Well, here goes. Here's the first set of pics of this project.
Pic of the trunk, I'm building a false wall to mount the amps on, the Bazooka is stuffed in the back. Note the CD changer relocated to the left to make room for amps.
Interior all stripped out, waiting for new goodies....
More "nekkid" interior.
The "operating room"...
Floor insulation installed - Dynamat, plus a layer of foil-backed "bubble wrap" for heat rejection.
New molded carpet - SWEET!
New wiring for the audio!!!
OK, here's where we get to the good parts. We'll be using the REAR seatbelts for this project. Unbolt the rear seat belt retactors (make sure you have your keys, you'll want to run the top up to get to the back bolt. The seatbelts are easy to remove. Here's a pic of the seatbelt retractor, close to its new home.
Place the seatbelt retractor mechanism in the lowermost hole in the panel behind the door, FACING INWARD (opposite of how it looked in its stock location. It should fit, you MAY have to whack the side of the opening with a hammer to "persuade" the hole to grow a tiny bit.
NOT PICTURED: Use the BOTTOM mounting tab, and drill a hole into the underlying metal, and run a bolt in there. This will keep the seatbelt mechanism square and solid.
Also (not pictured), for the TOP mounting tab, you obviously can't put a bolt through there, as the seatbelt runs between the tab and the body. Therefore, I took a piece of metal strip, placed a bolt through the top mounting hole and screwed it into the body metal on either side (this will brace the TOP of the seatbelt retractor while allowing space for the belt to retract and spool out.
You'll be using the FACTORY seatbelt mounting hole (from the coupe) which is also seen in this pic.
Drill a hole (as shown) near the topmost hole in the panel, and mount your seatbelt loop there. Make sure the mounting tab is INSIDE the metal panel. This is ALSO a rear seatbelt part. Waste not, want not.
Here's the seatbelt loop properly installed (properly if you're ghetto-rigging new seatbelts for a convertible).
Next, cut a slot in your rear side panel (somewhat of a slight angle) as shown here. A dremel with a reinforced cutoff wheel works great.
BEFORE you cut the slot, you'll need to lop off the big chunk of plastic on the back. A hacksaw blade (held by hand) works great here, as you can lay it flush and cut it off smooth.
There's a great little seatbelt grommet in the FRONT door panels (at the bottom). Remove this (waste not, want not!) and use it in the rear panel as shown. It helps if you grind down the little nubs on the back side, as the rear panels are not as flexible as the fronts).
Infinity Reference seperates and crossovers are a nice fit behind these panels (while we're at it).
Here's how it looks (roughly fitted, not finished).
after the deer accident, going to DC, and World of Warcraft's release next week, my resources are tapped. Maybe in the future when I have a bit more income to toss around.
I'm also curious to see how removing the doors affects the structural integrity of the car. I have a feeling that the doors themselves play a part in the car's rigidity.
EDIT: Where'd you get the carpet kit? I'm looking to do mine soon
greg, did you fiddle with the seatbelt wires in the door? i didn't have time to mess with them, so i left mine unplugged. now the seatbelt light stays on all the time.
make sure you put up pics of the finished product...doors and everything.
while it sounds cool, and you get rid of the craptastic interior door panels, without some serious performance gains (read weight savings), all the work sounds like it's for nothing.
without some serious performance gains (read weight savings), all the work sounds like it's for nothing.
This from a guy who laid 10 coats of paint on his brake calipers?
So far, approximately 80 lbs in weight savings, believe it or not.
Meech - I haven't messed with the seatbelt wires in the doors yet (aside from removing the spools). I'm not quite sure why they are wired, when the seatbelt sensor and wiring is IN the seatbelt latch.
while it sounds cool, and you get rid of the craptastic interior door panels, without some serious performance gains (read weight savings), all the work sounds like it's for nothing.
i did it because i hated the whole setup. the way the seatbelt came across my shoulder just felt uncomfortable and to top it off, that tower is just an additional unecessary blind spot. there really isn't that much work involved. greg's setup is much simpler than mine (maybe i should've had my wife helping me).
the reinforcements on the doors along with the two (yes two) seatbelt spools inside the door add up to some serious additional weight.
This from a guy who laid 10 coats of paint on his brake calipers?
So far, approximately 80 lbs in weight savings, believe it or not.
Meech - I haven't messed with the seatbelt wires in the doors yet (aside from removing the spools). I'm not quite sure why they are wired, when the seatbelt sensor and wiring is IN the seatbelt latch.
