I am a new member, 67 years old and doing my first street rod/race car . Bought a 34 Ford coupe fiberglass car 15 years ago and decided to do something with it before I die, not even sure what brand it was. Kind of turning it into a 34 Dodge because it will have Chrysler drivetrain. I have never built a fiberglass car, did lot of 60's NSS superstock style cars. Car will mainly be a nostalgia race car. I have the chassis and roll cage done and the body mounted. The Car I bought was cheap, just like it came out of the molds, the doors are in two pieces, and you have to trim them and then glue them together it appears. My question is any advice on how to mount the hinges and door latches? Will be suicide doors. I bought universal hinges and bearclaw latches from speedway. The doors and body have no places cast into them to show where the hinges and latches would go. I was thinking fiber-glassing some aluminum strips in the doors and plates in the body is the way to go. It looks like I will have to cut pockets in both the body and door to get room for the hinges. And I guess hanging the inner section of the door first and then glueing the outside skin on to fit the body is the way to go? Other issue is what to do with the difference between where the two door halfas got together and the window opening. I guess a stock 34 has some kind of window frame? Any advice or YouTube channels or websites links are welcome.
Yes, mount the inner first, then add outer…but I’m thinking you would have to trim/fit the outer and inner together first to end up with the proper thickness of the door, so you know it’s depth when mounting it into the door opening,
Jelly mould bodies like you have typically have a frame around the door aperture, often wood (Ash is good) or steel, bonded to the f'glass with, these days, modern adhesives. But that's for a road car, for a race car it's probably more like you've already explained. Chris
There may not be any notches for door hinges since most fiberglass 33 and 34 fords use hiden hinges. As stated above, your going to need some kind frame work around the door jam. Your coupe should realy fly with a stge III max wedge.
I think it would make sense to try to just mount the inner door panels with your hinges and hardware and get them to work on the body before trying to bond the panels together. This would also make figuring out the window and latch stuff out where you can see what you are doing.
Inner first as others have said. This is what I did. I built hinges and mounted two steel flat bars to the hinges and to the inner panel. You can mount the other stuff to that. You can tweak or twist the bars slightly to align the inner panel top and bottom perfectly. Fit, refit and fit again takes time. I attached the outer panel temporary with small bolts 6/32 to get the fit before the fiber glass. You can space door gaps by using washers between the panels on the bolts.
Beef up the interior with wood braces. Use a good west systems epoxy resin on the wood. Then lag or bolt your hinge brackets to the wood.
Added note DO NOT bond metal or wood to any inner surface that is directly opposite the outside surface of the of the body. When in the sun the metal or wood will imprint the out side of the body. and you will see a dent, crease, or wave in the painted surface. Only bond to door jams, drip rails etc.
That looks exactly like my inner door the way it is made. Where did you buy the box for the latch at the upper front of the door? Looks like you used the same bear claw door striker. Thanks a lot that picture really helps.
@Splitbudaba has a build thread on his fiberglass 32. He covered his method of installing the doors. His build is very nice, so I'd recommend reading through it all, even if it's not a 34 and is for the street. You may pick up a few other tips. https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/glass-32-5-window.1049484/ You can go with stock style hinges or hidden hinges. Price each out and see what's involved to install then make the call.
The Jalopy Journal
