Half Ambulance Doors

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I think you'll like it.

I drive mine daily but it's not really that bad. In fact I prefer it as it's very easy to utilize with the right top door. Never really open the other three.

It was a pain in the neck during a weekend outing when we a buddy and I took our kids out for the Big Meat Run. We would go from one place to another watching guys crawl around the rocks. Get to a place.....Open three doors for them to get out. Get bored want to go somewhere else.....Open three doors for them to get in.

I never wanted to play on the trails with the kids in the back due to I only have stock roll bar. Didn't feel very comfortable with the ROP it provides for two 14 year olds.

Bikersmurf....I hear you on the procrastination.

I really like the tailgate and I may have posted a picture here. Brother had one where he had storage compartment inside the tailgate. He loved it, used it for tool storage and it was lockable. I've seen pictures of other's on here and saw one this weekend. I meant to ask the guy if it was an aftermarket or if he fabricated it.
 
Made some progress...
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Yea, I saw that pic on the first post and was sold too. How are you guys planning to keep the top doors from coming open? The full doors has a latch at the bottom.
 
I got stopped by the nasty winter. Plans are to finish it up in the next couple of weeks.
 
I might just rely on the top catch although I was looking at relocating the one from the bottom...
 
To be honest my topper hasn't been on in a year. I tore up the 40 during Rocktober event and have been so busy didn't work on it all winter long. I do know I did some type of attachment/locking mechanism to the bottom doors. I can't remember how I did it though....Will try to remember to take pictures tomorrow and post.

I was busy during the evenings this past week putting a fzj80 front axle/differential with e-lockers under the 40. Saw a guy do something similar on here and he called it a fzj40. If memory serves me correct he put a fj40 body on a fzj80 frame/chassis. Should probably do a write up on it as I moved the front diff 8 inches forward. I love the approach angle vs. leaf. Wife forced me off that evening project to work on her former fzj80 (Has front and rear e-locking diffs which the truck should end back in my possession sometime......Hopefully) as she gave it to our middle daughter. She was not happy with the way it was so I now have to get it so the daughter and MOST IMPORTANTLY the Grandson can be safe and reliable.......There goes my free time!

Thanks for listening to my ramblings. Woytovich I'm glad to see that you are doing this project. I bet you already love it. Your work looks good!!
 
Wow... sounds like a pretty cool 40... are you going to do the rear too?
 
woytovich said:
Wow... sounds like a pretty cool 40... are you going to do the rear too?
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The rear I already did. Put the e-locking diff in but was in a big hurry and screwed up. I cut off all the perches and brackets for the coil suspension and mounted it on leafs. Never realized what a difference coil suspension made until I put it on the front of the 40. Big difference. At some time I will go back and mount buckets and perches to put the coil suspension back in the rear. When I do I will probably move the rear back as well. The wife made a comment the other day that I was "Srewing Up a perfect vintage vehicle!!" I agreed except that there was nothing vintage about that vehicle as It was completely rusted through and I replaced everything from the firewall back. She was worried that it's not going to look like and fj40. I also informed her that when and if I got the wheeling out of my system I could always go back with the original fj40.

I will tell you that I love that it's approx. 8 inches wider. I put the military 37.5's on and like those as well. The 40 is rough meaning she is no trailer queen. It's a DD but we wheel it often and try to find the next weak link.

Took a look at the half ambulance doors this morning. I utilized the upper attachment on the left ambulance door. So the top left door catches on the topper at the top while fitting snug up against the left lower. The upper right lock into the upper left. Lower right locks into the floor and lower left locks into the lower right. Pretty solid, don't really hear any rattling.
 
I am building an FJ45LV and was considering adding 80 series coil suspension in between 40 axles and the LV chassis... decided it was too much work but maybe not?
 
Warpdriv,

Looking at your avatar. Is that your rig? Went to your page trying to find pictures of your rig/avatar posts, threads or something. I can't blow up the image large enough with clarity but it appears you have coil suspension in the front? 35 to 38 tires? Width looks a little wider or is that the tires? Nice looking rig. Toyota porn!!
 
Woytovich,

Show some pictures! YOU CAN DO IT!!!

I'm very much a NEWBIE when it comes to axles, diffs, suspension. I'm sure there are a ton of people on here who has much more valued input than mine but IMO if you can find the axles/diff I would swap the whole thing out. FF axle WOW, if you can get e-locking diffs all the better, I bought both for what it would cost just to purchase one ARB locker. The ARB's are probably tougher and I know they are a lot quicker but there's something to be said for the ease of slapping the whole diff/axle under it. Besides they're wider and FF.

Besides it's fun figuring out just how in the heck am I going to make this work after you painted yourself in a corner!! That seems to happen more than not. I would do it again if that helps. Didn't really take that long if you have access to plasma, torches, and a welder.
 
fjgoober said:
Warpdriv,

Looking at your avatar. Is that your rig? Went to your page trying to find pictures of your rig/avatar posts, threads or something. I can't blow up the image large enough with clarity but it appears you have coil suspension in the front? 35 to 38 tires? Width looks a little wider or is that the tires? Nice looking rig. Toyota porn!!
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Thank you. No, it has leafs. The rims are 2" backspaced. Wider is better. I had a build thread on our club site but it got now it is gone. I thought about putting one here. It's fun rig. I have a "Second 40" thread going to where I plan to doors like others in the thread. I'll have to cross post once I have them done.
 
nuclearlemon said:
"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.
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I didn't know subzali got his Cruiser from you!
 
subzali said:
Looks like a pretty nice install of the "dutch" ambulance doors. I have pondered modifying mine to have a tailgate as well - I loves me my tailgates on the pickup trucks that I've had.

As Ige said I inherited this cruiser with the mod already done. For the bottom portion they welded up a box tube frame and skinned it with some sheet metal and bolted it in. Certainly an option for those who want to reduce the complexity a little bit (you could also use something like the Aqualu tailgate as well).

Here's a pic:
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With the bolted gate it makes it harder to access the rear of the tub, but it's handy when removing the hardtop for summer. Ambulance doors aren't hanging down getting in the way, and stuff isn't going to roll out of the back of your cruiser.

A problem I've had is with the weatherstripping. On mine the weatherstripping is shot. I would hate to buy the nice expensive weatherstripping from Toyota and cut it down for the 1/2 door application, but the generic stuff doesn't work either. Haven't spent a lot of time figuring out a solution yet, I'm sure there's one out there.

And something to keep in mind for those of who are thinking about doing this - ambulance doors are hard to find, and if you do find them they're usually expensive (even rusty ones).

So what I'm trying to say is that like any mod, there are pros and cons ;)

Nice work OP :)
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Matt, I never knew you had this mod. Very cool!

For weather stripping, have you ever looked at these guys in Denver?

http://www.b-dco.com/ecom/shop/category.aspx?catid=3

They have a lot of great weatherstrip products. Since they are close, you can go by and take a look at dimensions before buying. I found some of my Pig weatherstrip there...
 
Gonna have to do this to my 40. I've thought about it for years, but now that I see it done, I am convinced!
 
Well I have not yet fine tuned mine but this is a very doable project. A little cutting and a little welding and some drilling for hinges but it's not rocket science.... go for it!
 
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