Either way, I'll disable the seatbelt light.
that's low Besides, after weighing in the calipers with the paint, they were the same weight as my stock iron ones. So nyah
80 lbs?? That can't all be in the spool and tower. I'm very interested in doing this, I'm just analyzing it from every aspect before commiting myself to it..
The seat belts are wired in for tension reducers so when you open the door, you can leave the seat belt buckled, and not have it prevent the door from opening (nissan recomends that the belts stay buckled at all times and you just slip into the seat. It's why the belt light comes on when they're unbuckled)
There's a top spool, a bottom spool, brackets, wiring, and whatnot, plus the pillar, AND the difference in weight between the vert and coupe door panel (one vert panel weighs the same as 2 coupe panels AND THE BOXES they were shipped in).
I want my car to be just like your car when it grows up. Can you help me out.. one good parent to another..?
I would love to do what you've done. I am looking forward to seeing pics of the finished project.
Can I get any door panels? Do they have to be from a coupe, or do the fastback panels work? Does it matter if they are power windows?
Can you take a pic of the front doors being put back together? How are you planning to get rid of the pillar? Are you just hacking it off with a cutter of some kind? Will the door panels from a coupe or FB cover up the place like it never was there? How are you going to deal with the seatbelt light?
OOH so many questions... Hope you don't mind. Thanks bud! Seth
Joshua 1:9 "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go."
Very nice. How do you like the Reference components? I've had mine for about a year and I still love them, paired w/ a 12: Kicker in the trunk in a box that is easily removable for autox, I get the best of both worlds.
I definitely want to see your doors once the new panels are on and the top is chopped off. I am getting ready to convert to harnesses so I won't need the seat belts in the doors anymore.
Where did you get the carpet kit and what is your opinion on the quality? It looks crumpled in the above photo so it is hard to tell.
you are a genius! this may seem like a dumb question, but why would nissan/asc even bother moving the seatbelts to the doors, especially if the stock mounting position is still there?
I can't wait to try this out on my own car. I also have a set of hatchback doors that I hope to swap. I suppose I'll need the vert windows so they seal. we'll see how it goes.
1993 Nissan 240SX convertible 5spd 1986 Toyota Corolla GT-S hatch 1987 Toyota Corolla GT-S coupe 1997 Lexus SC 300 5spd 1990 Yamaha FZR 600
why would nissan/asc even bother moving the seatbelts to the doors.
to keep the doors closed in a bad wreck.......
Doesn't make a bunch of sense and now that I have seen it sone I will be doing the same thing when I start the interior.
Spinout: be carefull with those harnesses. Since they are not DOT approved the cops can write you a ticket for not wearing belts........Really stupid but it has been done.
First of all, i have so far failed to give credit where credit is due. Demetius (demcj) did this project first and gave me the idea and the encouragement to tackle it. We have taken different paths to completing it, but I'd hazard a guess we have the only 2 convertibles in the US without door pillars (and with fully functional seat belts).
dcdcdc - The seatbelts were moved to the doors for one reason: Recall that at the time, motorized seatbelts were standard on the 240.
These were designed to NEVER be unbuckled, but rather to be fastened and allow entry to / egress from the car without unbuckling.
This is evident upon reading the 'vert owners manual, which recommends against unbuckling (the belts have TONS of length) and will extend as the door opens fully). Also, there is a decal on the seat belt button that says "Emergency Release".
These belt assemblies weigh a ton.
So by saying "stock mounting position", I only meant to the lower anchorpoint (near the floor. on the door sill). This is where the coupe and hatch have theirs mounted.
Lastly, upon disassembly of the doors, it is VERY interesting how they were done. They are thicker, but it appears ASC made an exact copy of the coupe door sheetmental and bumped it inboard approx 1.5" (to clear all the seatbelt crap). Once you cut that off, there is an identical panel underneath, and you can transfer the door handle, the door lock rod guides, and the door release and locking mechanism to the "original" location (just as it would have been had it remained a coupe.
Pics later, I was too tired after working on it last night to post them.
Can I be the lone dissenter here and say I'm not so sure this is a good idea?
