LEAD THE CHARGE MASSIVE! the rest will follow......

 

Ohhh this is interesting! I almost removed a kidney last week!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

As one of those poor tall folks I’m watching patiently!

 

Original post updated with final results, pictorial to follow.

 

Outstanding modification!

 

WELL DONE! How many inches did it get?

 

absolutely AMAZED!! GREAT JOB

 

Video tutorial and also how to to stop your doors from rattling

I've removed the door latch hardware to get an idea of what I had to work with. Without a custom door I have to work within the stock hollow area. It seems like I can move the door latch further out of the way if I go vertical with the striker

Pulling the plastics off, striker in stock position

I've cut the outside plastic and rotated the door striker 90 degrees

Where I cut the outer plastic

I've cut the appropriate plastic in the door for the striker to clear

So here we have the door latch assembly in stock form

I had to cut the stock bracket at the red line to mount the latch horizontally

This is the only part of fabrication I had to do and I think it's pretty easy to make. Simple L bracket with appropriate holes drilled to mount the striker and it mounts between the door and stock bracket

Mounted up

Inside shot and additional material removed to access my new latch release

I was going to initially try and make this work with the stock door handle and lever bar but ran into complications (see video above). Here you can see the passenger side door latch is a mirror image of the driver side an may work for making the stock door handle work

Marking off where I plan to cut the metal. As per the video, I left the stock upper striker bolt in place to be able to return back to stock. If you have no plans of ever going back to stock you can cut even more metal out, including that bolt

Final result

2.5" of additional clearance, easily 3" if you remove the bolt

You can get a better idea of how much material was removed by placing the cut plastic temporarily back in place

 

One minor drawback to the 'SaveAKidney' mod. Now that the door striker is mounted vertically, the door latch will rub against it over bumps and squeak. It doesn't squeak in the loose latch position. I've lubed the latch mechanism and striker with dry lube and the squeak is gone but I'll probably have to re-lube it on a regular basis to keep it quiet.