Vaughn,
Your work is absolutely great, and I'm enjoying following your build. Incidentally, the built-in side protection steel in our Australian DRB's seems to really stiffen up the door by running from hinge to door catch, and giving both of those ends some solid steel (inside the door) to connect to.
You mentioned that you are an amputee, and also that you are getting a ZF transaxle. Do you go OK with the manual transmission, if you don't mind me asking? You have had a cobra, so obviously are a driving enthusiast from way back.
Cheers,
Dalton