COE Glutton for punishment

***embly required

 

Is that a conventional cab that you plan to convert?

 

Yes Steve.
I was inspired by luxlx on this group here and a guy on the oldgmctrucks forum...
I actually had all the parts for years but i didnt start untill thia weekend cuz im bored..
It pushes me to drive my coe in and out of the garage so i guess its a good thing..

 

I'd raise the fenders higher than original to the COE, then gullwing the doors. (easy to say when someone else is doing the work)

 

Interesting project. I see lots of welding in your future Seth!

 

Yes Scott I think im going to order the tinman oxytorch and try to gasweld as much as i can...i got miles of weld to go.
Ive saved some pics of a guy converting a regular cab using coe doors,coe hood,coe cab parts but in my case I have none of those..
I will see how it goes.
I got in the sheet metal union and have access to lots of metal and tools from school...

 

Haha no gullwings Steve

 

Started cutting

 

I see you have your door tack welded in place, are you sure if it swung open, it would clear the fender.

 

I think so...im still going to cut an inch up around the fender where a 1x3 tubing will be shaped around the fender just like my ford coe

 

U can see it here

 

Man that wheel opening is huge! Do you plan on running large diameter wheels?
Coulda probably taken a couple inches out of the middle of the fender....

 

Yes I did think about shortening the fender but i got afraid of messing up the lines...
This is a photoshop of what i wanted to do initially.

But im gonna have to go with huge wheels...
Im just playing with the cab..once I have it somewhat presentable..ill move on with another one of my projects till i get bored again

 

I could still re weld the door skin or buy another door then cut the fender or viceversa

 

The longer fender looks kinda cool...you could also re-shape/reduce the size of the wheel opening later.
What ch***is are you planning to use?

 

I was thinking about closing the opening also..
Im not sure yet..c20 and c30s are plaentiful and cheap

 

You could relocate the hinge pin location forward. Then the door would swing out wider....(or do suicide doors and crawl over the fender to get in and out... LOL)

 

Wouldnt the forward pin pull the door towards the fender jamming it agaist it?
Im thinking of modifying some hinges and relocating them to the outside...then reinforcing the inside of the door post with 2x2 square tubing on the inside

 

Get down on your knees on the shop floor with a piece of chalk. Draw a vertical view the way it is, then if you need clearance, you can experiment with moving the pivot point (hinge) If you need more clearance, forward, out, or both will help.

 

Wait..how.

 

Those gull wing doors someone suggested are looking better now......

 

The shop floor can be used as a giant sheet of paper.
There is a story about Henry Ford and some of his engineers getting down on the shop floor to draw out plans for his twin engined Ford trucks that were used to haul B-24 parts from Willow Run to the Texas ***embly plant.

 

I was thinking doors that are removable pop them in and out..
The only gull wings I respect are the ones from the back to the future Delorean.

I understand the concept of drawing on the floor,bit how do I found the trayectory of door swing with a vertical line?

 

Nope, moving the hinge pin forward makes the door swing further out...take it to an extreme, imagine if the pin was located 20 feet in front of the truck...as the door swings, it would have a huge arc. How much it would help to move the pin forward is best done by drawing a full scale diagram

 

I can see it now

 

It opens ok with the upper stock hinge...
Im thinking of using jeep wrangler style hinges on the outside...
Ideas?

 

IIRC the upper hinge pin is inside the door skin and the lower is outside of the door skin. This will cause the rear of the door to swing up as it swings out. (Just a bit of gullwing effect) This might be necessary for clearance. (I know, I know, we've been through this before) You are a smart guy, mock up the Jeep hinges and if everything clears, go for it.

 

You need something like a double action trunk hinge to move the door outwards as it swings.

 

Got any ideas what kind of car I could get them out of?