I did search but didnt find anything that could help. As you can see in the pics the rear door hasnt got a lot of meat to put 2 hinges and the part of the body where the door "jambs" is for the most wheel well. What i think is that one single VERY CHUNKY and very large hinge placed where the latch is ride now would do the work. I also think iwill need a lot of reinforcement in the wheel well/quarter panel area but still im not sure what the best route could be. Keep in mind i would prefer to fab my own hinges rather than buying them, but if the price is right it could save quite some time. Still didnt see any fat single hinge anywhere! NOTE: I need technical help, so keep the various "suicide doors are useless" comments outta here. Thanx to everybody that will help! Nick.
Good luck. I've been fabricating hinges and swinging doors for a long time and I dont see a good way of doing this. With the hinges being that close together the door will wobble when opened and probably need constant adjustment. Oh shit, you didnt want opinions. Too bad.
no, This is exactly what i want to hear. I dont want stuff like suicide doors are silly, or why waste your time in something that you dont even see and similar. Yeah i get your point on the 2 hinges, that is why i said maybe a single big one could work. Makes sense?
I would make one big hinge use a big reenforcing plate on both the door and the jamb. You might look at the Mcmaster.com site for some hinge ideas. Are you wanting hidden hinges, or is it okay that they stick out?
I also don't know if its possible, nor have I ever though about doing this on a car door, but using a pivot point instead of a hinge. You would need a pivot point at the top and bottom of the door, between 10 and 20 percent of the door would swing in when the door was opened. A lot of commercial store front door are hinged this way. Again I don't know if it is worth pursuing or not.
Bonez - I seem to recall a thread about a Shoebox being done like that. It was a while back - don't know if it was ever completed? I have a more-door '49 and when I get to it, hope to do the same thing. I think you've got everything covered in terms of whats needed - reinforcing and all. Ultimately it comes down to physics and leverage. Whether one big hinge or two, you want to gain the most possible height between top and bottom. I would imagine that the thicker the shaft acting as your hinge pin the better - though at some point this may interfere with opening clearance? Limiting play/wear would be critcal. In the bigger scheme of things it should be doable if you through enough engineering at it though!
shoebox has much more room to spread the hinges on the rear door. I have no doubt that the door could be made to seing the wrong way, my thoughts are more toward keeping the door from sagging, twisting or wobbling when opened. With the small area at teh rear of the door, any bracing will still be overpowered by the leverage of the door. Bracing the door opening wont be a problem, its the door itself thats the problem.
Several company's make single really wide hinges for this type application. If I remember correctly the shoebox refenced earlier did use this type hinge. I'll look and see if I can find a link to one. Look on some import or minitruck sites like wwwStreetsourcemag.com. Import cars rear doors are the same and lots have been done this way. Just gotta reinforce that door and jamb really well.
I'm no body guy at all, so these are just my uneducated thoughts. Could you cut off the rear 1/4 of the rear doors that contain most of the wheel arch then weld and blend them in the quarter panel. The door glass and track would have to be made and the new larger C pillar would have a small wedge shaped window. The doors would be shorter but the hinges would be mounted farther apart and would provide more support
Thanx guys. i'll go look for this shoebie youre talkin about. Lowburb, glad to hear this, probably i just looked in the wrong places.
One huge hinge with steel reinforcment running behind the seat to the other hinge. Make it all oversize and plate the inside of the door for strength. Use big stuff like box tubing and build off of that.
I saw a build thread just the other day with a Cadillac that had one hinged suicide rear doors.....Unfortunately I don't remember if it was on this board or one of the many others I frequent....I'll poke around and see if I can come up with a link for ya.
these guys make a single hinge system. its pretty beefy! http://www.streetdreamsbyross.com/hinges_suicide.php
I might look at 2+2 cars with really long doors at a yard. Like a last body style Eldorado, Chevy monte, My dad had a Lexus SC400 with a pretty impressive hinge system for the long heavy doors.
Tri-9 Impala SS's have been switched to suicide doors. Might even be able to use one of their kits on the market. Check this out... http://www.cardomain.com/ride/519475
I could see where something like that might work. I would bet that the builder would need to take out every bit of extra metal in that door to avoid what Tinman is talking about.
To make it more interesting, the one I'm thinking about was hardtopped as well........ Can't seem to find the thread though. - that should read :can't seem to work the search function Here it is: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=315652&highlight=shoebox+suicide
Thanx guys, i like the shoeboxes you guys leaded me to, but yeah they have a lot more room to spread the 2 hinges, i have very limited space. The idea of bracing the left e right hinges togheter is pretty good. i might incorparate the brace w/ the seat frame as im also building the rear seat from scratch. Also the import hinge looks almost perfect. Might do the import hinge, or build a copy,togheter w7 the bracing thing. If it comes out nice i'll show it off. Meanwhile, thanx a bunch!
Many years ago I had a '65 Lincoln continental 4 door hardtop. It had suicide rear doors,but can't remember how the hinge system worked. They were very heavy doors and must have had very strong hinges. Maybe a pair of them mounted very close together along with whatever backing plates and braceing required,may work.It should be a doable project and I wish you luck.Ignore the naysayers man !
If you dont mind spending the time, you can make some yourself. I made some hinges out of sheetmetal ( 4 sided and hollow ) to make a rear opening hood. And I used small heim joints as pivot points to make hinges for the doors on a racecar. ( light fiberglass with a steel frame ) A couple of bigger ( suspension sized ) heim joints should give you plenty of strenth and they shouldn't wear too quickly, and are easyer to allign than pins.
Oh yeah, 1st thing i said is i would like to make my own, but wanted to look how theyre made 1st! Of course if i could spare a headache and just adapt a bought pair that would be sweet, but lookin at the average price of them things its kinda like impossible! I'll look into the heim joints idea but considering the space i have i dont think its doable...then again, everything is doable w/ enuff thought....
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