Half Door

How I did my half door.

1. Start the cut at the back of the door, 2 inches in (photo1), even with where the factory door folds in to the window. leave the window track in place.

Cut following a straight line down from the factory fold. It ended 2.5 inches in (photo 2) , and 9.25 inches (photo 3) up from the top fold on the door bottom. (photos misleading due to angle of door to the camara)

2. Cut the front on a line that parrales the front of the door edge 4 inches in. (photo 4) To a point 4.5 inches up from the top fold on the door bottom.

3. Cut a line that paraled the top fold on the bottom of the door at the 4.5 inches, back 16.5 inches from the front of the door.

4. Cut a line that parraled the top fold on the bottom of the door at 9.25 inches 17 inches in from the back of the door.

5. That should give you 6.5 inches for the angle where the door handle will go. (photo 11)

6. Cut (6x8.5) and folded (to 4x6.5) a piece of 16 gauge steel, and welded it into place for the angle. (photo 14, 15)

7. Cut (6x15) and folded (to 4x15) a piece of 20 gauge steel, and welded it into place for the arm rest. (photo 7, 16)

8. Cut (6x12.5) and fold (to 4x12.5) a piece of 20 gauge steel, and weld it into place below the door handle angle. (photo 6)

9. clamp a piece of steel to the front of the door. Mark for where to bend and or cut. (photo 8)

10. Cut a piece of .75 tubing to fit the window tracks. Bow the tubing to follow the bend in the window tracks for the front and rear. Weld the tubing into place. (photo 17), (I used a big rubber hammer to bend the tubing.)

11. Bend .5 inch lip on some 20 gage steel and fit to the gaps on the sides of the tubing. (I clamped the .5 lip to the tubing then marked the steel. Cut it then welded it into place.) 12. Cut a hole for the door handle. Use a 3/4x1/8x6 inch piece of steel bending it 1 inch from each end. (I threaded 2 long bolts into the door handle, and cut off the heads to use as guides to hold the handle in place, and drilled a new hole for a .25 bolt to pinch the handle onto the door. (photo 20, 21) The handles I used were from a Grimlin, but AMC used these alot and Jeep used them on some TJ's and YJ's tail gates and some factory steel doors.

13. Reuse one of the latch rods, bend it to fit the door handle.

14. You can make a cup holder using a 3 inch PVC pipe cap and a 3x2.5 PVC pipe bushing. Cut a hole to let the bushing fit thur the door and glue the cap on from inside the door. (photo 12, 22)

15. Bondo and paint. (photo 18, 19)

photo 1