two man - rear door cover mod to short door conversion?

[McSpeed]

I'm thinking of a mid time solution to a four man option while I save my pennies for the full conversion.

Anybody done this...or tell me why it won't or will work?

I'd like to unbolt the two man rear bed side cover door skins and cut the front flange area off where they bolt to the B pillar. I'm then assuming I could get a door handle/latch assembly from a soft door and drill and mount that to the hard panel and install regular soft door hinges so it will then act like a door.

Remove the inner supports, and set up the three point seat belt and place the seat pods in place.

Wouldn't this allow rear passengers in nice weather, and a shared experience with the rear canvas window rolled up?...yet you could drop the seat back covers back down and use the entire space for bed?

Still look like a two door truck until you need to pinch somebody in the back seat????

 

[McSpeed]

I picked up a set of rear door hinges (body and door for soft door), handles, and latch. I need to get a good feel for WHERE to put the hole in the door panel as I don't have a rear set of doors to compare. In the next couple of weeks I'm going to give this a shot. I realize I need to modify the inner structure/braces on the two man door panel so it will close.

Any pics or measurements of location of the handle hole in a rear door would be handy if somebody has it as well.

The downside to this, once I start chopping the panel...it is done. I intend to make it a four man at some point anyway - but between now and then I don't want to screw this up if it isn't going to work.

In the short run too, I need to find the base seat pad for the rear seats. I got the seat mount, just no pad. It has the upper pad on the floor closeout panel.

 

[DREDnot]

This is basically what I want to do too.

Search "HMMWV half doors" on Ebay.

Last night I saw a guy that has a bunch of "real"? hard half doors for sale.
He has good pics of the inside and outside of the hinge and latches for reference

 

[Crapgame]

The X Door inside arm rest/latch assembly/covers are fairly cheap, it would give the aluminum sheet door some rigidity. Starting with 3/16" alu sheet 36.5" x 23.25" might be cheaper than destroying a pair of blocking panels. I might do the same thing for Front Half Doors.

I've got a pair of mint, NATO camo rear half doors if you need any measurements. The half door armrest is a separate sheetmetal piece folded on a brake.

 

[McSpeed]

I'm going to tackle it this weekend - or at least start it. Seems like for now there are plenty of stock panels out there in case I ruin mine in this project. I intend on making the panel act like a soft door in terms of hinges and handles and latch. Looks like I will have to trim out plenty of metal. I'll post pics of my success or failure over the weekend/next week.

Once I cut the front lip off the skin of the door...it will never go back on right. But...let's see!!!!!!

 

[Ddk2001]

I made a set of half doors for my HMMWV out of 1/4" 6061 - used hard door hinges and some paddle latches - see here: https://www.steelsoldiers.com/showthread.php?170089-Thinking-about-making-some-half-doors

 

[McSpeed]

Mission 99% accomplished.

Started out by grinding the rivets off the inside of the door where the floor brace panel met. I followed by cutting the bolt flange off. I then fitted the door with soft door hinges in place and marked and drilled. I had to trim some of the front area out to access the hinge bolts to tighten them up.

The handle was more tricky. Had to trim a small spot on the back vertical brace to clear the door striker. I then hand fit the handles made a mark and drilled. I removed the front door handles and took a template off the frame and then cut that into the rear doors. This creates the handle limiter and spring return slot.

I installed new seatbelts and set up the rear seats. I need a butt pad for them though.

I need to go back and bond or rivet a bar along the bottom where the old support was as it is a bit flimsy down there.

 

[McSpeed]

Having trouble uploading pics.

 

[McSpeed]

Here is the progress. I'm VERY pleased with how this went down. It cost me a soft door rear hinge/handle kit (used), some saw blades and time.

The most difficult part was taking the template off the front door area and moving it to the rear and trimming out the smile face looking opening so the door handle would operate proper.

One other thing, I had to make a spacer out of a piece of hard rubber/plastic between the outer handle and door panel as there was a little slop since the aluminum skin is NOT as thick as the steel frame the soft door handle normally rides in.

 

[Crapgame]

Does somebody happen to have the Part # for the weatherstripping that goes over the X Door edge? The two part OC shaped that clips over the door edge with the tubing molded on that crushes to form the weather resistant not proof seal?