02runnings half door build

[02running]

So ever since i have owned my 4runner I've always wanted half doors. in december i found a part out and managed to get a good amount of goodies. In that buy i got a set of donor doors. these doors had the internal wiring and handles. i was missing one actuator and some spare set of hinges, and window controls. these were the perfect set of doors for me to use to cut and make my half door dream come true.

first a marked off where i wanted to cut with some painters tape. with my angle grinder and a cut off disc i got started. this is a picture just after cutting the doors.
Untitled by ecsbaseball, on Flickr

next i made some templates of what i wanted out of cardboard. these helped me get pretty close to the shapes i needed to cut out.
Untitled by ecsbaseball, on Flickr

the next thing to do was to start cutting the pieces of metal out and getting them ready to fit. I bought a 4x8 sheet of 16 gauge steel to use as the new metal. we started by cutting the inside and top pieces of the doors. this is how it turned out after we got them welded in.
Untitled by ecsbaseball, on Flickr

how it looks from the other side.
Untitled by ecsbaseball, on Flickr

here is the back side with the bottom pieces on. the bottom is all one piece and the sides are panels that bolt on. the reason for this is so that i can still access the handle and the wiring. we welded tabs in the corners and taped them with 1/2 20 bolts and made them able to be bolted on. this was one of the most time consuming parts of the build.
Untitled by ecsbaseball, on Flickr

close up
Untitled by ecsbaseball, on Flickr

the panel.
Untitled by ecsbaseball, on Flickr

action shot of my buddy doing all the welding for me.
Untitled by ecsbaseball, on Flickr

close up of the top.
Untitled by ecsbaseball, on Flickr

my fear would be using the half doors then running in to a spot shower and ruining the inside of my truck. well after thinking about it and doing some searching i came up with the solution. snap on windows. i could some boat window material on ebay and a soft top snap replacement kit. this was pretty easy to do. it serves the purpose of a window. just screwed the snaps where i wanted them then added the buttons to the plastic like material. turned out pretty good.
Untitled by ecsbaseball, on Flickr

Untitled by ecsbaseball, on Flickr

 

[02running]

currently i have one door being prepped for paint and the second door should be finished up this week and headed to paint soon. should be all done by the 16th or so.

 

[IBallEngineer]

Do these really qualify as half doors? They seem like 3/4 or 7/8ths doors to me. Good luck!

:couch2:

 

[02running]

earlier this week i picked up the doors from the painter.
here is what they looked liked when i picked them up.
Untitled by ecsbaseball, on Flickr

today i put them all back together and installed them. here is the final product.
by ecsbaseball, on Flickr

by ecsbaseball, on Flickr

by ecsbaseball, on Flickr

i have all the wiring still ran so i can roll down my rear windows and also lock and unlock the doors. my key fob still works as well pretty excited how this all turned out. my goal was to have fully functional half doors. the only thing left for me to do to them is add speakers which i will do in the spring.
by ecsbaseball, on Flickr

by ecsbaseball, on Flickr

I picked up some snaps and boat vinal to help make windows. turned out pretty nice.
Untitled by ecsbaseball, on Flickr