Just a quick update on the project... I've been hustlin' to get the doors fabbed up. So far the innerstructure is finished on the passenger side and it is hinged and latched. I plan on skinnin' it over the weekend. Some of you may wonder what happened to the Whippet grill project for the car... Well, it's on hold till I can buy a set of tires for the front and get it suspended (I can't decide to go 1/4 elliptic or standard buggy spring). So for now, I'm slammin' at gettin' the body and body work finished cause labor is free...
Skip that looks very nice nice. I didnt know your sewing machine doubles as a welder, my Consew doesnt I should have bought an Adler...Danny
I must have missed the Whippet shell project pics. Would like to see that project for sure. Dooor loks good. Cool stuff. JH
Damn! This posting pics of homemade roadster doors without a "how-to" to go along with it just isn't right. Future Tech-o-matic here. More details and pics in another post please. Awesome! JH
This may not be 'traditional' but I'm going to ask anyway. I am in need of a couple of doors for my Paige project and not have the equipement to fab my own (or the experience, I know, I know...), but how hard wouldit be to take an original 'T' door and make a mold to repop it in glass? r
I dont know ANYTHING about fiberglass but I think it would go something like this. Use the orignal door as a "male" plug, use it to make your mold. Then after it hardens you would lay fiberglass into the "female" mold you make of the door. That should give you the outside of the door. You would still have to make the inner structure and bond the two halves together??? Like I said, I know nothing of fiberglass but I think I am remembering this info from some Street Rodder articles about the subject some time ago...
Hey Olcars...what a great lookin' door!!! Kinda makes mine look simple...I need a bead roller for sure!!! As for the deal about makin' glass doors, Dan's deal is right. But, I'd try wastin' some 1/2inch square tube for a framework and weld it up first (good excuse to learn how to weld...OR bolt it together and have a buddy weld it!) Then skin' it with some junkyard sheet metal. My door skins are gonna be made from the remnants of an old Whirlpool washin' machine!!! I did get lucky and happen to have the original hinges, but I bet you could find some simple ones at a hardware store...just my 2 cents. Oh, and hey Don!!! I'm gonna upgrade my Adler to a TIG soon..ha ha ha Here's a few more pics of the progress.....
Well, it doesn't look like the door's gonna get a skin today... I spent the better part of the morning makin' cardboard patterns for a suicide door latch. Yeah, I know they sell 'em (but I need front tires worse...ha ha). After I was happy with the patterns, I transfered 'em to the steel. The pivot is just a 5/16 bolt. I plan on cuttin the head off it to attach a decent knob later. The horizontal spring is slightly weaker than the verticle one, so the pin will stay forward with the door closed. It was a bit of trial & error, but it works pretty slick and measures only 6" long by about 3" tall...best of all, other than a day's labor, it was done outta scrap layin' around the shop! Here's a couple pics of the final piece...one "locked", the other "un-locked".
Hey Skip, That latch is ingenious...great work. The pix of the open car doors that Manyolkars posted are being made by a friend of mine. But they may not be "do-it-yourself" material. He's a v-e-r-y experienced tinbender with a shop full of brakes, shears, bead rollers, English wheel, planishing hammer, etc. Good news is he's a friend who's doing me a favor. I hope to be driving my modified, with those doors and repop `28 latches at the Roundup in Austin in March. Skulker
Hey Skulker... those doors look fantastic! Do you have any pics of the rest of your mod? Also, I still need to fab up the other saftey latch... I'll have to drag the camera out and take pix as I go to post...
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