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New diy doors for my Exmo


Amateur

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Hi folks.
I decided that my Exmo needs doors for when it's cold or wet. And since I could not find any doors that fit my expectations, I decided to build them myself. I created a simple aluminum frame and put 2mm plexi glas on it instead of a soft cover. And while the ready made doors slope forward at the rear end,  my doors slope backwards from the lower start of the rear fender, ending just a few inches short of the top edge of the roll bar where my doors get fastened. Maybe a little heavier overall (2.3 kg/door), but they are sturdy enough to not shake when driving and they keep the icy wind out when I drive my seven on sunny days in winter at near freezing temeratures. And in case it rains and I have to put the roof on (that I am also about to fit to the car), the opening is large enough so I still manage to fold into the car (I am not 20 anymore 😉 ). But the downside is, that the doors do not fit into that tiny boot of the seven. If I put the doors on to keep wind and slashy water out, I cannot take them off during a trip.

So I have to come up with another, more flexible solution for those summer days when I want to enjoy the wind around my head while it's dry but still be prepared in case it rains.

Now I wonder if those ready-made doors would fit into the back of the seven. Can anyone tell me? That would be great.

You'd probably be interested on how these doors look. But writing this post I reallized that I never made pictures of them and my seven just went away to get a new paint job. So all I can provide today is a picture to the right driver side door leaning against my garage wall. I promise to add better pics of the doors attached to my car once the car is back and put together again.

 

IMG_20210304_180257E.jpg

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Look good. What I did with mine was to make the doors in 2 sub-frames, top half and bottom half so they fold to half the size and then fit in the passenger footwell (I rarely have a passenger).

I  haven't got any decent pictures either, weirdly  - best ones at the end of this blog post: 

https://zerolifebuild.blogspot.com/2018/07/the-long-haul.html?m=0

 

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Thanks for your ideas. I have to admit that these doors are also V3.0 or so. V2 was also a two parted door. But the issue is the length, not really the height. My pre-owners installed a metal boot cover on the back. The 2 sides up to the roll bar entries are bolted to the frame. Only the space between the roll bars (~97 cm) is open and my doors are something like 105-110 cm long. And the passenger side is not an option for me. I take people with me regularly. All I could do is strap the doors on top of the boot like luggage. But that is not really pretty.

I currently have emergency doors which are entirely soft. No rigit parts at all. I have a small steel bar that I attach to the top edge of the windshield and the edge of the rollbar where it curves from vertical to horizonal. That bar and the entry next to the seat are equipped with Tenax buttons and I span the emergency door between those two lines. But it takes several minutes before the door is in and I can start driving or vise versa. It works, but it's not really an elegant solution.

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Have always just used a soft "door" on Florin. 4 fixed points -- screen base - roll-bar base & 2 below level of side panel top.  Strong "knicker elastic" inside a sheet of light weight tent material for the "door" on both passenger & drivers side. We also have a surrey top so only the side "window" part is still open. These two fold up & live in the glove box when not needed, but usually stay on the car most times. 

Has been O.K on thousands of miles in some very poor weather, generally get a little wet if a strong cross wind drives the rain in. We keep warm with the foot well heater & a blanket in frosty conditions ( plus scarf/gloves/Biggles flying helmet/leather coat) 

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1 hour ago, Amateur said:cm) is open and my doors are something like 105-110 cm long. And the passenger side is not an option for me. I take people with me regularly. All I could do is strap the doors on top of the boot like luggage. But that is not really pretty.

 

I have cut mine so they fold horizontally along the bottom of the clear Perspex.  That way they fit behind the seats.

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  • 1 month later...

Hi folks.

I promised to provide pictures of my door construction once my car ist back from its paint job and completely reassembled. This is now the case. However, the forum site refuses consistently to accept my pics. I therefore have put them into a cloud folder. Hopefully you can see them there.

https://c.gmx.net/@324523546229343048/XR33lP2YSb6PDgCrD9KJ0w

The door consists of a metal frame (aluminum) with a tent-style soft window in it. I have a metal pin attached to the side of my window frame with a nut on top that also holds the outer frame of my emergency roof in case I need it.
The door is screwed onto that upper point and on the low side it attached to 2 Tenax press buttons that are normally used for the rain cover. These 3 points form a vertical line to which the door is attached with hindges. This frame is sturdy enough to hold the door. On the back side, the door is attached to the roll bar with a spring loaded locking bolt.

The door keeps the draft almost completely out. That's really cool. The only disadvantage is - as dicussed above - that the doors are to big to store them in my car. So I have to decide at the start of the trip if I want doors or not. If I takem them, there is no option anymore to change my mind and drive open.

Edited by Amateur
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I like your ingenuity and a good result.

As a point of interest these are side screens and not doors.

Why? Doors have to have burst proof locks and impact protection, screens to keep the rain out do not require this.

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  • 2 years later...
On 4/12/2021 at 3:22 PM, Amateur said:

Hi folks.

I promised to provide pictures of my door construction once my car ist back from its paint job and completely reassembled. This is now the case. However, the forum site refuses consistently to accept my pics. I therefore have put them into a cloud folder. Hopefully you can see them there.

https://c.gmx.net/@324523546229343048/XR33lP2YSb6PDgCrD9KJ0w

The door consists of a metal frame (aluminum) with a tent-style soft window in it. I have a metal pin attached to the side of my window frame with a nut on top that also holds the outer frame of my emergency roof in case I need it.
The door is screwed onto that upper point and on the low side it attached to 2 Tenax press buttons that are normally used for the rain cover. These 3 points form a vertical line to which the door is attached with hindges. This frame is sturdy enough to hold the door. On the back side, the door is attached to the roll bar with a spring loaded locking bolt.

The door keeps the draft almost completely out. That's really cool. The only disadvantage is - as dicussed above - that the doors are to big to store them in my car. So I have to decide at the start of the trip if I want doors or not. If I takem them, there is no option anymore to change my mind and drive open.

Is there anyway of seeing these images? As the link has expired thanks

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