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Yeah, that's me.

The A-pillar half should float quite a bit. The 4-hole nut plate has quite a lot of adjustment if it's not seized inside the A-pillar. I would try to make sure it's free before making mods. Typically that and the added slots in the door halves are plenty for alignment. Please let me know if you need further assistance. Do you know if @SMG had them adjusted?
 
69LC said:
Yeah, that's me.

The A-pillar half should float quite a bit. The 4-hole nut plate has quite a lot of adjustment if it's not seized inside the A-pillar. I would try to make sure it's free before making mods. Typically that and the added slots in the door halves are plenty for alignment. Please let me know if you need further assistance. Do you know if @SMG had them adjusted?
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Yes that is the first thing i checked. The 4 -hole plate does not seem to be seized i can easily move both the passenger upper and lower around. The body on this thing is pristine , the bolts have zero rust on them., so i dont think anything is stuck in ther eholding it up But it still needs more adjustment for the door in the outward direction. Up and down does not seem to be a problem , that is why i am thinking slots in the horizontal direction, as i could just drill the holes out and get more degrees of freedom but dont want to lose to much bolt head clamp surface and there is no room for bigger washers.
as far as i know SMG adjusted the door without any weatherstripping when he was fitting the softtop but not sure he would have noticed how tight the door was to the body in the front door well.

I think it is a critical dimension to match bolt holes to pin centerline. how do you control that dimensions when you weld up the center pin to the mount holes? Fixture ? gig? I dont have a original factory inner hinge to check that dimension, what is the dimension suppose to be? I can check that.

I have not messed with the driver side door yet, so i am only speaking from my experience on the passenger side door
I have the the inner hinges off now so i cant see how slots will be anything but better.
 
I had to move the joint so the hinges would clear the windshield frame while removing or installing the doors. My first attempt at maintaining the oem joint position wasn’t going to work. My recommendation that is been working is to bolt them on like oem and adjust the same. When closed they have the same exact mounting geometry. I was very meticulous about that.
 
Here is the problem : Look at the drawing with critical X dimensions that set the "x dimension" These are the only dimensions that space the door out away from the body pillar (Besides the slop in the nut plate in the pillar, which on my 40 is OEM here and completely free to move)

I can not verify your dimension to OEM on the inner hinge plate, but found a problem on the door hinge. Pictures you can see the pin is not on location with OEM centerline. And is moved in the direction that would suck the door in causing fitment issues with weatherstripping space. I have 8 of your door hinges , and four oem hinges. I compared all 8 to all 4 and they all were very consistent. All have X3 dimension greater than OEM. I think the only solution is slotting the inner hinge plate at this point for more adjustment.
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You are correct in that the pin is not in the oem location. I had to move it so the doors will pick up off the truck and not hit the windshield frame. That is intentional and so far hasn’t presented any issues on my truck or any others that anyone has told me of.

The critical mounting dimensions are exact in matching the closed position. It won’t work to compare the individual halves of my hinges to that of the oem. The slight change in the pin location isn’t enough to cause a change in door function.

I’ll check back later. Have to head to work.
 
Well i am not sure what to tell you, for my rig it is presenting a problem. Forgive me but am still not convinced that your design does not move the door inward the same amount of the movement you did to the hinge pin (.200 inches according to my measurements , which not slight in terms of door adjustments)

So please help me understand how you compensated for that.... if i hear you correct ....you moved X3 so the doors have clearance to come off,. IF nothing else changed then effectively you have moved the Hinge point centerline of the door as the centerline is the imaginary line running between both upper and lower hinges vertically thru the center of the pin. And since it was moved out, and assuming the inner hinge point remains fixed, the door will move "in" tighter to jam

But sounds like you must have had to move X2 dimension per my drawing on the matching inner hinge plate the same amount to compensate for correct spacing in that X direction ? IF you did then the door gap between inner jam and inner face of door remains the same allowing for the same gap for weatherstripping, but the effective CL of door still has moved out the same about. And that should be fine, i dont see why that would have any bad effects on the door.

but if X1 and X2 dimensions were not moved to compensate then no way the closed mounting position is exact in that closed position?...... giving the same position of the nut plate. The closing center-line would move out away from dash the same amount, and forcing the door tighter inward at the hinge point.
And even worse if X2 was moved inward to compensate for keeping the CL of the doors the same as OEM.

In other words, if the centerline of the door hinge pin was moved out. without any other changes in the inner hinge, then my point is valid. and will present a problem,... if the nut plate cant be forgiving enough and overcome the distance by moving far enough out.

