Half doors 2nd gen idea... give me some advice

[LUVITLO]

Throw a piece of pressure treated wood in a truck bed it still rots just slower. A fiberglass kit cost 10 bucks for a quart maybe 15 now been a long while since i done any fiberglassing and it would last forever. And "take a beating" damn u sound like the fool that I bought my explorer from, yall fo realize u can go muddin, rock crawlin and with a propper bumper even push down trees and never ding ur truck???? Guess it's how I was raised my dad taught me use dents to talk down a price panels are cheap at a salvage yard, fix it up and keep it clean and sharp and my dad had the 79 F150 straight 6 stick 4x4 with a 4" lift and a custom bumper we made trails threw the woods for other trucks to follow. Never dented it.

 

[dersch6221992]

..This might be worth a look..
http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=274442&highlight=half+doors

thats exactly what i want minus loosing the handle. and i would cut the bottom off too

 

[01STrunner]

Im thinking the same lines as tbars posted but what about leaving the surrounding frame in tact or would that just look retarded?

 

[99XLT-Explorer]

I never intended for these to be on the truck all the time for one i would just put them on for the weekend or when ever if it was supposed to rain i wouldnt put them on. So your telling me the stuff they us for outdoor purposes ( preasure treated plywood) isnt going to last??? Okay my whole boat was done in the same exact stufff and in the hold there is pretty much water in it all the time no rotting problems at all hmmm .... I hate it when people talk about stuff they dont know about and fiberglassing over plywood wouldnt help much when theres moisture on the inside now would it??? Anyway good luck on the half doors bud

Also how many rock crawling rigs do you see with out dents?? That what i thought none you can go out and wheel your truck with out breaking and straining denting whatever to something on your truck and can you talk english please thankyou

 

[LUVITLO]

No I'm a RedNeck I speak American never been to England! And yes I know guys 2 r my cousins who do rock crawlin they did roll one a few times learning to do it but both their Blazers they have now are dent free yes they have q

 

[LUVITLO]

Sorry post broken my daughter just played SuperMan! Anyway like I was saying they have broke gears and twisted drive shafts even ripped the lug bolts clean out of the hub but no dents and they keep the inside cleaner than a dealership so YEAH it does HAPPEN to BE TRUE! I speak from knowledge not Ignorance like you!!!!

 

[LUVITLO]

Oh BTW how long u had that boat 1 year maybe 2 my uncle buys em cheap after morons like you let em rot relays all the floor and carpet then sells for a nice profit!!!!! All wood rots over time but if u seal it up for ur english lesson that means WATER TIGHT NO LEAKS!! Then coat in fiberglass sand smooth then paint you will have custom pannels that your grand children will be bragging about!!!!! Go take a Physics lesson!

 

[dersch6221992]

oh my.... -_-

 

[01STrunner]

Can we get back to half doors and not this other BS?

 

[FIND]

no i boxed the doors in with plywood basically making door panels and theres this special stuff call preasure treated that doesnt rot.... who is going to fiberglass a set of half doors that will more than likely get beat to hell? believe it or not they are very clean ill get some pics up eventually

oh lol, completely misunderstood that. You should seal those better. Pressure treated wood will warp and rot too eventually, just slower. Just get some resin or sealer and coat the wood with it and you will be good to go. Pressure treated plywood never lasts as long as solid board because the ends splinter and separate more.

Then again, it isn't like you have them on often, and you store them indoors, so it would probably never be an issue anyway.

 

[snoranger]

Oh BTW how long u had that boat 1 year maybe 2 my uncle buys em cheap after morons like you let em rot relays all the floor and carpet then sells for a nice profit!!!!! All wood rots over time but if u seal it up for ur english lesson that means WATER TIGHT NO LEAKS!! Then coat in fiberglass sand smooth then paint you will have custom pannels that your grand children will be bragging about!!!!! Go take a Physics lesson!

Sounds more like chemistry to me.