Arent you going to be eliminating a passive door latch by chopping off the door pillar? Seems to me, in a convertible, the door is a major structural piece (not that it isnt in a coupe or hatch, but moreso in a vert). In a crash, the only thing you have supporting the sides of the car are the doors, and by eliminating that stout upper latch, I think you are giving up a lot of structural strength, relying on the 'regular' latch to provide all the strength keeping the door attached to the aft body. If you are unfortunate enough to get into a T-bone accident, I would think you would really want that upper latch to be there. If the door comes unlatched from the aft body, that door isnt going to protect you at all, as a matter of fact its going to come at you with a vengeance.
Can someone talk me out of this? I have never liked that pillar, but in looking into it myself I chickened out because I didnt want to make this chassis any less strong than it already is (or should I say, isnt).
There were other non-ASC Nissan verts (Silvias?) werent there? How did they handle this? Or did they?
The only thing I can offer in defense is that the coupe and hatch do NOT have the upper latch, and that's the only thing that seperates the 'vert door from a coupe / hatch door.
They all have the same internal bracing, and aside from the added welded-on plate and pillar, they are identical doors.
From the looks of it, the latch is more to ensure that the seatbelt attachment point is sufficiently braced to the rest of the body. The coupe and hatch have their upper belt mount on the B-pillar (which the vert doesn't have).
The "latch" floats freely, and appears to be a "catch" in the event the upper seatbelt stanchion experiences sufficient force to bend the "pillar" - force is then transmitted into the remainder of the unibody (once the "latch" moves sufficiently).
Vert doors start out as coupe doors, and remain coupe doors underneath.
Either way, if you get whacked that hard in a 'vert, it's all bad news anyway.
The JDM Silvia verts have no door pillar, but they may not even have shoulder harnesses. Lots less governmental babysitting in Japan.
I hope you are correct that the upper latch is for reinforcement for the seatbelt and not for the chassis. I would hate to see a bunch of us do this mod and then have someone find out the hard way.
Like you said, if you get hit that hard in a vert, its probably going to be bad news any way you look at it, so this may be all a moot point.
i agree with greg on the point of that upper latch. in the even of a crash where the body would move forward, it would pull on that pillar. The latch is designed to keep that pillar in its place to keep the body from having excessive movement.
I got to looking at the placement of the seatbelt in greg's setup, and my only issue I have with it now is the possibility of spinal compression. The seatbelt is below the level of the shoulder. Remember why a harness isn't supposed to be anchored so many degrees below the shoulder horizon?
In greg's setup, the seatbelt is kept at all times below the shoulder horizon, and I feel that in an impact, it would pull down on the spine once it begins to tense. It could be solved very easily by installing a harness bar of some kind and looping the belt over that.
« Re: HOW TO - 'Vert door pillar removal (AZhitman)
11:42 PM 11/18/2004
AZ: first off, nice write-up. I don't own a vert, but those exterior pix make me want one something fierce! Without veering off topic, can you tell me what wheels those are, and what your current suspension setup is? From the photo's I can't tell if you've done a five lug conversion or not. Either way, *great* look!
Much appreciated, -Jamie
'06 D40 Nismo: daily mud slinger '91 S13 Hatch 5spd: new money pitt '93 Pathy SE: death by rust '92 S13 Coupe 5spd: being missed severely
if i remember right, he has a set of racing sparcos on his car. he had a thread dedicated to them a while back, it should still be on the first page. those are the reason i got my wheels (enkei MM5s)
Actually, I'll take a pic of myself in the car. I'm 6'2" and the belt actually sits higher than my shoulder. The pics without a body in the seats are somewhat deceiving.
I actually considered mounting the passenger side one somewhat lower, as my wife is 5'10".
Racing Sparco wheels, 16x 8 and 16x9, 225/50 and 245/45's, Tein S-Tech springs and KYB shox.
Thanks for the clarification on the wheels... I'm on the hunt for a nice looking pair of 16's. While you'r out snapping pix, I'd love to see a good side-shot(the car, not you )
after the deer accident, going to DC, and World of Warcraft's release next week, my resources are tapped. Maybe in the future when I have a bit more income to toss around.
I'm also curious to see how removing the doors affects the structural integrity of the car. I have a feeling that the doors themselves play a part in the car's rigidity.
EDIT: Where'd you get the carpet kit? I'm looking to do mine soon
wow, were you able to beta test world of warcraft? its addicting as hell... I'm going to the Blizzard signing at the Fountain Valley Fry's tuesday morning.
Sorry to threadjack. I knew the very pillar never really flowed with the car.
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Besides, after weighing in the calipers with the paint, they were the same weight as my stock iron ones. So nyah 
)
(by the grinder!)
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