offspringin
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Never question the engineer's judgement!
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Post by offspringin on Oct 13, 2011 13:53:19 GMT -5
Ok.... so here is the issue.... My compacts door is not original. A PO pulled off the aluminum skin and recovered on a solid oak i believe .75" panel. The door itself looks good BUT it is warped. The top latch side bows out enough that there is .25 or so gap from the weather strip. Its enough that rain can easily enter if blowing in the right direction. This may involve pulling the door off at some point and doing my own replacement. I dont know for sure yet and dont have the down time to pull the door right now. My first thought is to buy a gate tention kit (keeps wood gates from sagging) I would put 2 eye lets in opposite corners, run the cable to it and have a double hook that gets twisted tight in the center. I dont like this option because im pretty sure its not going to look all that great. My secong thought was to just add more weatherstripping, pile it on so to speak. If i cant bring the door to the trailer ill bring the trailer to the door. Has anyone else had an issue like this or can shed some light on how to get the door to seal tight and flat? Its the tightest of course at the latch, below the latch is a little loose but tight enough that the seal works. Attachments:
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Bob
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Post by Bob on Oct 13, 2011 14:33:46 GMT -5
I like the gate tensioner idea. If you put it on the interior upper latch side corner and ran the cable to the hinge side about midway down, that should give you enough pull. You wouldn't see it from the outside and you could hang a curtain over it to hide it on the inside... or not. As long as you keep the water out, that's the main thing, you can re-do the door when you have more time.
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offspringin
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Never question the engineer's judgement!
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Post by offspringin on Oct 13, 2011 14:46:36 GMT -5
yea thats what i was thinking. another option and i dont know that this will fix it is to run an aluminum (or steel) angle cross brace screwing it in all the way.
guess tonight i need to lay a level against the door and see exactly how much it is warped. to determine what ill do to fix it.
i have been tipping this to the extreme when it rains (to the point the rear bumper is about 2" off the ground) and i think this has been helping. I have plans to build a storage awning for it but have not started on that yet (next project). that will help it 90% of the time when its parked at the house. but towing and camping it needs to seal on its own. I had the seal tighter but wasnt able to latch the door from the inside (needed too much pressure) so i had to loosen the latch plate making the gap even larger up top.
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Bob
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Post by Bob on Oct 14, 2011 5:34:24 GMT -5
When I rebuilt the door on the Shasta, I used metal strapping ( the perforated stuff used to hang pipes) on a diagonal under the skin to help keep it from sagging. That might work for you too. It lays flat; screw in one end at the top, flex the door, screw other end at hinge, release pressure and see if it holds. Cheap, fast and easy.
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offspringin
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Never question the engineer's judgement!
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Post by offspringin on Oct 14, 2011 9:33:28 GMT -5
like that idea, can you tell me what the door should look like on the inside? my door is aluminum skin outside, wraps around, and the wood is exposed on the inside. is there supposed to be an aluminum skin on the interior? also, just fyi, a PO replaced the original handle with an updated RV paddle latch (which im ok with)
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Bob
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Post by Bob on Oct 14, 2011 11:10:12 GMT -5
1973 Shasta 1400 door interior is the same textured (crosshatch) aluminum as on the outside. But a piece of birch or painted paneling would look just as good... maybe better.
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offspringin
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Never question the engineer's judgement!
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Post by offspringin on Oct 14, 2011 13:13:08 GMT -5
well look at that...... ours i think was replaced with solid oak??? but no aluminum skin inside. It looks good, just warped.... hmmmm......
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Gone Kayaking
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Post by Gone Kayaking on Oct 14, 2011 23:12:55 GMT -5
Most I've seen are wood panel on the inside, not aluminum.
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offspringin
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Never question the engineer's judgement!
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Post by offspringin on Oct 15, 2011 22:18:19 GMT -5
well im not sure how its supposed to be but i know its now got a gate tension kit on it. didn't totally fix the issue but the gap is down to maybe 1/16-1/8 inch. guess its solved for now. still like to rebuild the door one day but for now....
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Post by dawgpound on Mar 29, 2012 16:41:46 GMT -5
I now have a warped door on our 1970 Starflyte. It looked straight and flat when I was restoring the door. I found a threaded rod on the door lock side stile frame of the door and it went from the top of the door to the bottom. There is a hole in the interior aluminum skin at the bottom which allowed you to gain access to the nut. By tightening the nut, it would cause the door stile to bow. NOT IN MY CASE! The manufacturer forgot to put a saw kerf into the door lock stile. An over sight on my part. Had to go back through my pictures to find this problem. I will now have to remove the door, again and peel back the skins, cut an 1/8" (about 1" deep) saw kerf into the door lock stile about 1/3 of the way down from the top. Hopefully this will give me the bowing that I need to seal the door to the frame, when I tighten the threaded rod. Attachments:
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Bob
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Post by Bob on Mar 29, 2012 16:54:03 GMT -5
Thanks Ross, now I know what that rod that I threw away when I rebuilt my door was for!
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Post by dawgpound on Mar 29, 2012 17:06:04 GMT -5
The only reason that I know what that threaded rod was for, is because when I restored a Serro Scotty last year, it had one & the saw kerf and it's placement. Not really knowing what the kerf was for, at the time.....I glued a shim in the saw kerf....THAT WAS THE WRONG THING TO DO! LOL
Lessons learned....but I wasn't paying attention as I should have on the Starflyte. Oh Well...........................
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