Sliding door clearance

[dcguillory]

My local fab shop is going to take a shot at extending the standoff distance of the slider on my van. Are you Fabbers (?) able to give any tech info that will make the job more likely to succeed? My future in a 4X4 van depends on it!!

On a side note, I talked to a buddy about buying his 2000 E250 7.3 Quigly which he has told me he wanted to sell since performance was poor and repairing quiglys sucks. Beatup interior. Somewhat rough exterior. 200k miles. Basically a stock van besides 4X4. He wanted 15k. I could do some serious pimping to my van for 15k and its the devil I know (as apposed to the devil I don't know) so I thanked him kindly for his time.

 

[BajaSportsmobile]

What we have done is "pie-cut" the door to clear 35" tires.

 

[mgmetalworks]

I've written about some of the things to keep in mind when doing the slider extension in my build thread. I'm actually working on a new hinge today for (hopefully) 3" or more of extension without having to cut a gaping hole in the side door to clear the swing arm of the hinge. I'm not going to say that I'll finish today but now that I'm done with my seat install, this is next on the list before tackling the engine conversion.
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If you're modifying the stock hinge, you need to go forward with the assembly in the door as much as you extend the hinge outward. Right about 2" is where it starts to get really ugly for modifying the stock hinge. I think there's a way to get more than 3" with a different approach to the design and I've got it modeled in Solidworks. At least in the virtual world, it seems to work. I'm going to see if it actually works in the real world over the next week or so.
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Quadvan has an adapter plate that moves the hinge mounting bolts forward and then cuts the extension side and adds in a plate. I cut the pivot point off of the mount side and moved it over using a fixture to keep the alignment right. For my next attempt, I'm creating a new hinge from scratch.
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By the way.... I got two hinges at a U-pull-it from 90's era vans for $10. Saves you from ruining your stock hinge in case you need to stop for the day and get the door shut. Same exact hinge from the early 90's to current.
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Here is a picture of a stock hinge and my first attempt (bottom of pic)
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[dcguillory]

Thanks for the info. i had thought you were not coming back to this project anytime soon, MG (forget your name). Pretty cool its the same hinge still. Thank you Ford for being thrifty. Obviously your skills are not in doubt just time on the project is all thats needed. I shall return to impatiently waiting. On a side note, raising teenage girls is a royal pain. Just an FYI for you all.

 

[dcguillory]

What we have done is "pie-cut" the door to clear 35" tires.

Can I see what that ended up looking like?

 

[BajaSportsmobile]

Can I see what that ended up looking like?

Next time one of them comes by the shop I'll take a picture.

 

[mgmetalworks]

Well after spending a few hours on the hinge yesterday I will say that my new design will be more like a hybrid of the old hinge and some new geometry vs. starting completely from scratch. I'm opting to use part of the slider arm with the roller bearings over trying to replicate that design. It will definitely save some time and $.

 

[dcguillory]

sounds like good progress in a short time. I talked to Quadvan about their hinge design and they will not sell me anything I have to bring my van to them. At first I assumed that because each van was one off but he explained they do have a 2.5" extra hinge they just wont sell it to me. That was on a voice mail. I will ask him why when we talk next. Seems a little strange not to sell something like that. They said about $500 to install. Maybe they dont wanna tell me the hinge is going to be $300 otherwise they wont make enough money off their design. Who knows.

 

[Betarocker]

Probably they are worried about copying it. By installing it, you'll need to remove it to see how they made it work.

 

[SoCalChaos]

sounds like good progress in a short time. I talked to Quadvan about their hinge design and they will not sell me anything I have to bring my van to them. At first I assumed that because each van was one off but he explained they do have a 2.5" extra hinge they just wont sell it to me. That was on a voice mail. I will ask him why when we talk next. Seems a little strange not to sell something like that. They said about $500 to install. Maybe they dont wanna tell me the hinge is going to be $300 otherwise they wont make enough money off their design. Who knows.

I called over a year ago to get this done, i haven't yet because of all the maintenance and repairs i've had to do this past year on my '97 7.3 PSD... but the estimate i got was ~ $1,100 installed. round trip up to Portland from Socal is going to cost me over $600 in fuel... needless to say it's an expensive mod. I've basically learned to live with my slider not opening up all the way. I do want to get this done eventually though.

 

[BajaSportsmobile]

Pie cutting the door is simple and works.