I have a 27 T-Bucket- live in central TN and sure wish someone who has put a door in a bucket would feel like helping me put a door in it, I will pay for knowledge not wanting free help, Thanks
If it is a glass body there are instructions/tutorials on putting doors in glass bodies. Off hand I can't remember exactly where to tell you where to find the info even though I probably have the book in my stash.
@Tim_with_a_T , didn't you add doors to your current build? I think it was you, great execution and results.
https://www.tbucketplans.com/how-to-put-a-door-in-a-t-bucket/ https://www.tbucketplans.com/t-bucket-doors/
As mentioned, @Tim_with_a_T walked through the process in his build thread. https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/the-belly-button-bucket-build-thread.1000590/
This is where I started messing with the doors: https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...et-build-thread.1000590/page-38#post-15277075
It appears that they went out of business sometime before 2008. I found this discussion: https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/is-a-i-fiberglass-still-in-business.266718/ Russ
I don't remember seeing anything out of them for maybe 30 years. They were going strong in the 70's when guys were building T buckets a lot. They sold bodies along with the kits to make the opening doors. Now it would be to study what Tim with a T has posted in his thread and follow his lead. As far as working fiberglass goes I am going to send you away from cars to Don Casey a sailboat repair and redo guru. You can buy this book used for under 3 dollars from one of the Used book vendors and it is a great tutorial for working with fiberglass. I've had a copy since I first bought my sailboat. https://www.amazon.com/Sailboat-Hul...=1738729333&sprefix=Don+Casey+,aps,229&sr=8-4
Lots of good information there, the only sugestions I will add are what I learned when I cut doors in my 27 roadster. I wish I had used heavier hinges than I did. If you are going to add just one door I'd suggest doing it on the passenger side, in my case the driver's side (in my build anyway) is a tight fit with the steering while getting in. A big guy (I am 5' 10" and 145) can better get in driving position sliding over from the passenger area. When I had completed the car my cousin had came to look at it and I was going to give him a ride, he is probably 200#'s and the body flexed enough that the doors wouldn't close To fix that poor design issue I welded supports to the frame for the front seat mounts and that fixed the problem. I used "kitty hair" to "glue" the wood to the fiberglass, I used kitty hair to "glue" the door jambs and then fiberglassed the heck out of all of it. I don't seem to have any pictures of that. I used a lot of the information listed earlier to figure out how to do it. There was a lot of puzzling it out as I went. I used West Systems epoxy, it didn't have the odor issues of other brands (my wife could smell it but I couldn't Feel free to message me or?? if you have a specific question .
Try Class Glass Performance - I bought my altered body from them and it was out of the Old Ai Mold - they advertise a T-bucket and price out a door installation as an option so they may have that mold too
that article was from 1974. i just posted that to give an idea of the installation. i remember a book by chester greenhalgh that was all about building a t, and he may have fit 2x4s to the door. the main thing is, things can get pretty sloppy when you open up one side of the body.
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