The CF Bedford Rebuild Begins

Part 12: The rebuild starts - front doors

Because I've taken the gutters off the front doors don't need to be cut down the full 4 inches, as the gutter dips into the door gap, so only 3 3/4 inches were removed from the door frames, plus extended a fraction.

The door skins were removed and the frame and skin were both sand blasted which revealed yet more rust.
As the doors are being shortened, the new bottoms were added with new panel steel and the corners rounded.
While the door skin was removed it was a good chance to figure out where to mount the central locking and door solenoid (not having door handles), also as Bedford's are very easy to break into the door catch and solenoids are being covered with panel steel so as to stop it being unlocked/opened from a break-in wire.

The difference between door heights, note bottoms have been cut down.
Some of the rust repairs on the left front door frame.

After going mad trying to find some door latches in good condition, I decided to replace them. A trip to the wreckers and I stumbled on some Renault door catches that have the same striker as the side and back doors, so was perfect, plus they had central locking built in.

Well the central locking didn't fit within the window channel so will have to use 3rd party ones as originally planned.

Here is a view of the outside of the door frame with Renault door latch. It almost looks factory doesn't it.
Note the inside of this door still has paint on it, the original door was to far gone after sandblasting so only did the edges on this door in case this one was rotten as well, it was rusty but not as bad as the other one.

The next fun bit is the electric windows. I'd heard Mazda 323 rear regulators are ideal but sadly they had none at the wreckers, so I found some that looked like they would fit the need. My luck the motor stuck out 10mm to far, next trip I found another set, with motor on the inside, as I was getting them off it bucketed down with rain so jumped in the car to shelter and finished unbolting them (without letting the windows down), I was more concerned with staying dry I forgot to measure the overall length. Back at the workshop I soon discovered the new ones would be 60mm to short - could only happen to me. So 3rd time luckily I go back and get the front ones instead of the back ones, with a bit of straightening they fitted well, well fitted after I cut and welded and hammered and cursed some - as you do ;)

It isn't the clearest picture but here you can see the electric window regulator and if you look closely the door latch fitted.
This window regulator is not the perfect one as the motor is mounted half way up, if I had searched a bit longer I am sure I could of found one mounted at the bottom but being 3rd time lucky I had to quit while I was ahead. The door trim should be able to hide it with an arm rest or something.

The window channel felts finally arrived and I was able to get a window cut, unfortunately I cracked it before it was toughened.
I was still able to use the glass (held together with 100 mile an hour tape) and it all seems good, only thing I had to add was a window roller to keep the centre of the window up off the electric window channel.
The only thing I haven't checked yet (because of the taped up glass) is if I can get the window in and out of the door.

Because there was rust in the door skin on the edges I decided to patch the rust without the skin being on the door, was risky as I don't have a gas set to shrink it if it warped but I managed to do it with one small warp which may pull out when the door skin is put back on.

One thing I did forget to do was the door poppers. Ideally they should go by the bedford door hinges but because of the angle the door opens and closes I am unable to have them there (found out the hard way). Instead I have had to mount them under the door catch. Top or bottom would of looked better but would just twist the door. I guess I can call it another custom feature ;).

Here you can see the door fitted on the van with the door skin welded back on, quite a difference.
The inside of the door has full covers over all the internals, so there is no way of breaking into the door with a rod or bar. This may prove to be to bad if I ever lock the keys in the van, but I can remove them if the need arises.

Note no door handles, still have door mirrors to make/find.

The photo does look a bit weird, is on a angle but the original windscreen is sitting in the hole which throws it out.