Tube Doors!!

[Blaine122300]

Just got done fabbing up my front tube doors!
They were real simple and the 2 of em took me about 3.5 hrs to plan, cut and weld (oh yeah, paint too). Now I just have to figure out how to latch them. I have an idea in my head, I just have to try it out to see if it works.

Here are the pics:

 

[Trckmagik]

Keep up the good work. I still need to do this to my trail rig.

 

[Blaine122300]

Keep up the good work. I still need to do this to my trail rig.

Thanks,

This should be lots of fun. This is still my Daily Driver. The AC went Kaputz, so I said, damn it, I'm takin' the doors off!!

Next week I will probably do the rears!

 

[boominXplorer]

Thanks,

This is still my Daily Driver. !

It doesn't rain much I guess in AZ does it? Oh well It looks tight man

 

[Blaine122300]

It doesn't rain much I guess in AZ does it? Oh well It looks tight man

No, not much rain here. Just in Monsoon season, which is in July-early September. I will probably just throw my other doors on during the rainy season.

I figured out the latch. I just used a barrel latch from Ace Hardware and I mounted it to the pillar between the front and rear door. It just slides in and out of the back of the top tube. It is pretty secure too. I don't think it would hold up in a crash, but at least it stays closed.

Tomorrow I will probably go to Auto Zone and pick up some side mirrors. It is gonna be weird driving with out them, cause I use 'em all the time.

Thanks for all the kind words.
It is a pretty fun project, and it is helping me to get better at welding before I start my sliders. Maybe one day this will just be my trail rig.
You never know!

Later,

Andy

 

[Blaine122300]

Speakers

Since I took my doors off, I had no tunes! Well, I solved that problem today. I had some old Polk Audio 6" speakers laying around my house, so I took an old gallon size paint can, cut the bottom off of it and took the top off and ran some wires into it, painted it black (to get the "Glidden" logo off of it) and slaped the speakers on each side. I set it right on the center "Hump" right under the ash tray and secured it with some blank dog tags I had laying around. It sounded a little "tinny" at first, so I ripped open an old pillow and stuffed the can. Now it sounds great. This solved my problem of no speakers!!
I will take a picture later and post it.

Later,

Andy

 

[brandon]

nice job!!

 

[SVO]

*Subscribed*

 

[Stic-o]

Since I took my doors off, I had no tunes! Well, I solved that problem today. I had some old Polk Audio 6" speakers laying around my house, so I took an old gallon size paint can, cut the bottom off of it and took the top off and ran some wires into it, painted it black (to get the "Glidden" logo off of it) and slaped the speakers on each side. I set it right on the center "Hump" right under the ash tray and secured it with some blank dog tags I had laying around. It sounded a little "tinny" at first, so I ripped open an old pillow and stuffed the can. Now it sounds great. This solved my problem of no speakers!!
I will take a picture later and post it.

Later,

Andy

Thats great!

How hard are the doors to put back on though? Do you have to line them back up? I would do this too but thats a ways down the road! Need a roll cage first!

 

[Carl D.]

Those look great. Wish the weather aroundhere was a little more cooperative so that I could something like that. Post some pic's of the barrel latches installed. Good Job.

 

[Blaine122300]

Those look great. Wish the weather aroundhere was a little more cooperative so that I could something like that. Post some pic's of the barrel latches installed. Good Job.

I'll probably get pics tomorrow of the latches.

Yeah, it hasn't rained here in like over 25 days, so, yeah, the weather cooperates pretty well. Makes it a lot easier to see all around you. I can't wait to try it out while wheeling now.
Thanks for the compliments. I can't wait to do the rear doors now.
Laurie wants me to chop the top next. I guess if I do that, I will need a roll cage and the stock doors will be no good any more.
Oh well, a roll cage means more tools for me to buy!!

This is a very good welding project for me to practice my welding. Next after the doors are done, I will move on to the sliders and rear bumper. I am going to model my bumper after the KMA ones.

Later,

Andy

 

[Blaine122300]

Thats great!

How hard are the doors to put back on though? Do you have to line them back up? I would do this too but thats a ways down the road! Need a roll cage first!

I dunno yet. I'm hoping pretty easy. I already have all the wires spliced with quick connectors.
I figure if I put the doors back on and tighten the bolts just enough, I will be able to manipulate the doors back close enough where it seals and works.
I guess I will find out shortly when Monsoon season comes and it rains like every day at 4pm.

 

[Blaine122300]

Post some pic's of the barrel latches installed. Good Job.

Here are the pics of the barrel latches. I just used 4 self tapping sheet metal screws to hold em in. The bottom 2 screws I had to pre drill a very small hole, because there was some tougher metal behind there.
Well, here ya go.
I put some sticky foam between the body of the truck and the tube doors to make the latch a little more firm.
My next projects will be rock sliders, then a new rear bumper with a tire carrier.
After I get real good at welding, then I will be choping the top (Right behind the front seats) and putting in a roll cage. With the top chopped, it will resemble a 3rd gen bronco with the hard top off.

 

[bipolarbob]

Looks good but that latch would worry me.There has got to be something better.Let me think about it.....

 

[EMG7895]

What about something like a gate latch, like the ones where the little bar on the gate lift up a thing in the latch which secures it in place?

 

[Blaine122300]

What about something like a gate latch, like the ones where the little bar on the gate lift up a thing in the latch which secures it in place?

I thought about that, but it just seemed like too much hardware to put on there. This is actually really secure. I'm sure if you hit it hard enough from the inside, it would bust off, but why would you do that. I decided that if it started to slide out by itself, and open up that I would just use some sort of string, or bungee and tie around the pin that sticks up and bringing the other end of the bungee up farther on the door. I could put a little screw in the door or something to hold onto the bungee untill I wanted to unlatch the door. I have a bunch of Ideas in my head. I have to think up something for the rear doors now. There is no pillar back there to do the same thing. I'm sure I'll figure something out.
Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Andy

 

[EMG7895]

Is there any way to remove the latches from the door itself and fab up a bracket so you will still have a door handle and stock latches?

 

[bipolarbob]

That would be a lot of work...and he still wants to use his doors.I think something spring loaded.

 

[Blaine122300]

Is there any way to remove the latches from the door itself and fab up a bracket so you will still have a door handle and stock latches?

Sounds like way too much work. I wanted to keep these as simple as possible, which they are. They are meant to be totally removable, so I can put the stock doors back on. Basically this is just one step up from having no doors at all.

 

[Carl D.]

Now you got me thinking about doing this, but first our 40 days/40 nights of rain has to stop.