A Bit More Progress

Always go the Lambo way and hinge from the front. They do conversion kits for normal sedans which allow the door to move outward first and then hinge forward. Kind think with your skills; you could search for details and then copy the design.
G

 

Model T s had longer hinge on the bottom.

 

You can have your hinges internal & still clear the body , it won't fold into the cowl but at least the hinges aren't hanging outside....look at CCR hinge/door setup , I shamelessly copied theirs...
dave

 

I could hug the inside of the body along with the angle.



But my doors are so long they'd really flop open. I was wanting them to swing parallel with the ground.

 

Could something be worked out with a hooked hinge similar to a trunk hinge? I've been planning to try to use them because of the way they swing the door away from the opening, for easier handicapped access. But I've not given any detailed thought to how to accomplish that, because that issue is so far away.

The other idea that comes to mind is to do some kind of speed blister fairings for the external hinges.

 

If you were to use a single [ albeit wide] hinge , you could get away from some of the "dropping" [downward swing] of the door.....the hinge would have to be very precise , but I think it would be doable..
dave

 

You work in school maintanence , think of the 4" full bushed hinges on a large steel door , 1 of those might be re-purposed..
dave

 

I've got this extra bit of body line at the top making it even worse.

The more I've been getting into it, the less it bothers me to have the outside hinges. The entire front half of the car is traditional so to speak. What with the split wish bones, spring, headlights and all.

The rear half could actually use a bit also. Sounds weird but as I'm sitting here looking at the car, I'm OK with it.

 

The thing is, you need a long hinge to combat the angle, so you either see it outside or give up space inside. I spent hours staring at mine, lol...

 

I've been putting this off for about a year.

I'll do it like this. Hopefully in a tasteful way.

 

I'm trying to do inside hinges too but haven't progressed far enough to see how screwed I am! Thanks a bunch PAL!

 

It is doable if you get the pins right up against the body. I just don't care for the doors on an downward angle as they open.

I don't know. It's a toss up. That's what makes fab work so much fun.

 

I caved and built replica model T hinges. It is after all a T... I tried to use model a type, they would work, but I didn't like the fact that they require a very deep mortise to fit flush because they don't close flat (the hinges) . I don't have room to spare inside at all, so that's not an option for me. With my small doors, I couldn't justify putting a whole bunch of energy into trying to reinvent the wheel, so to speak, especially after getting feedback from several guys who use the originals. I can see why you are trying to do something different, you have a entirely different scenario, with the larger doors and a redesigned body. It's frustrating after putting hours into something to learn it won't work! Been there many times. I used stanly swing away door hinges, flattened, cut them to size, and welded the strap to them. They worked great, but for light doors. For yours, if you wanted to try something similar, I would look for heavier commercial hinges with bearings. They would be pleanty heavy to handle it.

 

Yep. Lots and lots of swearing yesterday.

 

Thanks for all the replies.

The pins are in-line, plumb and parallel to the ground. The binding isn't in the hinges. They're nice and smooth. The binding is in the front edge of the door.




The issue is the difference of space between the upper and lower hinges to the side wall of the body. The upper part of the door is too far away from the upper hinge.




Without a vertical side wall on the body, the only way to get no binding (at the outer most point) is to keep the vertical line to that outer most point.



Which in my case is here.

 

Back when I was doing this, I could have easily made that section of the side wall vertical. Arrrrrg!

 

In passenger cars, there is a void that allows the door to overcome those issues. In ours, there isn't enough room to sacrifice for that.

 

So change the front line of the door. Its got to be easier than a whole redesign of the hinges surely????

I have had to change things that I committed to, defended to the last and argued with friends about until finally I gave in, sat back and thought about it for a while, and decided that sometime we have to go backwards to go forwards. As always JMHO.
G