Street Rodder Road Tour–Door Jam
Yeah we meant to say “jam” instead of the correct spelling of “jamb”. We’ve been jamming on these doors pretty intensely, so it was an appropriate play on words. It’s amazing how much time you can invest in a pair of doors, when you consider the hinge rebuild, latch installation, power window installation, and rust repair, you end up with quite the long list of chores.
So, Delton and Richard have thoroughly gone through the doors to make them new again. Along with the restoration and repair, they shaved the door handles and locks, and filled the original trim holes. The boys are still hard at it with the rest of the body, but you can look forward to seeing some very cool stuff in future installments. Body modifications, engine and transmission explanations and much more is on the way, so stay tuned every Friday morning for updates!
Have you ever removed the door hinges from an old Ford? Why did they install them with Phillips-head bolts??? We had to spend lots of time removing the bolts, but figured out a great way to do it. We welded a small piece of steel to the bolt head.
Then, we could take an adjustable wrench to break the bolt loose. The counter sunk bolt is hard to access, so welding a piece of steel to the bolt is the only way to go.
You can’t win ’em all! We broke one of the bolts off in the door, so we’ll have to dig that one out. The other bolt holes will need a good bit of cleaning, but they’re in decent shape.
The hinges saw a bit of heat with our bolt removal process, but they are usable. We will replace the pins, and then sandblast the hinges to prep them for installation.
As far as latches are concerned, we ditched the original design and installed some Bear Claw-style latches instead.
The strikers for the Bear Claw latches were an easy install. Now the doors will open and shut nicely, and we can install the power window motors and door actuators when we get a little closer to final assembly.