09-OCT-2012
Drivers door cap all tacked in place
I didn't think that the window slot would move as much as it did when I started tacking the door cap metal in place. Tacking these took a lot longer than I thought it would because of all the movement and the tight fit of my metal cap pieces but they came out really nice and the metal fit is perfect.
I'm still deciding whether to weld the cap on complete, I know that welding it completely will warp the whole door top but tacking it allows me to work one end then go all the way to the other end which will keep the heat down.
09-OCT-2012
Passenger door cap all tacked up
It took a while but both doors are finished and I'm pretty happy with how they turned out. I think that once I finish the bodywork on these that they will be nice half doors.
11-OCT-2012
Door caps fully welded
I felt that welding the door caps fully instead of just having numerous tacks holding down the new metal will have a better chance of not cracking later. I had both doors set up as the picture shows so that I could stitch weld each door alternately to keep the heat down. By doing this both doors remained straight with no warping.
14-OCT-2012
Mounts for upper doors/windows
I'm going to make some soft upper doors with zippered windows so I'll make the framework out of steel round stock. I'm going to beef up the top of the door where the round stock will go into the door. I'll plug weld pieces of 1" square tubing to the new metal on the doors.
14-OCT-2012
Bolted in place for welding
I cinched it up tight so I could get in there for some good plug welds.
14-OCT-2012
All supports welded in
I got all four of the backing supports welded in on both doors. Once I get the tubes cut and welded in the mounts should be good and strong.
14-OCT-2012
Receiver tubes cut and ready
The DOM tubes are cut to 4" long and ready to be welded in.
14-OCT-2012
Tube in place to be welded.
I will put a nice strong weld bead on the top of the tube once I square the tubes up. Then I will have to use the MIG and try to get a bead on the bottom side of the new tube support through the opening of the the door.
15-OCT-2012
Window support tube welded
I finished welding all of the window support tubes tonight, I TIG welded the top of the tube and I used a MIG on the bottom side of the tube only because I couldn't get my TIG torch down inside of the door.
Now I can proceed forward with the bodywork on the doors and finally be done with doors!
16-OCT-2012
Mirror mounts for the doors
I wanted to figure out a way to mount mirrors on the doors without drilling a bunch of holes so I came up with a mount that will bolt on to the upper hinge.
16-OCT-2012
Mirror mount fitted up
The mirror mount utilizes two of the upper hinge mounting bolts to fasten itself to the door.
16-OCT-2012
Mirrors mounted on mirror mounts
I picked up a set of round RideCraft mirrors for this build. The mirrors are a nice size, not too small and not some large mirrors off of a CJ.
The way the mounts are designed, the mirrors will be able to be folded in easily when not needed on the trails.