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Finishing the doors

mgregory176

mgregory176

Active Member
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I have fitted and mounted my doors and I am pretty happy with how they turned out. I do have a small gap where the door seems to bulge (the door rides approx 1/4" higher than the canopy) on the he top rear portion of the door. I would like to build up the window frame in that area to taper the door smoothly into the rest of the canopy. Can I build the area up with epoxy/micro or do I need to layer some glass in there for strength? I'll try to post a pic when I get home.
 
mgregory176 said:
I have fitted and mounted my doors and I am pretty happy with how they turned out. I do have a small gap where the door seems to bulge (the door rides approx 1/4" higher than the canopy) on the he top rear portion of the door. I would like to build up the window frame in that area to taper the door smoothly into the rest of the canopy. Can I build the area up with epoxy/micro or do I need to layer some glass in there for strength? I'll try to post a pic when I get home.
Click to expand...

That's the infamous flat spot that most of us have had to deal with. I built it up with various length glass strips, starting with short to long, to get the appropriate curve to match the door. You may also have to shim the leading edge of the rear window to bring it flush as well.
 
It's not going to be structural. I'm planning to do my buildups by roughing the area with a rasp and then using flox, just due to the thickness of it. I don't think micro is quite good enough there but my biggest worry is going to be separation of the layup, so surface prep is more important than the layup itself.
 
I would agree a 1/4" gap would need layers of cloth and flox to fill in. Flox would not be enough. My gap was not this great and I filled in the area with flox. I spread over the gap of door and frame with flox and just before it was too firm I used a scalpel to separate the door from frame so the door would open. I then sanded the gap wide enough so I would fit two credit cards between the two. This will allow paint buildup with chipping.
 
finishing the doors

Thanks for the replies. Now that the door latches are installed, it looks a lot better. I'll still add a few layers of glass and shim the rear windows as Bob suggested.
 
Door fit

One thing I am having trouble with now after getting a good fit of the door is maintaining that good fit after installing the McMaster Carr seals which I thought I left enough room for. Now I am having trouble with it when I close the door it is very hard to close the latch. The plane around cam is doing its thing, pulling the door in. I have the aluminum door blocks but the pin seems to be riding high and outside when closing the door since there is so much tension of the seal. Not sure if that will soften enough or will I need to "funnel" the pin guide more?

Dave Ford
Cadillac, Mi
 
rvdave said:
One thing I am having trouble with now after getting a good fit of the door is maintaining that good fit after installing the McMaster Carr seals which I thought I left enough room for. Now I am having trouble with it when I close the door it is very hard to close the latch. The plane around cam is doing its thing, pulling the door in. I have the aluminum door blocks but the pin seems to be riding high and outside when closing the door since there is so much tension of the seal. Not sure if that will soften enough or will I need to "funnel" the pin guide more?

Dave Ford
Cadillac, Mi
Click to expand...

You have to do a final fit with the seals in place. e.g., you may need to remove a bit more material if it's too tight to engage the latch pins. Now you see why so many hate the door work. You think you're almost finished when you aren't!
 
Dave,

I agree with Bob. The fiberglass doors can be too flimsy and if your seals are too tight it will flex the door. Be careful with the center cam, it has a lot of mechanical advantage and can pull really hard on the door skin. I tell customers to make the reveal between the door inner skin and the out side of the lip (where you push the edge seal on) to be at least 1/4 inch. This allows the edge material and the 3/8' bulb to squeeze down to 1/4. Anything less is too tight and will flex the doors. Mine is this way and it has a great seal for noise and keeping the cabin temp. If you have any questions feel free to call me at 801-580-3737. I have helped a lot of builders with numerous door issues.
 
I perused the McMaster Carr pages, found a slightly smaller bulb by 1/8 " and that makes an acceptable difference for pilot door, and found on copilot door where to reinforce and trim back near front pin to relieve tension. After the glass cures and sand, fill-- I'm trusting that will work better, if not I'll have much more work ahead of me. Question---should you be able from outside of door be able to turn latch with one hand? I can get it 3/4 with one hand but takes a little extra force for complete latch. Thinking about changing to low profile Aerosport handles but not sure how robust they are? A lot of the tension I'm seeing is just the rod going through the blocks pulling the door in, is there a lube to use for gearing, pin, etc?

Dave Ford
Cadillac, Mi
 
Remember this

Remember this, when you are all done with the doors and painted you can apply a bit of grease to all the latch components.
This is not a fix for a poorly fitted door but makes a huge difference to a
tight and hard to close latch mechanism.
Once your aluminum receivers have a coat of grease on them, the pin will find
its way into the center hole with one smooth closing action.
 
Dave,

Lube should not be necessary. Make sure your block that the rotating cam pulls on isn't too high. If it is the door pins they will be pushing down against the block when the angled pins get centered in the guides. An easy way to take care of this is to sand a half circle where the cam shoulder rests. this will relieve the down pressure (if there is any).
What pins and guides are you using? Material? Bullet pins or angled stock or aftermarket?

You should definitely be able to shut the door with one hand.
Three things to check
Too tight of a seal in an area or areas.
Pins misaligned with door guides.
Center cam block too high and fighting the pin alignment.
The center gear assembly has very little friction and should not add any resistance.

Sean


Sean
 
Last edited:
Sean,
I have the bullet pins with the magnet, and the aluminum blocks. I will check the height of the cam block today. I'm wondering why my rack operation even with the door operated outside of blocks for testing movement is a little stiff compared to other videos I've seen. Is there a lube or grease to use on inner rack?

Dave
 
If you have a lot to of resistance with the door open when turning the latch, then I would suspect the alignment of the end guides. I would loosen the nuts and screws attaching the blocks and see if it gets better. You may need to shim them slightly to keep them in alignment. With the door open the latch should turn very freely and smooth. You will feel some resistance of the mechanism, but not much. You should be able to turn the latch with a single finger. I would also use the hmmv blocks on the door frame, and the tapered pins that are only tapered on one side. This helps significantly with the engagement. Before you install the seal, make sure the latch operates smoothly. Initially mine had quite a bitter of resistance when engaging it into the door frame, but after a little adjusting and numerous operations it started getting much easier and smoother.

As others have posted, you do not want to totally flatten the door seal, you will never get over the resistance trying to do this. The bulb only needs to be flattened about a third, just enough to seal. Make a tool to verify the gap is uniform all the way around the door so that the seal has adequate clearance.

I did use a little white grease on the rack at the handle assembly.
 
Trimmed back the door seal channels today and made adjustment to the blocks, now I can close the doors with one hand, a little stiff but acceptable. Thanks for the assistance.

Dave Ford
Cadillac, Mi
 
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