And you should tone it down or you wont be around here much longer. This site and the people here wont tolerate your attitude for long.

 

[LUVITLO]

Sounds more like chemistry to me.

And you should tone it down or you wont be around here much longer. This site and the people here wont tolerate your attitude for long.

He just ticked me off talkin bout something I know for fact, have witnessed first hand seen, helped repair, and as it's said been there done that I was just sayin so OP knows not to lay wood on metal screw it in and think all is well only to find 2-3 years later that the panels need to be redone. Ur talking about half doors and sayin they will NEVER see rain is like the guy sellin a Harley that never saw rain----translation he was too chicken to ever ride his bike. Plus OP cuttin top and bottom he gonna need it sealed cause tires gonna sling more up there than u think.
Plus Physics and Chemistry work hand in hand lol without laws of physics chemistry wouldn't function lol

 

[01STrunner]

Then again it really wouldn't be that big of a deal to relay wood on the doors after 3 or so years. Even if it warps that doesn't necessarily mean the doors won't work. Yeah fiberglass will last longer but maybe he is a carpenter or has an abundance of wood layong around or just doesnt want to lay fiberglass. And it wouldn't be because strength is compromised because unless you reinforce the hell out of it the door will be much less rigid than a stock door. But that's not really the point of half doors anyway.

 

[FIND]

Yeah, wood is cheap. Who cares? Get that sploder some wood. Sploders like wood.

Plus Physics and Chemistry work hand in hand lol without laws of physics chemistry wouldn't function lol

Fair warning. I'm a mathematician, and I have more than a passing interest in physics, chemistry and engineering... Just saying, don't put your foot in your mouth.

 

[dersch6221992]

now that we are completly off topic. i think that i know my plan of attack. i think i still will utilize the stock handles and mechanisms for easiness. cut off the bottom of the door. and the top down to where the arm rest is. weld some metal in there sand and paint thanks guys

 

[FIND]

now that we are completly off topic. i think that i know my plan of attack. i think i still will utilize the stock handles and mechanisms for easiness. cut off the bottom of the door. and the top down to where the arm rest is. weld some metal in there sand and paint thanks guys

Sounds like you've got it figured out. Brace up the inside of the door with something after you cut all that out though... a lot of the load on the door is distributed through all of that contact area it has with the body, and the door's resistance to flexing comes from all the irregular surface area the inner structure of the door has. You won't have much of that left, so it will be a lot weaker. Might be beneficial to have it stiffer through the area you do have left.

I almost started to say something about NVH now that it won't be in contact with the larger areas of the body to disperse some of the reverberation... but then I realized it's not like you will be in a closed cab anyway.

 

[LUVITLO]

Accually he's cutting top and bottom mighy want to weld a couple of braces inside the door to keep the shape before you cut off both ends. Would hate for the metal to fold on ya and lose that shape and mot line up.

 

[99XLT-Explorer]

Not to kill tour idea bud but cutting the bottom off is going to give problems with your bottom hinge because judging by your picture the bottom hinge will be below that and like he said the integrity of the door would ve affected idk if you already said u didnt want to do tube doors but with yours idea of cutting of the bottom a tube door woukd be more structually soild. Because i know before i made the door panels the doors were flimsy really flimsy and when i removed the think inside the hinge that helps the door open it made it better because the door wouldnt fly open bc of the door being so much lighter than stock. And btw invest in a door alignment dolly or a engine lift to put doors on and off believe me its a 3 person job without one and doing it by yourself is hell

 

[dersch6221992]

I wouldn't mind doing tube doors actually. Would just be harder to do a latch. That's what scares me

 

[FIND]

I wouldn't mind doing tube doors actually. Would just be harder to do a latch. That's what scares me

No it wouldn't. Just measure everything carefully, cut the sheet metal out around the stock latch and weld that to your tube structure in the position it was on your stock door.. Put another plate somewhere to hold your door pull. Heck, doing the door hardware is the easy part. The rest of the fabrication is much harder.