Yet another door conversion project

[Peterjk]

Hey all,
2005 Thomas, both front door open outward from the center.
I want to make them one solid door.
I took these pictures from another bus I saw recently, apologies for not remembering whose it was, a couple of ladies from Louisiana traveling thru as I recall.
Their build looked simple enough.
Use a steel bar inside the bus, bolted to both doors to make them one.
Use a 1x6 to trim bolted outside, making the two doors look like one.
Remove the hinge [or existing door pivot pin] on one side, so the door now hinges to one side only, opens towards the rear of the bus.
Add a lock, call it a day.


My question is, how do I remove the hinge or pivot pin from one of the door halves?

Here's the pictures of their door, basically what I'm looking to do. If you look closely at the interior side of the door, where the door pull handle is, you'll see the horizontal bar which bolts or holds both doors together.


Peter

[Jolly Roger bus 223]

i dont know yours?
my big bus from 86 is a good question?
my little bus has an access panel just above the door to disconnect the linkage.
dont know if this helps or not.

[ewo1]

Originally Posted by Peterjk

Hey all,
2005 Thomas, both front door open outward from the center.
I want to make them one solid door.
I took these pictures from another bus I saw recently, apologies for not remembering whose it was, a couple of ladies from Louisiana traveling thru as I recall.
Their build looked simple enough.
Use a steel bar inside the bus, bolted to both doors to make them one.
Use a 1x6 to trim bolted outside, making the two doors look like one.
Remove the hinge [or existing door pivot pin] on one side, so the door now hinges to one side only, opens towards the rear of the bus.
Add a lock, call it a day.


My question is, how do I remove the hinge or pivot pin from one of the door halves?

Here's the pictures of their door, basically what I'm looking to do. If you look closely at the interior side of the door, where the door pull handle is, you'll see the horizontal bar which bolts or holds both doors together.


Peter

I believe if you lift up on the door, on the bottom pin there might be a plastic washer that kind of locks it in place.

what I did on my build was I used a grinder and cut off the pins top and bottom and used a 5 foot piano hinge.
so I guess if you were gonna do the same just grab a hand grinder and cut off your door pins.


9906 build thread
Post 105 - this is what I did with my door.

[Peterjk]

Ok, i found the linkage, and the pun at the bottom.
I have a grinder.
Tomorrow will be fun!

[Drew Bru]

Curious to see how this pans out. Post lots of pics

We've been thinking of doing this exact modification for a couple of years and are finally in dry dock, with a shop, and can make it happen. Just need to scare up the nerve to dive in! Ours is slightly different, in that the piano hinge on the edge of the door (not the center hinge) is shorter by about a foot than the center hinge and I'm worried that it won't support the weight of the full door.

[Peterjk]

Will do. Ill post pictures of the entire conversion.
I need to do this in a way as to keep the front door locked at night as its parked
In a public space. So another challenge.
At some point when i get to the lock i suppose ill pass the point if no return.

Yesterday i got all the wood i think i need to trim out the front of the door from our ReUse Depot. All Redwood and a little Pine.

[Peterjk]

Day 1

Today I took apart the door hydraulic opener mechanism located directly above the door
After staring at it for a while, I decided to remove the arm that open the rear door.
Rational is, the front half door is still hooked up, so in theory, I can continue to open the entire door using the air assist mechanism. In theory.


In the pic below, I had to use a vice grip, and turn the entire arm in 32'nd inch increments, i didnt have much room to work, so it took over a hour to remove the arm.
Backup plan was to cut the arm using a grinder, but that wasnt necessary.

[Peterjk]

So what were let with now is the upper and lower door hinges. The upper is pictured here.
I havent removed it yet. That would be the point of no return for which Im not ready yet

[Peterjk]

Now looking at the doors, i realized the that front half of the door will essentially be carrying the back half of the door. So one concern is, will the back half tend so sad with weight over time.
One solution would be to perhaps use diamond plate over the entire bottom portion of the door, essentially making a square, which will hold the torsional weight better then a single bar of steel bolted across.
In going to give this more thought, and see if I can somehow calculate the weight of the door half, and the torsional forces of its weight.
If not, Ill use the P=plenty rule and use a large plate and lots of bolts.

[Peterjk]

Looking at the new lock, I should be able to bolt the lock to the door frame, the only other issue, is I need to add about 1/2 to the lock mount surfeceon the door, as it wont alight otherwise.

The second picture better shows the gap between the door and the lock. I need to fill that area with something. Im hesitating to use wood, perhaps light steel plates or stacks of washers? IDN yet.

[Peterjk]

Today I took the door off to make some more measurements for the door lock and for the braces which will hold up the door.
First off, the door half is heavy. I didn't weight it, but it has to be 25 lbs.
So my concern is that the braces will have to hold that much weight, may sag over time.
I'm going to use 1/8 inch steel so it shouldn't bend, but well see.


First off removing the door is easy, just remove the 3/4 nut from underneath the door, but first remove all the screws running inside of the door, which seal the door against dust, wind and bugs. Im talking about the rubber strip which runs for top to bottom inside the bus. This will need to be replaced with some kind of conventional door seal like in a regular house door, as I don't see how this rubber seal can be reused.
By the end of the day I bolted the door back in place.
Next time Im hoping to cut the 1 1/4 hole for the lock, and fit the door braces in place which will hopefully hold the door, then cut the hinges, which will be a point of no return.

