I removed the windshield, ripped out the unsightly Isuzu dash, and managed to get one of the door openings started. Below is a timelapse of the Sunday's work.
Click below for timelapse of 5+ hour in 5 minutes.
I looked up under the car earlier during the week, and noticed there were still bolts and what looked like Door hinge bases, possibly the whole hinge.
It's clear in this shot that the hinge is complete, I couldn't quite make that out in person (the camera flash helps).
After I busted off the front and rear faces of the "new" fabricated jambs, I noticed what looked like the -inside- of the original door. What luck! Sure enough, whoever had done the glass work originally had simply chopped out a section of the door, bolted the rest in place, and glassed it in.
Why?
Who knows, maybe getting into the car and having to climb over a box ten inches high and sixteen inches wide (hiding the Luv frame) was too much trouble. I question the wisdom of dropping the body over the stock, unmodified Chevy Luv frame. The person(s) who worked on this car sorta knew how to weld (pics of the firewall and roof framing coming soon). Why not just kick the frame rails out so somebody could sit in the car?
Mystery.Below is a shot of the exposed frame. It was hidden under five layers of glassed wood, resin, sheetmetal and two more layers of glass. The original floor can be seen at the bottom (tape measure is sitting on it). Running the frame through the passenger compartment lost about ten inches of headroom. In a car that has a thrity-nine inch roofline, this is significamt.
Another discovery was that both the "A" pillars were constructed mostly of poorly mixed bondo, and a chopped mat/resin slurry. I gave it one wiggle and *crack*, it was no longer connected.
The car's roof line was not quite "right", and now I know why. This actually works out to be a good thing, as I can set the windshield inclination back down to where it belongs, adjust the roofline, and fix the A pillar mess correctly.
It took about a thousand careful chisel shots but the door was released from it's resin/mat blanket prison. The door looks to have "factory" (mopar) hinges, and the original door lay-up is pretty thin. Once free, the door swung open easily.
It needs some clean-up on the edges to remove the resin and mat bits still attached. I have the cut-out outside piece, which can be glased back in place and the door will be complete again. A job for a later.
One down one to go. Maybe next weekend I can get the other door freed, and if things work out well, the body loose from the frame. Then I can get rid of all traces of Chevy Luv.
