1) Here is the seatbelt bracket that is welded in place. It is in the way of the new hinges that will be installed.
3) You want the hinges to be spaced as far apart from each other as possible. The further you can space them the sturdier your door will be. Alignment of the hinges is very important. If they are not inline perfectly with each other they will bind and cause pre-mature wear of the hinge bushings. To get them aligned a piece of rod was slid into the hinge pivot points and the proper spacing was measured out. To keep the spacing exact, a piece of 1" angle was welded to the backside of the hinge pockets.
4) Position the hinge pockets so that the pivot point on the backside of the pocket is as close to the outside body skin as possible without touching it (about a 1/8” away is good) to allow the door to swing out away from the cab. I held the hinge pockets in position and traced them with a Sharpie marker. Because the hinge pockets have round edges, a spot weld drill bit was used to cut the corners out.
6) The hinge pockets are then slid into place for a clearance check. The piece of 1” angle that was welded to the back of the pockets is holding them in place and will not be removed. It will help stiffen the pockets and keep them from flexing. The rest of the pocket that is sticking out will be cut off and ground down to almost flush with the cab skin.
7) With the hinge pockets in place, the hinges and hinge pins were installed. A piece of stock was clamped into place to check that the hinges swung smooth and free without binding. With the hinges on and in the open position, a level was used to make sure the hinges were straight up and down. When you are satisfied of the hinge pocket location you can then use the Sharpie marker to trace around the pocket to mark the cut off points.
12) In this picture you see a piece of 1/8” plate that is tack welded to the inner skin. You do not need to weld it all the way around, just good tack welds. Behind the door skin at the rear of the bottom hinge pocket I welded in a piece of 1” angle that was about 8” long. I welded the angle to the back of the hinge pocket, and also to the door skin.
10) After you have installed the new latch in the front of the door, install the new strike pin. After you figure out the location, trim down the strike plate, cut a hole in the cab jamb, and tack weld it into place.
14) We can now remove the old hinges. Once the hinges are off you can then weld up the holes where you drilled out the welds.
5) I used an air grinder with a cut off wheel. I like to cut the opening a little small and then file it out by hand to get an exact fit for the hinge pocket. When you are welding 1/8” tubing to sheet metal you don’t want a gap. It will want to burn through pretty easy.
2) Removal of this bracket is done by drilling out the spot welds that hold it in place. The use of a spot weld removal bit comes in very handy for this.
11) Here is the new latch and latch plate installed into the door. I like to locate the plate around the center of the door between the factory hinges. You want a semi-snug fit. When you are happy with how the plate fits, weld the plate in place. On the left side of the picture you see a little tab sticking out. This is the latch release that will open the door. You can attach your electric door popper to this, or come up with a way to route new handle rods from your existing door handle to open it.
13) Welded a 2” wide 1/8” thick piece of metal to the backside of the door jams to the inner pillar and to both of the hinge pockets. This will strengthen the pockets and keep them from flexing up when the door is opened.
You will then cut out the part of the inner-door skin for the pocket to fit into. Remember to cut the hole to an exact fit for the pocket. With the door closed all the way and flush with the cab you can now tack weld the pockets in place. You can now unbolt the new hinges from the door and remove the old factory hinge pins. Do not remove the factory hinges from the cab or door yet. You will need these to act as a door prop when you bolt the door back on. It is now time to bolt the door back onto the new suicide hinges to test. You'll notice that the door sagged a little bit when it slid off the factory hinge. Do not worry, we will brace the door skin to stiffen it up later.
8) Remove the paint to get it ready to be welded. For tight areas paint stripper maybe the best method.
9) After the hinge pockets are welded into the cab it is time to install the swinging part of the hinge. When that part is installed, bolt the door pockets to the hinge and get them centered as much as possible. Close the new hinges and shut the door as much as it will go, because the new hinges get in the way, the door will not close all the way. With the door still swinging on the factory hinge, it makes it easy to draw a line around the hinge-door pocket.
15) To make a template for the old speaker wire hole, I took a piece of paper and taped it over the hole. Then took a pencil and shaded around the edge of the hole. This method works great for making door handle filler plates as well. After I cut out the template, I transferred it to a piece of 16ga sheet metal and cut it out.
16) To make sure you don’t drop the filler plate down into the hole, I tack welded a piece of metal to it so I could hold it in place to get it tacked in. Then I just broke off the handle and ground the tack weld off.
17) Once all welds are grinded smooth, body filler added then sanded. Ready to be painted.
18) The finished product. The hinges in this kit allow you to open your doors a full 90 degrees. If you don’t want them to, a threaded stop is included so you can set how far you want them to open. The total install time for one door took me 4 days, a total of 55 hours.
