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Chevy Silverado - Custom Truck Door Conversion - Metalwork

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Chevy Silverado - Swinging Away From the Norm

Article provided by: Truckin' Magazine

Next, he welded in steel tubing to reinforce the door to overcome any weaknesses. Also, Jeff made sure the metal support he installed did not interfere with any of the working parts of the door.	This tubing gave the hinges some structural integrity.	With the brackets secured in the door, extensive welding and grinding went into sealing off the old holes in the doors where the original latches mounted.
It was time to fill in the rough edges from grinding the welds down.	At the other end of the door, the AutoLoc Bear Claw latch hole was cut out, and then the new latches were welded into place.	After reinstalling the latch mechanisms in the AutoLoc Bear Claw latches, the welds were ground smooth.
Now, Jeff was ready for a quick test fitment to see how the door lined up. After lifting up on it a little to get it to line up properly, Jeff reinforced the supports to make the door perfect.	Next, Jeff was ready to find a location for the striker. Typically, a good location is where the boot is located for the wires running through the fender to the door. First thing's first, Jeff used the plasma cutter to burn off the factory hinges from the body.	After taking careful measurements, by swinging the door shut and marking it, Jeff tack-welded the striker to the marked spot and checked it for fitment. On this particular truck, the striker is 15 inches from the bottom edge of the door to the center of the latch, and it's 3-1/8 inches from the inside shell of the door to the center of the latch. Once he had all of this lined up and the door was shutting on the striker, it was time to weld it up good. Jeff made sure that the door shut tightly against the seal before grinding all of the welds down and adding the body filler.

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