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Back to the Future (Doors)

During the dog days of summer I have been tinkering with a few small things on the truck as well as a big pain... the doors. I had the doors all mounted and decided to pull them back off and go thru them again and refine them a bit and fix a few ankle bitter issues. I had a few stripped bolts on the door hinges that I oversized to 7/16 fine threads that ended up working about as well as I could have hoped....now I just have to remember which ones are oversized.
While the doors were off I went ahead and Ospho'ed the inside that had some surface rust after I had hit it with a wirebrush to knock it down as much as possible. I then painted the inside with some rust inhibitor using a 360 degree wand. I also added a few drain holes at the bottom of the door since the bottom section was replaced with all new metal.

I also thought the return spring on the Altman latch wasn't up to par so I then cut a slot on the inner door panel and added an additional tension spring to the door latch lever. I still think I need to tweak it a little more...the spring needs to be stretched a little more than what it is in the closed position. I will cut the tab I welded onto the lever and reposition it to increase the tension a bit before I button up the door further.

I then fiddled with the felt channel around the window. It was “all clamps on deck” and I was able to work the felt into place by slowly clamping it and straightening the kinks as I went. I couldn't really get my arm down into the door to mark the length so in order to cut it to the proper length I worked it from one side to the next with one end placed into the channel clip and worked it to fit the door curves with clamps and put a piece of tape on the felt that aligned with the upper window seal. Then I removed the felt and measured from the same spot on upper window seal to the channel clip at the bottom and then transferred that measurement to the felt (minus 1/8 of an inch just because). That seemed to work out ok or at least better than trying reach into the door and mark it blindly. My arms already look like I had a fight with a bobcat reaching in and out of the inside of the door so anything that keeps me from needing to do that will be the path I take.

I got the RH door mounted back in place and then went ahead and mounted the inner trim piece around the window. I had already welded up the existing small holes in the door for the trim earlier and ground then down flush so I had to re-drill new holes for the trim because they didn't line up with the new aftermarket trim.

I hope to get the final adjustments done on the latch return spring and get the LH door up to the same completion level (mounted) so that I can finally move on from these Rubik's cube doors. I've spent 2 months working on these doors so I need them done and in my rearview mirror so I can move along to the next task.