I finally finished my spare tire carrier using a junked VX door I picked up over the summer. Over a year ago I had an idea to make a tubular spare tire carrier for the VX. The project was quickly ruined once I realized how funny it would look with the rear door bulge...which started the next project
Goal: use a VX rear door to make a spare tire carrier (like Tom4bren, Marlin, & eblank) but remove the "bulge" & have the bumper wrap the tire.
Last January I told Jack (PBkid) my plans at a VX meet & he told me "you don't want to do that"
In July I sourced a junked VX for the back door & met Mdwyer in the process
In September I cut the center of the door out and test fitted it.
In October I welded 1"x1" square tubing into the door & found a trooper spare tire carrier from the junk yard.
In November I welded in sheet metal without the "bulge" and began the long process of fiberglass/bodyfill work.
In December I pulled the glass & cladding from my old door and installed them on the custom door.
Overall I'm happy with the door. I finally don't need to worry about where to put the big spare tire
And here we are:
Test fitting the door
I used a bump stop to take the weight off the latch. The bumper had to be cut for the tire to fit so I used sheet metal for the finish.
I left some imperfections on the center of the door because I'll always have a tire back there. I also decided to make the cladding end under the tire rather than attempt to fit the cladding across the door.
I kept this project pretty quiet until the end. There were several members following the build so for my next project I will post a thread and keep it updated with progress.
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