Fitting model A doors inside the body like a deuce HOW????

I am playing, well a bit past playing. I have attacked a perfectly good door with a cut off wheel and grinder. I am trying to get my model a doors to fit inside the opening so they look similar to a 32 door fitment. Thinking of just grinding and cutting down the overlapping lip and then welding rod on the inside and making hinge adjustments. Anybody got any helpful hints or ideas on how to do this. Let me know. Thanks...

 

that's a big job, have seen it done, one way was to cut and extend the body, you still have to modify the door pillars so the door shuts onto them.
some f/g body manufacturers make "a" bodies with flush fitting doors, maybe check them out first hand for ideas?
well worth the work tho as it cuts down wind noise etc.

 

I would consider leaving the door alone,as much as possible.
Instead,modify the A and B pillars,door sill and header.
And figure out how to include weather stripping all the way around.
LOTS of work for a small gain.

 

I re-did one that someone had tried to do that way.(cut and welded edges) Good thing I was getting paid by the hour. I wouldn't do it that way again. The hindges will require more than "adjustment"

 

I am doing the same thing with my 30 closed cab pickup.

I started with 4 unattached panels- the cowl , 2doors and a rear panel, I have to build a floor and roof any way so, I just moved the rear panel back until I had a good door gap at the top of the door.

The door, from the belt line down, was a different story. From the belt line down to the bottom of the door it ran in so the last six inches still overlapped on the rear panel.

I unpicked the fold of the door skin over the door frame from the bottom of the belt line to the bottom of the door and straightened out the door skin.

I cut the door frame at the bottom corner and moved the out side of the door frame in about ¼ inch.

I used a 3 foot stainless steel ruler to mark the new fold on the edge of the door, I used a dolly that looks like a comer in shape- <font color="blue"> , </font> - it has a blade at one end a is round at the other.

I clamped a bit of 1/8 x 2 inch steel strap along the line on the out side of the door and using the blade part of the dolly underneath, I started to fold the door skin over the door frame.

Just get the fold started all the way down the edge, then get it to 90o then tap it flat to the doorframe. Tack the door skin to the doorframe every 4 inches and seal the fold with calking compound.

I did meet up with some one that did the same but on a coupe, his already had a floor and roof.

He had removed the wood that ran on the inside of the pillar, he cut from the top of the door down the quarter panel using a very thin 4 inch cut off wheel. The cut was made about ¼ inch back from the edge and slid behind the out side panel and welded. He also had to rework the roof at the top of the door, the step and the edge of the doors as above.

 

I did that once on a coupe.
I cut and welded a step in the 1/4 panel.
An insane amount of work, next time I'll lengthen the body a little, and then build up the jamb.

 

Well thanks for the info guys I think I may have gone about this wrong not a huge problem but will need to undo what I did and that always sucks... Live and learn, will probably spend some more time playing and see it I can still do it if not new door or fix what I got...you get suggestions from people and sometimes you should sleep on it befot tacking it...

 

Only blatant changes and stance count. If you can't see a cosmetic change from the sidewalk as the car goes down the street it was a waste of time. mone, and energy.
Spend your door jamb change time porting your heads/intake passages instead.

 

[ QUOTE ]
Only blatant changes and stance count. If you can't see a cosmetic change from the sidewalk as the car goes down the street it was a waste of time. mone, and energy.
Spend your door jamb change time porting your heads/intake passages instead.

[/ QUOTE ]

apparently SOME PEOPLE don't have any appreciation for the details. i on the other hand do and many of my friends do as well, but then most of them build cars as well. it is true the average Joe or car show attendee will not notice certain changes but the look on someones face when they do make the realization and then drag their friend, wife, etc. over to check it out, it is all worth it. i do it more for myself than anyone else though. there are just certain ways that I think things should be done and if someone else wants to do it different, that is fine by me, but i am gonna do it my way. not that i mind a little helpful advice as that can be invaluable, but i take it, think about it and then make up my own mind.

i too plan to do this modification on my Model A phantom pickup and i don't care if ANYONE notices. there are alot of things you can do to a car that most people will not notice but that (i believe anyway) definatly affect the overall look of that car. ever look at a certain car and just think "DAMN that looks good" but you can't quite figure out why?? even if the details are not "noticed" they can definatly make an impact on the overall "look" of the car and in that respect they actually are noticed. not so much as a single modification but as a tight overall package. but hey! thats just MY opinion.

i'll post pics when i get to that mod (right after the chop) but i plan to lenghthen the doors as well as the door opening and then build new inner jambs. and as it was allready stated it will definatly require more than just a hinge "adjustment" on that end. good luck if you do indeed still decide to tackle this modification.

 

So only doing it the easy way counts, DrJ?
If thats true, than why do it at all...

 

[ QUOTE ]
So only doing it the easy way counts, DrJ?
If thats true, than why do it at all...

[/ QUOTE ]

In some cases, for some people, yes, in your own words this job is "...An insane amount of work,.."
It's also one of those jobs that an experienced and professional "custombuilder" or professional "Metalshaper" will do to show their prowess at going that extra mile no matter how much work it is to et the job done.
Like people who will chop a 4 door sedan 1/2 an inch, just to say they did.
I may be assuming, but I think if a person has the experience and exprtise to do this difficult proceedure they would already know what it entails to do it.
Since it is definitely more than just moving the hinges, I think it prudent to advise the questioner not to go there untill they gain more experience in metal working,and fabrication.

