so my buddy R.T. had some spare doors that were a bit mangled from a rollover. now, R.T. saw the value in these doors, but his honey didn't share his feelings. he got fired up one day and was cleaning up the garage, the doors over in a corner.i decided to try to make some half doors out of em. the situation was mutually benificial, i got to practice on his doors and he got the doors out of the garage.
i started by stripping the doors out pretty much completely. handles, locks, glass, channels, rubber, doorstop. i left the latching device and the hinges on though. save the parts for the time being.
next i measured for the cuts. i wanted to leave the latch and the hinges on, so those became the starting points. i left just enough door above each to feel warm and fuzzy, and to make sure the latch had plenty of room to move. now measuring was a pain....the outside of the door is curved, but the inside was pretty flat. i used the bends in the door to create a baseline i guess. i wanted my cuts to look level to the bends in the door. the trick seemed to be getting the door mounted somehow in the same position while you cut/weld. i mounted my door so the inside face of the door was level verticaly, and the bend on the door level horizontally.
i used levels to make sure the tops of the doors were pretty parallel to each other, marked it up and then got the cutoff disk and the grinder. i cut the outside of the door first. thats where i did the measuring from and all of my lines were there too. after butchering with the disk on the curved side, i eyeballed about where level should be,then added an inch. then i rough cut the inside. now heres where the mounting comes in...I used a framing square on the inside door to get it level with the outside cut. now it took a little time,but if you work the square just right. you can measure the starting points, and get a pretty accurate cut on the inside.you will find the door has big holes from the factory for access to parts.
after making sure the inside and outside was gonna line up i bent up a piece of sheet metal.just a c shaped bend.then zapped it onto place for the lowermost section. i hid one of the flanges behind the outer section of the door, and welded it to the inside of the door.the other flange i sat on top of the inner door like a cap,and welded the inside of the door to it. its much the same for the transition pieces, except the front of the door will have a radius. i bent one flange in a piece of metal, and held it in place to mark the curve. then i measured about 3/4" extra metal, and cut it out. the extra 3/4" i cut into tabs and bent using pliers. it didn't have to be pretty, it was going on the inside of the door anyway.
i started by stripping the doors out pretty much completely. handles, locks, glass, channels, rubber, doorstop. i left the latching device and the hinges on though. save the parts for the time being.
next i measured for the cuts. i wanted to leave the latch and the hinges on, so those became the starting points. i left just enough door above each to feel warm and fuzzy, and to make sure the latch had plenty of room to move. now measuring was a pain....the outside of the door is curved, but the inside was pretty flat. i used the bends in the door to create a baseline i guess. i wanted my cuts to look level to the bends in the door. the trick seemed to be getting the door mounted somehow in the same position while you cut/weld. i mounted my door so the inside face of the door was level verticaly, and the bend on the door level horizontally.
i used levels to make sure the tops of the doors were pretty parallel to each other, marked it up and then got the cutoff disk and the grinder. i cut the outside of the door first. thats where i did the measuring from and all of my lines were there too. after butchering with the disk on the curved side, i eyeballed about where level should be,then added an inch. then i rough cut the inside. now heres where the mounting comes in...I used a framing square on the inside door to get it level with the outside cut. now it took a little time,but if you work the square just right. you can measure the starting points, and get a pretty accurate cut on the inside.you will find the door has big holes from the factory for access to parts.
after making sure the inside and outside was gonna line up i bent up a piece of sheet metal.just a c shaped bend.then zapped it onto place for the lowermost section. i hid one of the flanges behind the outer section of the door, and welded it to the inside of the door.the other flange i sat on top of the inner door like a cap,and welded the inside of the door to it. its much the same for the transition pieces, except the front of the door will have a radius. i bent one flange in a piece of metal, and held it in place to mark the curve. then i measured about 3/4" extra metal, and cut it out. the extra 3/4" i cut into tabs and bent using pliers. it didn't have to be pretty, it was going on the inside of the door anyway.
Looking good! 
