Reply To: Bob's tips and tricks

#990
apkley
Participant

I followed the directions for mounting the hinges, but… I absolutely recommend applying the Drill-Fill-Drill technique with cell-o-fill prior to this step.  This technique is covered by CLC when mounting the shell to the trailer.  This technique will give you superior strength on the moving hinges and – perhaps most critically – more room for slop when you finally fit your doors/hatch.

Even if you use the screws to tack-weld the hinge pieces into place to get the proper fit, there will be other factors to cause a misalignment (the galley gutter, the door hardware, etc).  After you fillet the hinges to the shell, you will not read until much later in the Hymnal about heat-shrinking the screws prior to mount the doors.  This is great advice, but the added heat shrink decreases the margin of error for lining up the holes and achieving a flush fit with the shell.  Lastly, the DFD technique will seal the inside of the hole, saving you the step of trying to push epoxy into the hole to prevent water rot.  I recommend making the hole at least twice the size of what is pre-drilled, but the hinges can take a much larger hole.

DFD 1DFD 2