doors off

[bobbywalter]

as a former state safety inspector here in utah we were instructed to fail vehicles with removed doors that were not on a list of vehicles that had been designed with removable doors.

nothing about crap falling out. its about the structural integrity that is lost when taking the doors off. factory vehicles like wranglers have added support to compensate for no doors

well thats exactly it isnt it? certainly there is a oem list....and when my custom rig comes up to get inspected for its custom title with ...say some sort of of high visibility tubes for doors or rocker boatsided rocker extensions making the opening exponantionally stronger then the oem offering...or a combination of those two... you would be amending that list to add my home built to it.


happens everyday. then i get to pay some insurance company 2500 a year or more for avc/or some other custom policy on my creation so i can drive it down the road.


of course thats the cost of being free.

 

[cammeddrz]

well thats exactly it isnt it? certainly there is a oem list....and when my custom rig comes up to get inspected for its custom title with ...say some sort of of high visibility tubes for doors or rocker boatsided rocker extensions making the opening exponantionally stronger then the oem offering...or a combination of those two... you would be amending that list to add my home built to it.


happens everyday. then i get to pay some insurance company 2500 a year or more for avc/or some other custom policy on my creation so i can drive it down the road.


of course thats the cost of being free.

and yes monthly updates to the list are emailed to all stations, as are any monthly changes in laws. the "list" isn't a physical piece of paper that the i/m station refers to. the inspector actually calls the highway patrol's office and gives them the vin and the highway patrol will give a thumbs up or thumbs down

here in utah getting a "kit"-class title is next to impossible. i tried on my 1988 bII and god help you if you use a body that the highway patrol can i dentify as a factory body (to get a kit title the first inspection must be performed by the highway patrol, not an i/m station) and if the highway patrol can identify that you did not manufacture even the smallest part of the body they will inspect it as either the vehicle the body parts are from or just reject it as "true vehicle unknown"

thats for the safety inspection

for the emissions the exact same rules apply except the health department is one who does the first emissions test. and they can tell factory body parts a mile away too. and i ended up just sticking with "1988 bronco ii" because if i titled it as "kit" the emissions standards for model year 2010 cars would be held against me as opposed to the looser 1988 model year standards

and either way for the love of god do not let either place see a factory vin, or the fact that you removed a factory vin because either way its not a kit car because it has an existing vin, or you removed the vin of a factory car which is illegal as hell

that being said your "highly visible" strengthening would not be accepted but small, simple, tubular "half" doors are totally acceptable. but if it looks safe most inspectors don't follow the law to the letter anyway so they pass it. if it looked dangerous they'd fail it

 

[rangerman84]

well i asked a highway patrol man the other day ( my step dad) and he said i could do it i would just look red neck as hell but i like the way it looks thanks for the information

 

[Little X]

well i asked a highway patrol man the other day ( my step dad) and he said i could do it i would just look red neck as hell but i like the way it looks thanks for the information

In NC you do need a 4" lip and 2 rearward facing mirrors. Most cops don't know/care about the 4" lip though.

 

[greasemonkey6886]

I had plans on doing the door removal on my 89 also but after seeing the trip 1/2 doors that BONES did on his I might just do that. Just need to figure a way to make some removable windows for the 1/2 doors,preferably from clear plastic like the Jeep soft top doors.

 

[BONES]

I had plans on doing the door removal on my 89 also but after seeing the trip 1/2 doors that BONES did on his I might just do that. Just need to figure a way to make some removable windows for the 1/2 doors,preferably from clear plastic like the Jeep soft top doors.

Exactly what I've been looking into doing. Plastic button up or zipper windows would be sweet. I bolted an old set of BII mirrors on the half doors a couple days ago, so mine should be good to go as far as Johnny Law allows.

 

[BlackBII]

I got ticketed for it. Its because there is no lip at the bottom, like Wranglers have.

I drove around for ~3 months before getting stopped, and the officer the stopped me didn't say anything about the doors until another one showed up and mentioned it, so it depends on the officer that you run across. It was just a fix-it ticket, no biggie

 

[sbsrlewis]

If someone wants to e-mail me I will send you some pictures of mine. I don't have them on photobucket so I am unable to upload.

Anyway I just bought a replacement mirror at O'Reilly's and attached it to a piece of flat bar about 4" long and attached the bar to the upper hinge using a long bolt. Never had any trouble with the law.

Steve
Steven.Lewis@Tinker.af.mil

 

[greasemonkey6886]

Hey BONES was it hard to cut the doors like that? What about opening them? I like those a-lot!!

 

[Boggin]

i kinda like the breeze i get with the doors off

 

[Roger]

as a former state safety inspector here in utah we were instructed to fail vehicles with removed doors that were not on a list of vehicles that had been designed with removable doors.

nothing about crap falling out. its about the structural integrity that is lost when taking the doors off. factory vehicles like wranglers have added support to compensate for no doors

Doors only provide structure when hit in the sides. Otherwise the latches and hinges would be a LOT more robust. I've covered a lot of accidents and doors aren't that much structure. And there isn't that much extra reinforcement in the door frames of Wranglers.

That aside, I see a good number of Cherokees, a couple B2s and a couple Tacoma trucks through the summer running doorless. Doubt they run through safety with them off...

 

[Little X]

And there isn't that much extra reinforcement in the door frames of Wranglers.

No, but there is a stock roll bar.

 

[Shran]

Removable doors are the way to go. It is a very easy mod on a lot of RBVs, I did it to my '86, a buddy's B2, and a couple others. You take the fenders off, then one hinge at a time, leaving the door closed. Drill the pin out of the hinge and replace it with a hitch pin, put the hinge back on, and repeat. You leave the doors shut so they stay lined up.

I have no idea if it is legal or not. I keep the doors on most of the time anyway. The only real reason I want them off in the first place is visibility when I'm out wheelin.

 

[Roger]

No, but there is a stock roll bar.

Which takes the place of your roof...

 

[BONES]

Hey BONES was it hard to cut the doors like that? What about opening them? I like those a-lot!!

Wasn't hard to cut at all, I drilled out all the rivets holding the window mechanism on as well as pulled the bolts associated with it and then marked and cut the door. I started with the arm rest placement and measured to cut just below the arm rest, figured that was a good height to cut the door down to. I marked it from the front window opening down to just below the lower mirror bolt holes on the big chrome mirrors and then drew a line across the door up to where to door handle is, then a line up just past the out side door handle to line up with the back of the window. I used a wd40 can for the round cuts at each bottom cut, used a combo of jig saw and zip cut on the 4.5" grinder.

Door handle is on the inside only and easily accessible from outside.