suicide doors

When they notched the cab they welded the door shut. Cut the back of the door square and reformed the door jamb so it opens completely without touching the cab sides. In the pic you above the door was resting on the side of the cab. When they reformed it it clears easily without rubbing now. The truck is in the paint booth now but hopefully I can get some pics next week if you still need them.

i bet you if the pocket was bigger it would swing out more to clear it.

When I finally got fed up with it and took it to them I had it stepped out as far as I could get it to go. I'm not sure how the pre 02 Rams and Dakotas are but I had even unbolted the window track and made a new bracket in the door to move it back. I was just the center of the tround part of the door would rub the cab. If you could get pass that point it would open 90 degrees. Like if you bolted the door back up at 90 degrees it was fine but if you tried to close it you would have the same problem. So I'm not sure. It was the first time I've done a suicide door so maybe there was something I missed. All I know is that with the cab notched they swing without the least bit of rubbing and probably go a little past 90 degrees.

well i just did a new drawing in solidworks to test out my theory of a bigger hinge = longer swing and i was right, if your hinge pocket is made out of 2x3 then your hinge will swing out 3" where as a 2x4 will swing out 4" and this could be pretty helpful if you need to cleare a stupidly designed door jamb like ours. I guess its just lots and lots of measuring.

These are some hinges i desiged that would bump the mount out further but still get the same distance of swing, its just that the door would be an inch foreward when fully open when compared to typical hinges.

and section view

Thats pretty cool. Would have probably solved a lot of my problems. I guess its a little late now cause they are done. LOL

you can make that by getting some material thats the same as your arm part of the hinge and then cutting it and welding this piece in place and metal finishing it.