But if others aren't having a problem then you must have considered this and made it right. If i had an OEM inner hinge plate, i could compare the assemblies and become an instant believer but i am going to have to take you word for it.

Looking for HELP here. I am using brand new OEM weatherstripping, Doors unaltered in the hinge area, only repairs were to the bottom of doors. . i am using brand new OEM weatherstripping, Doors unaltered in the hinge area, only repairs were to the bottom of doors. ?????? Why just ME? Trust me if there is another way or if i am missing something i am all ears. I dont want to have to take off all the inner hinges and slot that is a royal PITA . I see no solution but to Slot at this point , Do i just have a tighter than normal nut plate compared to others, ( that sounded kind of clinical :-) ) HEHEHE .... my nut plate is not as forgiving? Maybe tolerance stack ups ? ANyone else have this issue?
 
I wish I could just drop by and check it out. I'm truly sorry this one is so difficult. The only other time I've ever heard of anyone having a clearance issue was with really butchered South American doors that hit against the A-pillar half while closed.

I didn't move the actual mounting surfaces. I studied a lot of used hinges and a brand new unpainted set from the dealer before I started having parts made. I printed out your drawing to study.

Would you mind PMing me your number? If I can get a break before it's not too late there I'll do a morale call.

Matthew
 
Getting back to spacing out the rear bumper /tire carrier/ yeti carrier: Decided i needed about 5/8" spacers to give enough clearance, but still keep the look tight to the body.

Tight spots that need more clearance where:
1) passenger side lower amby door hinge was hitting the cooler rack
2) Tire carrier very close to rear driver amby door
3) tire was hitting the handle on the door

Spaced it out with washers for now, so i can finish the hardtop install. Will have to return to tthis with a more permanent solution but for now it will do.

Pics of Progress.
 
After Pictures: Everything fits now ! Things are still tight but spaced out enough for rough road rattle clearance "Engineering spec RRRC." It looks good, i really didn't expect it to look as good as being flush, but it really does! Very Happy. SMG found some good permanent larger plastic spacers for the future, i most likely be using . Thanks for your help during this. I love this community, everyone is unbelievably helpful and open to share knowledge and discuss solutions and problems without ego.

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Amby Doors on: Fitting nicely with weatherstripping on. Been a game of back and forth adustment and back and forth to the hardware store for SS bolts, washers etc. but coming together nicely. I did have to grind away some bedliner to get the bottom latch lower to the floor as it was up to high and hitting the bottom of the door.

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This bumper has 10 grade 8 1/2" bolts holding it to the current OEM rear bumper. In pure pulling mode, it will be stronger than the OEM ball hitch as the load is now spread across the entire rear member and the box design of the fab bumper act as a stiffener. The weak point is now the bolts have more of a cantilever load on them and the "tongue' weight load will act as a shear force on the bolts. By my calculations this thing as is will be fine for towing as is but long term solid spaces spreading the load across more surface area on the OEM bumper to reduce the shear load on the bolts and reduce stress points at washer contact points would be the goal and definitely welded spacer i would do if this bumper design was going to be designed for mass production.
 
Installed the Hardtop this weekend....and it fits in the garage. I had to take the top pc of trim down on the header but it fits, barely but it fits!
Looks Great! the rear sqautted some but still has a nice stance

Lessons Learned: not exactly really happy with my choice of bed-liner i used on the inside.

I got a quote from Line-X , but decided to do it myself and i went with gator guard. I decided on GG because it was more rubber based. I wanted more noise reduction than a durable Hard bed surface. However the texture was not as nice and uniform as Line-X. If you like popcorn ceilings in your house then you will love Gator Guard. I mixed and mixed it but still gave out big chunks. Maybe it was me, but i think it is just that type of textured bedliner. if i decide to put a OEM headliner in it someday, i will have to sand down the big chunks. Will post some pics . Bottom line for me is i don't love it , but don't hate it either. It covered well 1 quart did the job, with zero room to wiggle.

Didn't add much weight to the top, ( About a pound more than your basic quart of paint ) Did notice more body roll with the top and rear amby doors on. With the driver and passenger doors on i expect the body roll to increase as i getting more and more top heavy. However Shout out for the Bilstein shocks, they seem to react nicely with added weight. If i get frisky in the future i will add a front and rear swaybar to get that highway handling better. Quick disconnects would be my goal.

Also spending the money on a good Hardtop Seal is worth it, not all aftermarket suppliers are equal. Found that City Racer rubber seal to be better than another choices i was looking at. What i liked about the Racer seal was ,
1) It had the rear corners bend in the rubber
2) Had all the holes in the rubber in the right spot
3) Softer durometer rubber than the other guy
 
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