the side? You're a sly one, my friend. I like it.

**canadian_driver** · 07-25-2007, 12:51 PM

holy cow 2 years old almost

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