The questioner listed his areas of expertise as Accountant-Upholsterer-Rodder so I don't think it's fair to him for pros to go telling him "yea, go ahead and slice the door jambs out and move them back and just remake the most intricately shaped area of a car."
It's not that simple and it's easy to make scrap out of an otherwise good body by trying it with only a written step by step.
And you guys know that.

 

sheeeeeit, it's only metal cut, weld, grind. i learned it by doin it. did'nt have too many people to learn from so i read alot, looked at under construction pics and was NEVER afraid to cut anything apart. my first suicide doors took me THREE tries to get right. i had to build a new door jamb ever time too but it all worked out in the end. though you do have a point. not EVERYONE can handle such an undertaking. you just made it sound like it was'nt worth doing cause no one would notice. but i understand where your comin from now Doc. no harm in offering some words of caution thats for sure.

 

Fair enough Doc, for this project I agree with you.
but if used as a general rule, I dont.

 

Kustombuilder,
Ive been meaning to say what I think of your chopped up and brutalized A sedan...

It's one of the finest looking jigsaw puzzles of metal panels I've seen go together in a long time and a totally fresh idea in a hobby that is a glut of monkey-see-dos.
Just when it seems there isn't anything new that can be done someone does something that's never had anything even close to it done.
You "DO" right by metal.

Now don't go getting fat in the head over that, and please fix your website (link doesn't work) so people can see the steps to making the pickup cab and the making of the door jambs, ok?!

 

[ QUOTE ]
Fair enough Doc, for this project I agree with you.
but if used as a general rule, I dont.

[/ QUOTE ]

I only meant it for this one case, and similar cases.
Actually I went out on a limb since I don't really know his level of fabrication experience. But I figure it's better to "suggest" someone may be in over their heads than just let them go on into a possible disaster.


On the little things;
I like subtle changes too, on "show cars" and that special car that stands as a metalworker's portfolio of all the fine work he's capable of.
But there comes a point where they are only significant to those few people who are intimate with every nuance of the original car in order to appreciate the changes.
It can also lead back to where Boyd and Company went with so many parts of the Ford changed it just wasn't a Ford anymore. After smoothing out the jambs the hinges gotta go next and so forth. Back into that bag that a lot of people on this board have rejected for simpler solutions to having fun.

I like the Oh WOW! cars that win the sweepstakes awards.
I'll spend the time to check for all the little changes, and even research the stock car to find them if I'm not familiar with it. but a lot of the time, it's embroidering your own shorts if no one knows you changed something.
A few years back one of the magazines got an irate letter from a car owner when they called his Fleetline Chevy an Oldsmobile...Didn't they know he had stretched the frame and put the Olds front sheet metal on and installed Olds tail lights and even the Olds Dashboard and stering wheel...couldn't they tell he'd done all that custom work to his Chevy? hmmm,no.

 

Thats why I told him how much work it was...
and explaining that cutting the body in half to do this job is probably LESS work, is an even more effective warning, IMO.
On the other hand, you have to give people the benifit of the doubt.
If I would have lissened to all the people that were trying to protect me from myself, I'd be driving a Honda today.

 

thanks for the compliments Doc. i won't be getting a big head any time soon. i realize that i have ALOT to learn and i hope i never stop learning. thats the fun part for me. besides i hang out with a few old timers that have been doing some of the most incredible work around since BEFORE i was even born. i'm humbled by just being around them but they are a great help when i get stuck too.
i REALLY hope to have the model A in one piece by sometime next summer. lots of customer cars to do and i am naturaly lazy so i have that to overcome aswell . but with a little help from my friends i think i can pull it off. or have fun tryin.


Mike Brimm

 

It's worth the work...if that's the look your going for. I don't know how well this will show but it involved about 100 hours to inset the doors and completly rebuild, and smooth the jambs.

 

Well I appreciate all the opinions and that is what I was looking for... I would put my fabricating skills at intermediate (far from a pro, but a decent amatuer).

The truck I am starting with has some issues to begin with and I have fixed most of them. This truck had been modified (not well) in a number of places, door and hinge work has been done. Hard to say if when the top was filled if they stretched the body a 1/2 or 3/4 of and inch. The truck has no floor of firewall and was not square in any sense of the word. I got every thing square but the door opening were not right. The doors fit inside the door but the hinge which I believe is wrong, it has a consistant gap between the door and the body on the hinge side. On the non-hinge side the top of the door fits inside the body to the belt line. The top of the door overlaps like is suppose to and the botton below the beltline has the correct overlap. So I am a bit puzzled, but think that the top was extended a little but not the bottom (sill plate).

I have hacked the door but can probably save it. Worse case I may need to find someone that has cut down a sport coupe to a roadster and get their door tops. I have decided that I will look at it again tonight and decide what and where to go. Thanks.

 

WOW Thanks Grimlok...sent you a PM.

 

Lucky I say go for it. If it turns out that you do not like it then put it back the way it was. I saw the coupe that Metalshapes did and he had an insane amount of time in it, and it was bitchen. I feel that DrJ is missing the point. The hobby of building the car is in the time that you spend building it, besides its your car and it should be built the way YOU want it not for some person sitting on the side lines. If we all did not try something that we had never done before than hot rods would have never come into the world.