[Peterjk]

Forgot to mention what kind of lock I went with. Eventually I might upgrade this lock, but since I totally dont know what im doing, i went w the less expensive version just in case I destroy it.
https://amzn.to/3dsuwCz


I got this part mounted to the inside door frame using 4, 1/4 inch bolts. This part isn't going anywhere should someone try to pry bar the door.
I suggest using 1 inch 1/4 inch bolts. Dont over drill the holes for the bolts. Start with a smaller bit, and test threading the bolts till you find of that works.

All I did was eye ball and center it on the door. Next time Ill be mounting the lock to the door as a test, just to make sure all the bolt holes are where I need them. The lock will first be screwed to a piece of 1/8 inch steel plate. Then the plate will be bolted to the door. The plate will serve to also provide additional support to the other door half.

[Gareth Ellis]

I made a single door on ours. Took off the last sections and welded it to the right section with a 1x3 box tube in-between

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cga0r38u...d=NDRkN2NkYzU=

[Wanda bus]

I had the same problem with the doors. I couldn’t get the bolt on the pin to budge. Out came the grinder yet again. I cut through it in a minute. Diamond blades make cutting the steel on the bus much easier. I connected the doors with steel bars and bolts and framed inside and out with wood. It turned out beautiful! Just remember that you have now made the door thicker than most handlesets will accommodate. I had to purchase “thick door “ kits to adapt the deadbolt and handle set

[Peterjk]

Nice and neat door set up ^^^. I have no place to plug in a welder. Im off grid during my build. All my power comes from 1200 watts of panels.


Yesterdays progress on the door.

I still haven't cut the hinges of my door. That will be the point of no return. I'm still getting things lined up.
Yesterday I drilled the 1 1/4 hole for the lock. First I bolted up the lock on the interior, and marked and drilled the 4 screw holes to the steel mounting plate. Ill take a picture next time. Then I marked the center of the lock, and drilled the hole thru the door.
Everything lined up perfectly.
On the inside, the lock is bolted to 1/8 inch steel plate w hardened bolts, which will be bolted to the bus door using more hardened bolts. On the outside, I'm thinking of finishing it out with a pine baseboard wood. This is a temporary mock up.
My concern however is, someone can then bust off the lock trim ring, pull out the lock, and take a screw driver to the interior mechanism and open the door quite easily.
The lock itself is held in place by two hardened screws , so that's a good thing but still.

So to address that, tomorrow Ill pick up another 1/8 steel plate and mount the lock to it.
That way both plates will serve the purpose of hardened lock security and help in supporting the center section of the door.

[incubus]

Put away for wheel in your grinder cut the pins I would connect them top bottom and middle Light angle iron. The regulator and air cylinder above the door are good to sell two local bus companies. The Regulators go all the time I think that's a sharp modification to your door good luck with it

[Peterjk]

Well, actually, in theory, i'm thinking of leaving the door opener in place.
Its powering the front half of the door, so now that the back half will be bolted to it, it "should" serve to open and close fairly well ?

Anyway, after 4 days of busting my behind, today I have a working whole door.

Pictures don't quite show what I had to do so here's what were looking at.


Bottom part of the door is bolted using stove bolts, w lock tight nuts to a bed frame rail, which is hardened 1/8 inch steel, very though. I've burned up several drill bits on it.
The center part of the door is bolted together using a 1/8 inch steel plate.
The wood just covers up the bolts, but is not structural in any way.
The door stops at the lock, and locks just fine. I had to apply lots of oil on the lock to free it up.
Tomorrow I'll be adding another bed frame rail bar on the top of the door, to lock the door halves together there. Then adding more door trim to improve the esthetics.

But overall, the door is solid and it would take lots of effort to break in.

[Peterjk]

Im calling this project done.

[Peterjk]

Above, the door halves are bolted together using 1/8 steel bed frame sections i acquired, zero dollars spent. Be prepared to burn up drill bits drilling thru that material, its super strong and easily supports the weight of the door half.
Center section if the door has a 1/8 steel plate bolting the halves together and also serves as a mount for the lock which uses 4 hardened bolts just for the lock, then the plate bolts to the door using four more bolts.
The very top of the door uses a door seal to keep bugs out , Ill take another picture later. I will also put one seal at the bottom of the door which has a small gap where it meets the stair. The wood at the top makes contact w the seal perfectly.

I still have to cover the center section w some wood trim just to cover up the bolts but otherwise the door is super solid and it would take a lot of work to break it open. Added benefit, the air opener also works.

Overall, i would say the hardest part of this project was drilling the bed frame rails and making sure the lock was drilled in the right spot. Measure that about 20 times before drilling. Once i cut the hinges of the door half, i then bolted the bed rail to the front half of the door, and lifted the door half which i pre drilled, then bolted it in place. Next i bolted the center section in place and last the top section. In that order. Its good to have a helper holding the door half too.

[Drew Bru]

That looks great, thanks for keeping this thread up to date. It seems very straightforward and I like the look of it better than that of a replacement door from a big box store. That screen is nice too....we used the same screen for the rear door.