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| Danger Doors |
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OEM-Style Suicide Doors with Ekstensive Metalworks and Grant
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Suicide doors have long been a staple of the custom hot rod and truck communities. Crew cab trucks are perfect candidates to receive the suicide rear door treatment. The usual route customizers take is to weld in a set of 90-degree metal hinges and pockets into the jambs for the suicide doors to use. Depending on the setup, the doors might hit the bedsides if opened too far. Fitment is always tricky, and the strength of the hinges can sometimes be suspect. Since GM introduced the third (and now fourth) extended cab doors, utilizing factory suicide hinges has become a possibility when making suicide doors. This was the idea that Ekstensive Metalworks in Houston and Tim Donelson had for Tim’s ’08 Silverado. They would create a set of OEM-style suicide doors using entirely stock components. The doors would not only open up nearly 180 degrees, but they would also utilize the extended cab latches, which means that the B-pillar could be completely removed. A wrecked extended cab was picked up for donor parts. They flew in Bob Grant from Grant Kustoms to head the project and make use of his sheet metal expertise to chop up the cabs and graft the extended cab pillars, hinges, latches, and jambs onto the crew cab.
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Bob Grant from Grant Kustoms starts by cutting the rear pillar of the crew cab using the rain gutters and seams in the back wall as guides. Putting right angles into the cut and using the lines as guides will help with alignment when welding up the new pillar for the extended cab. |
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The extended cab pillar, complete with factory suicide-style double hinges, is cut from the donor junkyard cab and test fit onto the truck. The doorjamb section is cut from the truck, keeping the edge of the inner door panel intact. This will keep the integrity of the door solid until the new jamb is welded on. |
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The jamb is cut off of the extended cab donor door, but this time on the inside of the edge, so that the two pieces can be overlapped and then cut for better alignment. |
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The new pillar and doorjamb are quickly tested for fitment without installing the hinges. We found out that the curve on the extended cab and the crew cab is slightly different. We’re not sure why the engineers at GM did this, but the difference must be corrected. These are the hurdles one has to overcome when innovative customizing work is done. They solved the problem by trimming the middle of the door skin edge to match the curve, and then reusing the top section of the crew cab to make sure everything lines up and fits properly when finished. |
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 A piece of conduit is bent to match the contour of the door, and gussets are welded on order to keep the shape of the door before removing it to weld in the other doorjamb. |
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