springtime weight reduction...half doors and tailgate needed

[Devilmans Hand]

hello everyone

I took the hardtop off my 40 on sunday and am thinking about also removing the heavy metal doors. lml lml

I'm too cheap to chop up some stock doors and make some metal half doors, so i'm thinking about making some out of wood or wood/fiberglass. The same goes for some kind of split ambulance type tailgate as well. i want the tailgate to actually open and not be a fixed piece of wood/metal bolted to the body.

thinking that i could hide a stockish door latch routed inside the door similiar to the stock handle.

noticed that the fiberglass plastic carts that safeway use match the contour and size of a half door for the 40 as well...but maybe that'd be too ghetto.

I'd smooth it out with bondo and paint it to match the 40, so it'll not obviously look like crap.

what do you guys think would be a decent idea for making some cheap half doors that doesn't require a saw/grinder to my original body?

that or learn to weld...

 

[Jakes40]

Maybe with the new blood in the club we can get a vote passed throw to get a tubing bender. Tube doors could be the first project.

Chris

 

[Devilmans Hand]

I like that idea. Forgot all about tube doors.

 

[Skrewball]

just go without doors!!

 

[Devilmans Hand]

just go without doors!!

Yea, i tried that for a month. I got stung by a bee in the crotch at highway speed. Always felt like something was going to fall out of my left pockets too.

Not having doors also changes the aerodynamics of the vehicle. Not so much in air resistance, but rather the volume of air running parallel to the inside of the windshield. Every particle kicked up by the tires moving in that air seems to be channeled directly toward my head and into my eyes. I've yet to find a prescription set of goggles that i like.

I also don't trust my old stock seatbelts to keep me in the cruiser in a turn.

yea...i'm picky

 

[StaleAle]

Yea, i tried that for a month. I got stung by a bee in the crotch at highway speed.

I also don't trust my old stock seatbelts to keep me in the cruiser in a turn.
[Quote/]

Try using your hands....one holds tighter to the wheel and the other....

 

[Devilmans Hand]

Looks like I'm on my own with this idea.

 

[Von Hayek]

Well, for what it's worth, you might try messing with 100% fiberglass. I know a guy who races boats and he can reproduce just about anything in fiberglass. Make a mold, pop out a door. YouTube - How To Fiberglass - Mold Layup

 

[StaleAle]

I would go with a solid door for the reasons you mentioned. Also helps to protect you from being splashed by passing cars. Good old marine grade plywood is probably the cheapest solution and the easiest to fabricate...but you won't be able to use your torch.

I know a guy with carpentry skills who you might ask for advice, especially if you decide to float the panels in a frame out of planed and milled 1x3 hardwood and use a router on the edges to get a contoured fit. But you can't ask him until we're finished with my 40

 

[Thornton]

When I get back I may be able to get my hands on some sheetmetal that might be a heavy enough guage to make some half doors.

 

[Devilmans Hand]

Thanks for the offers Jon and Tom.
Bart, Ive been thinking about fiberglass, but would still have to construct an internal frame. It would be light though. Would be cool, buy not worth the effort, to make a cast mold of the stock door and use it as a negative for the fiberglass.

I'd prefer metal of course, but am also looking into using bamboo flooring sheets. Give it a different look.
Ill have to get creative with cardboard.
Maybe abandon wood idea for metal.

*I'm starting to eyeball that metal door Tom gave me now...


*yea, i'm going for metal with some built in storage. its about time i learned how to weld.