Opening Doors On The Big Deuce?

[Pontiac Ed]

I just picked up a pair of the most recent issue Big Deuces and I noticed that the hinges form earlier issues were there along with the separate inner door panels. It also looked like the doors were molded with partial connection to the body like you could easily cut them out and make them open. Am I interpreting this correctly? Are there any pieces missing? Has anyone opened up the doors on this kit? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[old-hermit]

They were designed to be opened if you wanted to Ed. It's not that hard but you have to be very careful glueing and aligning the hinges so they will work properly. The door handle also is designed to be an operable latch. Have patience and do a lot of test fitting before glueing.

[Harry P.]

The tip about aligning the door hinges is very important. If anything is out of alignment the doors won't work.

Here's what I did: I drilled out the hinge arms to accept a straight pin. Then I taped the door panel in place, and carefully glued the hinge arms into their respective slots in the door and body. Before the glue dried I simply slipped a straight pin into the upper and lower hinge, which assured that the hinges would dry in perfect alignment.

After everything was painted, I used the same pins as the final hinge pins (just snipped them off at the correct length and dropped them into the hole).

Edited October 26, 2007 by harrypri

[deucebuilder]

The tip about aligning the door hinges is very important. If anything is out of alignment the doors won't work.

Here's what I did: I drilled out the hinge arms to accept a straight pin. Then I taped the door panel in place, and carefully glued the hinge arms into their respective slots in the door and body. Before the glue dried I simply slipped a straight pin into the upper and lower hinge, which assured that the hinges would dry in perfect alignment.

After everything was painted, I used the same pins as the final hinge pins (just snipped them off at the correct length and dropped them into the hole).

Thanks for the tip, I hope to open the doors on one of my deuce, when I start building again.