knock off doors anyone?

[GlowBugTDI]

has anyone ever tried knock off doors like they do to the jeeps? couldn't find any pic's or videos. anyone tried this on their off road tdi's?
Thank's
GlowBug

 

[GlowBugTDI]

well maybe ill be the first to try this, and wheels spacers on a MK4...

 

[scrambld]

Are you thinking of replacing the hinge pins with a removable pin, like on Jeeps? If so, Jeep doors are fairly light after getting the balance spot as you hold door and remove pin. Is it possible to do the same on the Bug, maybe with some help holding the door?

 

[oilhammer]

The doors on unibody cars give structural support when closed. I would not advise doing this unless you have some other sort of side bar(s) in place to make the body rigid again. Wranglers/CJs, old Scouts, and old Broncos have full ladder frames, they do not really need the body support. In fact, the old CJ bodies are pretty flimsy no matter what.

 

[GlowBugTDI]

Are you thinking of replacing the hinge pins with a removable pin, like on Jeeps? If so, Jeep doors are fairly light after getting the balance spot as you hold door and remove pin. Is it possible to do the same on the Bug, maybe with some help holding the door?

ya kinda like that. my buddy has a jeep, and these doors should be lighter, or at least very close. Idk anyone with knock off doors, but thought maybe someone had done it on here for summer.

 

[GlowBugTDI]

The doors on unibody cars give structural support when closed. I would not advise doing this unless you have some other sort of side bar(s) in place to make the body rigid again. Wranglers/CJs, old Scouts, and old Broncos have full ladder frames, they do not really need the body support. In fact, the old CJ bodies are pretty flimsy no matter what.

What do you mean? do you mean in like the case of an accident? I can't imagine it being much if any worse than a vert. I mean if it's that bad isn't the car kinda done anyway?
if you roll then ya broken feet, legs, arms, ect. really anything in the way, but still more protection then a motorcycle.

 

[GlowBugTDI]

it was just an idea i had, but i also don't wanna destroy my doors/electronics if it would be really hard to do, but from what i can see it wouldn't be that hard, then id just have to cut the wires and add like a 6 wire connector to both ends

 

[oilhammer]

What do you mean? do you mean in like the case of an accident? I can't imagine it being much if any worse than a vert. I mean if it's that bad isn't the car kinda done anyway?
if you roll then ya broken feet, legs, arms, ect. really anything in the way, but still more protection then a motorcycle.

Convertibles also require the doors be in place to keep the body from flexing itself apart. They also have extra rocker reinforcements and X-bracing under the unibody rails (if you would like, I can take a picture of the underside of one, so you can see the difference).

If you do not care about the car, and it is going to be an "off road only" total loss, then it won't really matter much. You can bend and twist the body all you want. Put ripples in the roof, crack the dash, break the A-pillar brace, crack the glass, all that fun stuff. But if you want to be able to actually continue to use the car ON the road, then it is not a good idea.

To illustrate how important the doors are, however, go ahead and jack up one corner of the car by driving one front wheel up on to a ramp, and park it there. Then go and open and close the doors. You'll see how much the body flexes (in some cases, you may not even be able to open the doors, or if you can, it takes a LOT of effort, and you will not be able to close them again).

Your car, you can certainly do what you want to do. You asked, I answered.

As I suggested in my previous post, you may be able to offset the lack of structural rigidity by the loss of the doors by replacing them with some sort of cross beam...like a sideways Y or maybe K or X shaped brace that goes between the door latch clasp on the B-pillar base and forward to the hinge mounting points at the A-pillar base. It won't be as good as the whole door, but it will be better than nothing, and you could perhaps make it so it could be climbed over for ingress/egress.

 

[Rob Mayercik]

I'm with OH on this - I see guys running doorless on unibody Jeeps offroad, but I've always wondered whether it'd cause issues long-term.

If you want the visibility, a set of tube doors might be better for the car's long-term structural health than no doors at all...

