after looking for a pair of real roadster doors for awhile and not finding any, well at least any in my price range for the condition they were in i decided i'd just make them myself. to do both doors took about 12-13 hours and under $50 for material. material included one lenght (20ft) of 1/8x2" aluminum, one length of 3/4x3/4 aluminum tube, 5' of 1x2 al. and a sheet of 18gauge aluminum sheet. i started out with the top rail making a nice gradual curve using the 1x2. once i had the curve looking good i marked a line on the bottom about 3/16" in from the side, this is what your door skin will slide into, i cut the slit with a cutoff wheel so the skin will fit night and tight once it's slid in place. once the top piece was all ready to go i taped it in place on the cowl and back section, from there i started building what will be the inner structre. staring with the 3/4x3/4 i bent it to the shape of the cowl and rear section, once i had those pieces bent up i bent the 1/8x2 to match and welded them together, the 1x8x2 will become the flange that you hammer the skin around. (the door is just sitting in place in the picture not bolted to the hinge so the bottom swung out a bit.) once i had that fitting good and attached to the hinges i started making the skin, i cut it about 3/4" oversized all the way around so i could hammer the edges over. a quick pass on the e-wheel had them at the correct contour once the skin was wheeled out i slid it into the slot i made in the upper piece of the door, this will hold it in place when you hammer the edges over all hammered over and staring to look like a door door all done and hung repeat on the other side now onto the elcheapo windshield frame to match, this was made completely out of 1/8" aluminum sheet. first cut off the windshield post and box in the top of the cowl legs (this is an old race cowl so all the og windshield stuff was already gone) start marking out where you want the windshield to go on the cowl and make a pattern for one side, if you meassured correctly it will fit the other side when flipped. i decided to do a very shallow v on this one because i wanted to retain the origional gas cap. start cutting out you base piece from the sheet, get it all lined up and bent to the contour of the gas tank then clamp it in place and drill a mounting hole through the center and bolt it down, this will hold it in place and let the aluminum flex a little as you start to line it up and drill your other mounting holes through the top of the boxed in cowl legs. once the main piece is all shaped and secured start on the back section of the windshield first, i could have used channel for the part the glass will fit in but didn't have any so i built my own which is why you want to start from the back and work your way to the front. make your patterns and start welding it up. repeat on the other side, once the back portion is all welded up it's time to start working on the front of the frame which i actually made double layered, the first leayer was to finnish of the channel for the glass then i leaned another piece up against that one to give it a little more flow into the cowl and thicken it up a bit. once that was done i also made a little peaked piece for the center. once that was all done it was time to finnish up the ends. i actually cut the origional ones off because i didn't think they came up high enough. i should have mentioned earlier that i made my glass template so i knew everything would fit side to side. i threw the template in place and just started building the corners around it until i got the flow i wanted. from there it was just a matter of finnish welding everything, i gave it a quick cleanup with some 120 grit and this is how it came out. and here's the finnished product with the doors hung and windshield
Sweetness!!! Have you figured out what you're going to use for a latch mechanism? Have you posted about those frame rails before? I'd like to see more.
for latches i'll use the real small bear claws, i'm going to the gg scottsdale this weekend so hopefully one of the vendors will have them. i should also note that where the door skin meets the upper parts i had planned on welding them at a future point (out of gas right now) but the more i look at them i don't think i will, you can't even tell there's a seam it ended up fitting so closely plus if the skin ever gets damaged it will be that much easier to replace it.
oops haven't posted anything on the rails before but they're just 2x4 .188 wall that i pie cut to fit the contours of the body and then tappered them down to about 2-3/4 staring at the firewall
that's great tech, assuming that we all have the ability and resources to weld aluminum. seriously though, awesome post...looks killer and we can always use a little inspiration!
If you have a torch, you can gas weld aluminum! Really, it's not that hard to gas weld aluminum ........... although it is, admittedly, much easier to blow holes in aluminum with a torch than it is to actually weld it. Nice work Justin! Tim D.
i gotta' admit i was thinking " he's making aluminum doors? now i'm thinking "HELL YEAH he made some sweet aluminum doors! very motivating. i should spend more time just hammering parts out instead of wondering where i'm going to find them. thanks for the geat post, c.b.
thanks guys, should also make a quick note that the doors could be made with steel and using the doors or roof off a junk yard car for the skins instead of wheeling them out and you could end up with the same results.
I think you should change your name to "el cheapo"... Looks real good... Is that the cowl you bought two years ago at the Big 3.
hey Gregg "el cheapo" is what the ladies call me the one from the big 3 is being driven around japan now. this one came from the pomona swap a few months ago, i was told it's off an old ascott car, i wish i had the rest of the origional car but all that was left was the cowl. right now it looks like i'll stay out here through jim's ranch run then head out your way. i've got to finnish this one and an a truck for Les then i'm ready to move. give me a call when you make it out here.
Seen some talk of windshields lately; this deserves to be in the Tech Archive. I am curious about the curved glass, any info, or did I miss something?
awesome work! i too was thinking to do the same thing with steel instead of aluminum, great idea to use an old door skin or a roof panel. saving this thread for sure!
Nice job Justin! I like the idea of using aluminum as it is my favorite metal to form. I made the doors for my 28 also but I bought new "skins" from Brookfield and made my own door frames. One of the problems that you don't see right away is that the skins, which will fit on a stock A door frame perfect, are not square!! I got the doors pretty close to being done and was having a terrible time getting them to fit because I had made the door opening square and I wanted to make the doors fit flush like you did. After I finally got that figured out I ended up cutting the back edge of the skin off and making a new one that squared the door and as long as I was at it I made the door an inch longer. Another problem with the Brookfield skins is that the step feature on the top of the door that matches the rear qtr panel is a different width from one side to the other and it's about 1/4 inch! so I cut the narrow one and made it wider. So IF I ever do another I am going to follow your lead and just make the whole thing. Great job!!
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