cutting the rear door in half

I hope this isn't too silly an idea but it occurs to me that if the s3 rear door was made to be like a stable door you could remove the top half if you went topless in summer or put the tilt on but still have the full door when you have the hard top and still retain the locking mechanism and spare.

anyone tried this?

or you could try a top tailgate

thepic didn't work

honolulujoe said:

I hope this isn't too silly an idea but it occurs to me that if the s3 rear door was made to be like a stable door you could remove the top half if you went topless in summer or put the tilt on but still have the full door when you have the hard top and still retain the locking mechanism and spare.

anyone tried this?

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quite a few have ,not difficult to add an extra hinge

thks jamesmartin, I might give it a go.

I know about the tailgate cj2a, I have tried to get one on the bay but the sensibly priced ones are always too far away and people don't want to post them, I would also have to fart around fitting it and get a lower tailgate etc, seems a long way round if the door can be cut and just add a seal and or bit of metal to cover up the edge on the cut bit.

I have seen series landies with rag tops and the lower gate put on a hinge on one side so it opens instead of dropping. This looks neat but again I would have to get a gate and fiddle about with it and would stell need the upper flap for the hard top when on.

Cutting the door seems the simplest idea.

There's a cat flap on eBay now. I don't see why cutting a door wouldn't work, might be a bit flimsy at top maybe??

would be easy enough to chop, reinforce the lower edge of the top with box section, add a galv door capping to the lower part and fit two bolts as per a series front door top, no need to hinge the top, you could just remove like a front door top as needed

Cheers Steve

thanks for the heads up rattlegun but the more I think about chopping the door, the more it makes sense. I have a catflap on my s1 - I assume the s3 would be similar - and tbh I am not keen on the mechanism that holds it up, modern flaps seem a lot better.

Doing the top as per a front door is a pretty snazzy idea ebbadger, that would never have occurred to me.

You could just buy a tailgate…..far less effort, just unbolt the door in summer and slide the tailgate pins through the eyes

I could indeed, that was the original plan but I want a permanent solution minimal farting about for all situations, hard, soft and none.

I can lift the hard roof off my s1 on my own with the flap attached, the s3 would be slightly harder in so far as there are more bolts to undo along the windscreen.

It just dawned on me this morning about cutting the door so I thought I would see if it was feasible.

I don't see the point in ruining a perfectly good door is all, I've got one thats been cut in half by the previous owner and its a horrid job he's done so I'm rectifying it by adding some nice ally trim to the base instead of leaving it a ragged edge with some pigeon **** welds

I did mine. Absolute piece of ****. Cut the door, riveted on some box section to neaten the bottom up. Used two front door hinges at the top so it swings up the way and made a locking mechanism the same as a series. It works and it works well only bit to finish is a sturdy stay for when its open. I can post pics if you like but to be honest I nicked the idea from a thread trewey started

thanks for those two replies chaps, excellent pix too, I had forgotten about swing away spare wheel carriers definite bonus there

Are there any suppliers of the hard top cat flap doors, I need one for a series 3 but can't find a supplier !

afaik there are no suppliers, funny really since I believe you can still get the doors new, presumably because the defender still has them or very similar

Trewey - can you resurrect those pics, please?

TooMany2cvs said:

Trewey - can you resurrect those pics, please?

Click to expand...

i fecking hate photobucket.
You see this too often, photos disappearing, yet people still use it!