 

[GlowBugTDI]

Convertibles also require the doors be in place to keep the body from flexing itself apart. They also have extra rocker reinforcements and X-bracing under the unibody rails (if you would like, I can take a picture of the underside of one, so you can see the difference).
If you do not care about the car, and it is going to be an "off road only" total loss, then it won't really matter much. You can bend and twist the body all you want. Put ripples in the roof, crack the dash, break the A-pillar brace, crack the glass, all that fun stuff. But if you want to be able to actually continue to use the car ON the road, then it is not a good idea.
To illustrate how important the doors are, however, go ahead and jack up one corner of the car by driving one front wheel up on to a ramp, and park it there. Then go and open and close the doors. You'll see how much the body flexes (in some cases, you may not even be able to open the doors, or if you can, it takes a LOT of effort, and you will not be able to close them again).
Your car, you can certainly do what you want to do. You asked, I answered.
As I suggested in my previous post, you may be able to offset the lack of structural rigidity by the loss of the doors by replacing them with some sort of cross beam...like a sideways Y or maybe K or X shaped brace that goes between the door latch clasp on the B-pillar base and forward to the hinge mounting points at the A-pillar base. It won't be as good as the whole door, but it will be better than nothing, and you could perhaps make it so it could be climbed over for ingress/egress.

that makes sense. I wasn't arguing what you said, just curious...
Not really for off road use, just something new to try when im driving during the hot summer. so all tar roads for the most part.

 

[GlowBugTDI]

I'm with OH on this - I see guys running doorless on unibody Jeeps offroad, but I've always wondered whether it'd cause issues long-term.
If you want the visibility, a set of tube doors might be better for the car's long-term structural health than no doors at all...

as most of them are "off road" and mudding, they don't really care. but the jeeps are also bulit to have the doors removed. it's a jeep thing
my brother has a chevy tracker, and so i thought it'd be kinda funny to take the doors off my car. I just didn't think taking the doors off, and driving down the road would cause unwanted over flex. I know they have quite the roll cage because of their size.

 

[Rob Mayercik]

as most of them are "off road" and mudding, they don't really care. but the jeeps are also bulit to have the doors removed. it's a jeep thing

The Wranglers, yes I agree completely.

But the unibody XJ Cherokee? Doorless is NOT a factory option, but lots of guys do it. That said, the guys doing that are usually running noticeably oversized tires and have added additional metal to the body structure (such as bolt-on skidplates, 2x6 1/4"-wall box tube replacing the original rocker panels, sometimes even thick plate steel "frame stiffeners" welded to the outsides of the frame rails all the way from nose to tail. All that probably compensates for the loss of structure from removing the doors to some degree.

I only have skidplates and the box-tube rockers (my rockers rusted out, so might as well upgrade instead of just replaced), and I can feel a difference in how the doors/tailgate open and close when sitting somewhere that's even a little off from level/flat. The doors typically only attach to the body with two hinges and the striker plate, so I have to wonder just how much they really add, though I can hear a difference in how many more of the plastic trim bits in the back of my Cherokee squeak on bumps when I have the back seat folded down.

If you're just exploring this as a "for laughs", I still think getting a set of tube doors instead would still be yuk-worthy, and give many of the benefits will still actually having a door of sorts (not to mention, where you gonna rest your left arm with no door?)

 

[Skydvr]

Check your local laws as well. A lot of states have regulations regarding operating vehicles without doors or foors. If it wasn’t designed that way from the factory, it isn’t allowed.

Safety concerns for all the reasons stated above.

Half doors or tube doors would be interesting. You are still going to lose a lot of the structural integrety in an accident as the doors help prevent the A pillars from collapsing and help maintain the structural integrety of the cabin. Check out some of the crash rating videos that go into the technical investigation of the vehicles after the crash.

 

[GlowBugTDI]

Check your local laws as well. A lot of states have regulations regarding operating vehicles without doors or foors. If it wasn’t designed that way from the factory, it isn’t allowed.

Safety concerns for all the reasons stated above.

Half doors or tube doors would be interesting. You are still going to lose a lot of the structural integrety in an accident as the doors help prevent the A pillars from collapsing and help maintain the structural integrety of the cabin. Check out some of the crash rating videos that go into the technical investigation of the vehicles after the crash.

Im thinking about tube doors for something fun to make this summer. Should be relatively simple, but we'll see.

Its legal, but you have to have a side mirror. I am thinking about making the tube door from a junk yard beetle door, as the frame work is already there. Guess we'll see if i get around to it.

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