Alright boys and girls, as promised I completed the project. I now know why there is no deformation on Toms door. It isn't just sheet metal. The outer painted piece is standard body sheet metal, but it is layered on top of some pretty thick stuff. I did not go the same route as Tom's PO did. I used longer bolts and went all the way through the inner spare support portion. I used 3/8" bolts, 4.5 inches long with nylock nuts. I mounted it more like studs, with the head of the bolt inside the door. This enabled me to keep my gas can in the door. Now the weight should not be on the outer steel, but most should be distributed inside the spare area, which is also some heavy duty steel. Overall, including removing the isuzu badge, took about 1.25 hours or so. Not long at all. It came out pretty good, I still need to find a way to mount the license plate, but the way I have will do for now. I was running around with no rear cladding and on the way to Ace Hardware, I cop turned around in the road to come get me, but I think he got a call, cause he ended up doin a 360 with his lights on, I was the only other car out, but on the way home, I saw what I assume to be the same cop at a house with his lights on...seriously doubt I would have gotten a ticket, if I explained what I was doin, I had the plate in the passenger seat.
If anyone has anymore questions about this project, it is pretty easy. The door didn't seem to hang any different, as I said, a 20% weight change is not significant. Once again, the bracket came off of a Pathfinder, it has a padlock stud built into it. The angle of departure and approach shouldn't be affected too much either, it sits pretty high off the ground.
Materials needed:
Drill, 3/8" metal bit
4 3/8x4.5" bolts, 8 flat washers, 4 lock washers and 4 nylock nuts
9/16 socket, and a 9/16 wrench
sharpie marker
tape measure
1 spare mount off of a Nissan Pathfinder(make sure you get all three lugnuts too, I only got two, I am a dummy...)
Some tool drawer rubber or somethin for behind the bracket
Primer(for the holes after you drill them)
Putty knife for taking the ISUZU badge off and some goo gone for residue.
An extra hand may be needed when tightening the bolts, I couldn't reach all the way inside and outside at the same time.
I had to take the cladding off, I wish I had mounted it about 2 inches higher. The bottom bolts ended up on curved portion of the door, which was a PITA to drill, hence the cladding removal, I did tear up some plastic trying to drill those holes out, but nothing you can see once the bracket is mounted. Overall I put this project at a 6 out of 10, but only cause you gotta measure precisely or else risk it being crooked. I think mine may be off a tiny bit, but nothing significant. I did notice that my bracket is a little bent, that is my bad, didn't check at the junkyard, but no biggie. The only deformation was a bit of the cladding, as you tighten the bolts down, it compresses the cladding a bit, but nothing extreme.
Here are the pics:
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