Mark Hubbard - Anderson, Indiana

4/28/00 - 5/5/00

Upon receiving Snowball,  I was very pleased by the overall impression the shape was taking.  The work so far was outstanding, and a pleasure to see before going under the paint.  My mind was working overtime with all the ideas that I had of things that I could do.  For some reason, I really wanted to do some frenching, like the lights, antenna, etc.. However, I felt that before these were done the rear door needed to be hung.  Since this looked to be a very easy task, I wanted to do more than "just one thing".  However, by the time I finished the door, it turned out to be plenty of work!

To begin with, I had thought that all I would need to do to make the door fit, was simply chop out the necessary height.  Not so!  With all of the body modifications that had taken place, the rear door opening was not only shorter, it was narrower as well.  No big deal, "I will just shave the width off the edges".  The more I thought about it, the more I felt it should do more than just swing open to the side, but what.  After corresponding with a few people on the Modelcarlist, I decided to go with a station wagon style opening.

Since the section removed from the body was above the belt line, I would be able to leave the height of the bottom half of the door the same. So I used the belt line as a natural guide to make my first cut.  I scribed a thin line using the back of a #11 blade, and then moved up to a panel scriber.  I did not do this straight up and down, but at an angel, towards to bottom of the car.  This would help to make a "lip" for the bottom section to rest against the top. Thus the top portion has to be closed first, with the bottom coming to rest against it.

With the top removed, I then taped of the section to be cut out with pin stripping tape as a guide.  I now sectioned this upper portion to match the new body height, and glued the two pieces back together using super glue, and very little putty was actually needed.   Using my dremel I removed the window trim molding to open the window up to be less of a mail slot.

Using basically the same hinge method as A.J. used for the side doors, I fabricated one for the upper half of the rear door to swing up. I did this using K&S brass rod and tube. After much sanding to the side edges, the width was right.  This did leave a little required shaping to make it fit the opening.  Placing the hinge proved to be a little tough.  After removing the section, and removing the trim, there was not a whole lot of space left to attach the hinge.  After several attempts, I got it to stay with the thick super glue, and accelerator.

The lower portion was also sanded on the side edges to make it fit the new door opening width. I taped that section into place to start the work on the lower section drop down.  From the outside of the body, I drilled holes into the curved sides through the body  and into  the door itself.  I used a bit the same size as a straight pin.  I drilled these about 1/8 inch deep into the door.  Using the straight pin, I cut two lengths, approx. 1/4 inch long.  I slid the pins into the holes from the outside, and using a second pin, counter sank them as far in as they would go.  The remaining visible hole was then filled using super glue, then smoothed over, and primed.  This hides the mechanics remarkably well, and creates a very strong hinge, with the door bottom slightly folding into the car.

The entire area, was then given a coat of primer, and sanded out.  Someone else down the road, may want to change the shape of the window opening to more closely match the new side window, but that will be someone else's choice.  I enjoyed this very much, and look forward to seeing where this project goes

out for a 'drive' at the Indianapolis NNL

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