Door Hinge

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Major System Category: Body (Door)
Task: Door hinge
Parts: Door hinge and internal frame
Prerequisite Tasks:
Additional Costs:
Time Requirement: 5 - 6 hours
Date Started: November 11, 2012
Date Completed:  November 14, 2012
The door hinge, the internal frame, power window motor, window tracks and the latch really need to be part of the same discussion. If you just install the hinge without thinking about everything else, then you are going to end up taking everything apart and redoing things anyway. the latch and hinge are on opposite sides of the internal frame. The power window motor and window tracks  happen before and after this section.

Front trim panel for driver's side door. I found it useful to have a table next to the lift  as a work area.

I am going to break things down into multiple sections. The major consideration here is that each of these systems have to worked together. This is what makes the door construction a pain. Unlike so many other things, where you can focus on one item, you will need to keep all of these items in mind as you build the doors:

1. Hinge
2. Power window motor and tracks (not attached)
3. Latch
4. Door poppers (optional component)
5. Shaved Handles (optional component)
6. Side mirrors

Hinge plate set in place so I could get a preliminary placement prior to cutting holes. I added sound proofing to the interior of the door. I would strongly recommend this as the doors seem kind of thin.

The manual makes this entire process sound like a pleasant walk in the park. While there is nothing overly complicated, there is lots of adjustment. Let me repeat that: THERE IS LOTS OF ADJUSTMENT.

The hinge and trim plate set in place on the door. Everything seemed so simple at this point. However, I have read enough on other builder blogs to know this is anything but simple.

The first thing I notice is that the manual makes everything look very simple to fit together. It does fit together, but not easily. If you follow the instructions and measurements, you will be off to a good start.

This is a close up of the hinge plate and the internal frame as they fit inside the door. They are not  bolted together yet. The black metal piece is the window track.

The front door trim panels are smaller than they look in the manual. it is easy to miss them in the sheet metal box. I found a Dremel tool with stiffer cut off wheel to useful in cutting the openings for the hinge plate. Burrs and jagged edges can be smoothed out using a sanding drum. Anything bigger is going to get in the way. These doors are not that large, and it seems they get smaller as systems get installed.

This is a photo much further along in the process for the door build. It shows the  hinge plate and internal frame bolted together. Some of the electrical work is complete and those cables snake out through the opening above the hinge plate.

There are two sets of bolts to work with. The first set connects the hinge plate to the internal frame. (Keep the socket wrench handy, you are going to need it to move things around.) the second set of bolts connect the front of the hinge through the square holes for the trim plate. There is a certain amount of adjustment room for these connections. However, these adjustments become more limited when the latch is attached on the other end of the internal frame.

Door Panels (Sound Proof)

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Major System Category: Sound/Heat Proofing
Task: Apply sound proofing materials
Parts:
Prerequisite Tasks: Need to be finished with an area
Additional Costs: $100
Time Requirement: On going
Date Started: September 10, 2012
Date Completed: September 10, 2012
My plan was to work my way around the car. The next item I planned to tackle was the passenger side door. There's just one glitch in this plan. I am still waiting on the front door trim panels. I need these pieces to anchor the internal door frame.

Sound proofing the interior door area.

I had retrieved the doors from my storage locker (about 4 miles down the road). It was sometime after I had everything else set up to start working on the doors that i realized I did not have this piece of the puzzle. There are other pieces I could have worked around, but I did not want to guess about placement for things with the front trim panels.

I decided to sound proof the inside of the doors. This was the one thing I could get done. This is a easy task to accomplish. I kept the area around the door handle free (for the moment), just in case I change my mind about the door poppers, or if they prove unreliable. However, my intention is to close them off and cover them with a spare piece of fiber glass.

Note: Initially, I was concerned about miscellaneous fiber glass pieces, but once I started on the body cut outs for the body shell, I realized I had enough for the shaved door handles.