Here is a detailed how-to on Jimmy P's suicide door setuop on his 1988 Chevy Project truck. All pictures, all information, and all work credited to Jimmy P.
*****Under Construction*****
I have had a few people ask about it so I decided to take a bunch of pics as I did my drivers door. I will be doing this in 3 steps: Installing the hinges, installing the latches and lastly doing the finish work and strengthening the doors to prevent sag. This is probably one of the coolest mods you can do to your truck in my opinion doest matter if you want to turn heads at Mcdonalds or make a scene at your favorite show. One thing thats cool about suiciding your doors is that its a "cool" mod in almost every field of the automotive world (old street rodders, the import crowd and of course custom trucks ) .
First you need to get yourself some hinges. I got some blue prints for making your own from member bigchevman (thanks btw) that are also available on ebay. They seem like they would work just fine but I didnt have the time to run around and gather parts and make them. I looked at autolocs kit but it seemed kinda cheap and I hadnt heard much good about it. So I found a hinge kit from Carolina Custom Hot Rods. I bought them from Jason at www.suicidedoors.com .Here is the link right to the kit:
http://www.suicidedoors.com/product...omplete-kit.htmYea its expensive ($425 shipped) but from my research its the best and Ive had great service from Jason in the past.
Parts Needed
Tools Needed
- Grinding & sanding disc
- Drill with bits
- Good Welder (I used TIG)
- Levels
- A couple sharpie markers (silver & black)
- Tape measure and straight edges
Procedure
1) First your going to want to strip your interior out. Carpet, seats, door rubbers, door panels, inner door guts, door handles/latches, most interior plastic etc. I would recomend wiping down the metal that you will be working on with windex or some cleaner.
2) Level your truck out...I leveled mine using 4 jackstands. I put a level on the rockers and the back wall under the window to get it perfect.3) Trim the metal back to make room for the new hinge pockets. I marked it with the sharpie marker first then cut with the 3" cutting wheel. You can just bend the metal back so you can reweld later to look stock. I hacked the pass side out...now I have to make new fillers for that side.
4) Assemble the hinges. Take the 5/16" rod and slide it into the hinge pockets. This is to keep the hinges lined up while you are welding in the angle iron to the hinges. I welded the 15" angle iron to the back of the hinge pockets in 6-8 places per side. This just keeps the hinges square and helps to strengthen them up so there isnt any flex. I found that 15" apart would fit the best in the door. You may be able to get them longer for better support but it complicates things later in the door mounting.
5) Mount the Hinges in the Door. First you want to measure 6" up from thecenter of the original door latch pin. Put a mark there with you handie sharpie. This is the mark for the bottom of the top hinge pocket.
6) Next take your hinge setup and use a 8" c-clamp to hold it in place on the door post. Line the bottom of the top hinge pocket up with that mark you made. Use the level to get it level from side to side. Get the corner of the top hinge pocket as close to the edge as possible.
7) Mark the holes for the new hinges. I found that masking tape could give an even closer mark than the sharpie marker. You want these pocket holes to be as exact as possible too.
8) I drilled the corners out to get them rounded like the pockets are. Then used the 3" cut off wheel to trim them out.
9) Next you need to trim the lip inside the door to clear the hinges. I used the 3" cut off again. Its tough and I promise there will be various cuts and blood gushing from your hands when you get done with this part. You can see where I marked what needed to be cut.
10) Now you can slip the hinge setup into the door.
11) You will need to trim some of the end of the brackets off. There is some extra metal on these hinges to make them more universal. I used the level again to get them straight.
12) Once again the masking tape is used to mark the metal on the hinge pockets that needs to be trimmed. A sharpie marker may also work for this.
13) Remove the hinge pockets once again to trim off the extra and clean up the area around the hole on the door post with a sanding disc.
14) When you have the area all cleaned up and ready for weld, take your trimmed hinge pockets and set them in the door. Then tack weld them in maybe 8 places each.
15) Now its finally time to bolt in the actual hinges. I put the bottom bolt going in from the top and the top one from the bottom. Its hard getting them in there and it may require some tapping with a hammer. I didnt put the nuts on the hinge bolts yet. You will need to cut a hole to install the top nut on the hinge but I'll do that later.
16) Measure the hinges to make sure they are square. It should be the same distance between the two.
17) Next clamp a piece of flat stock or tube to the each of the hinges. This way you can check to make sure they wont be twisting and fighting each other as the door opens. They should swing extremely easily with hardly any resistance.
18) Whew step 18!! I forgot how much I have actually done on these things....anyways you now need to bolt on the door plate at this point. They float around so make sure and center them as much as you can. Tighten down them as tight as you can so they don't budge.
19) Now to start on the door part of the install. Keep your stock hinges on for now and as long as your door lined up in stock form it will line up in suicide mode.
20) Now you can close your door until the new hinges stop them. This will give you an idea of where they will sit in the door. You can see that you will need to add some material because the hinges miss alot of the metal of the stock inner door.
21) The little vent thing on the back of the door will need to be filled in for strength because the bottom hinge goes in this area.
22) Next the inner door will need some strengthening also so I took a 19"x7" piece of 18 gauge, folded the edges and tacked it in place.
23) Close the door again as far as it will go. Take your sharpie and mark around both the hinges.
24) Ok so you can take out the 3" cutting wheel again and slowly trim out the metal until the hinge pocket sits fully in the door and the door closes completely. Clean up the edges for welding at the same time. Should come out something like this:
25) With the door closed all the way go ahead and tack the door hinge pockets to the door like this:
26) Now you can go ahead and remove the front fender so you can access the stock hinge pins since at this point the door won't open. Remove the stock pins and carefully swing the door open in suicide style. I opened and closed mine about 50 times then called all my neighbors and relatives over to watch (ok maybe not but i was excited). It will sag probably 1/2" at this point but don't be alarmed its only tacked together right now.
Sagging:
27) Next I took off the doors and layed them down flat to work on them. Its just easier to weld them up and grind the excess metal down. I ground down the excess pocket metal and welded them solid to the doors.
28) Ok so now you just have to go back and finish weld the pocket to the door jam and your all set. The door will still sag a little and mine rubs slightly on the lower body line as it begins to open. Once I get the gaps perfected and the door stiffened up Im pretty confident I should clear it just fine.
