Half Ambulance Doors

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fjgoober

fjgoober

10 Year
Joined
Jan 12, 2012
Threads
23
Messages
620
Location
Kansas
Website
www.fj40dash.com
Someone asked if I would start a thread on this. I have a 78 and installed earlier lower "barn doors" when I took my top off I had containment in the rear tub. Since then I've kept my top off as too much hassle to take off barn doors install top and install ambulance doors. I saw this picture. THIS IS NICE.

However, I can never imagine my 40 ever looking this pristine as tree and rock encounters might blemish the paint!!!! RATTLE CAN for me.
Deckers_FJ40_Half_Ambulance_Doors.webp
 
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I knew I had to do something similiar. Now keep in mind I ride the daylights out of my 40 and rattle can covers up a lot of oh ***** shouldn't have done that. So I was never going to go to this good of finish but I wanted something I could use duck/goose hunting and tear up.

Measured approximate 25 5/8" down outside of door and cut through both sides of door.

Keep in mind that I have redone this whole tub and you will want to dry fit for yourself on the measurements, however I went approximately 5/8 half inch below the break/bend in the sheet metal.

Do you realize that 4 out of 3 people have problems with fractions.
25 58inches.webp
25inches.webp
 
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On the inside I measure 1 1/4" back and cut the inside of the door keeping the longer outside of the door. As I'm writing this I realize I should have taken more pictures to help with the explanation. You want the inside 1 1/4" shorter than the outside of the door for clearance.

Also notice the inside door handle. I will have to modify this in order for the door to shut and open.
Shorter inside side.webp
 
Lower Hinges

:beer:Got to be honest here. At first I just wanted to slap the hinges on and weld them to the topper. Quick......15 minutes and I'm done and can move on to the many other projects.

However I knew that it would rust and there was no way of protecting the topper underneath the hinges. Dang!!!!

As you can see in the picture the side of the back of the top was rusted completely through anyways.

BTW ignore the beverage choices in the background of the picture.:beer::beer::beer:
bottom sill.webp
 
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Cut the side walls and bent the sheet metal back to expose the inner and outer walls. Measure the distance from the inside door jamb to the inside of the top hinge and mocked up lower hinge with clamps. Drilled all four holes.

The plan is to run a bolt through each hole and weld a nut on the backside. Did something very similiar when building lower tub. Here's a picture of the cut out of side wall. Oh did I mention this is a HVAC project. High Volume Alcohol Consumption project.:beer::beer::beer:
bottom sill cut out.webp
 
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"dad" did that to my friend kim's cruiser back in 95 or so. thought i had a pic, but can't find it. subzali has that cruiser now tho and i don't think he's changed anything. you might hit him up to see if he has any info to offer.
 
Nuclearlemon,

Pretty far into this project. Actually have both doors mounted and inside handle welded up for opening/closure. My cell phone started messing up so I have not taken any more pictures but will in the following days.

I have a buddy that has a sheet met shop. Next week I will go by and have him brake the sheet metal to enclose the bottom of the inner and outer skins. I have looked at purchasing a cheap break however a 30 pack of milller lite goes a long way with this guy.
 
I was just rereading what I had posted so far. If you have acess to the internal floating metal clips like OEM uses it will allow for adjustment of the hinge. Since I have none of these, I opted to just weld nuts (6mm) on backside of wall. Question, do autobody guys still have access to these. Anymore, they don't do as much rebuilding as they used to. I know that fenders on some vehicles it's just cheaper and quicker to order an aftermarket replacement one than rebuild one.

Will post pics next week.
 
I ran a nut up on the bolt then through the wall of topper and secured a nut on the inside of the wall to where the top of the bolt was just flush with the top of the nut. The reason is there is not much room and I didn't want weld splatter to get on the threads of the bolt or nut.
Inside fluse nut.webp
outside flush nut.webp
 
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The last picture shows after welding two nuts. Notice the nice black from the next rattle can project. Maybe should have grinded the paint off first? Smell some bondo burning as well!!

Still have yet to make it down to the sheet metal shop to brake some steel for encapsulating the bottom cut outs. Looking at purchasing a brake myself. Found one on Craigs List and will take a look at it Saturday.
 
Finished attaching both hinges on the topper. Next came the handle for the rear latch. Cut the handle off at the first vertical bend rotated it 90 degrees and welded it to the the side. Now it clears the lower tailgate on closure.:)
inside door handle.webp
 
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Instead of cutting open the top to get the hinge bolts situated how about drilling through all the way and welding in tube/sleeves. Then run your hinge bolts through the sleeves. The nut will be on the inside and the sleeve will keep the top sheet metal from crushing when you torque the bolt and then use the doors.
 
Woytovich,

Good idea.

Several of us sat around talking about how to fasten the hinges (You can see the result of that in the empty beverage containers laying around). One of the guys suggested that bushing and all, but I didn't like the nut and bolt being exposed on the inside of the cab. Like I mentioned above I almost went with welding the hinges to the topper.

As an after thought I wish I would have fabricated up a sheet metal plate on the inside to allow the stress of the the nut over a larger surface area. Toyota accomplishes this by the slider plates/clips on the inside that gives a larger surface area to carry the load as well as giving you the ability to slightly adjust the mounting location of the bolts.

The sheet metal was going to need to be replaced anyways. Oddly enough on the top right hinge two of the nuts on the interior side wall had rust out and I had drilled them out to all the way through with a nut exposed on the inside of the cab. I have beat myself up about this numerous times as I hate looking at the exposed nut and bolt. During this project I cut that area open as well and fixing that.
 
woytovich said:
Instead of cutting open the top to get the hinge bolts situated how about drilling through all the way and welding in tube/sleeves. Then run your hinge bolts through the sleeves. The nut will be on the inside and the sleeve will keep the top sheet metal from crushing when you torque the bolt and then use the doors.
Click to expand...

You have me thinking.

A guy could put a plastic cap on the eposed bolt and it probably wouldn't look that bad. This would be a really good approach if someone didn't have access to a welder. One would just need to drill the first hole smaller than the bushing to accept the 6 mm bolt then drill only the outer wall the size of the bushing and let the bushing suck up against the inner wall and the hinge.

I bet that would be a bear though, trying to get all four bolts and bushings set up while mounting the hinge. You would have to feed them all at the same time unless I'm missing something on your approach.

Let me know your thoughts as I bet there are some people who would like to do something like this but do not have ready access to a welder.
 
Well I WAS thinking to tack weld the sleeve in place but I guess it could be done without welding. If you could find a flanged tube, like below, you could drill a hole for the OD of the tube on the inside of the top and a hole for the ID of the tube (or somewhat smaller than the ID) on the exterior. Make the tube the right length to push up against the inside of the exterior sheet metal when the flange is against the interior side of the interior wall of the top.
Sure would be a LOT easier if you can weld the tube in place.

style-60-tube-assembly-flanged-one-end--300x225.jpeg
 
A cap or cap nut would dress up the exposed bolt for sure. Once could even get fancier and make a little box to go over the bolts.
 
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