Door fit

[stevie]

Here I am, probably too late again.

Before cutting my doors, I pre-prepared the stiffeners as much as I could.

Then, I cut out one door and within minutes had the stiffener clamped and glued with the thickened epoxy.  Once satisfied, I cut out the 2nd door and did same.

To date, both doors have been true to the original angle.  I did store them indoors, vertically on their sides until needed.

It sure beat trying to glue stiffeners before doors were cut.

[faithie999]

I think I will try gluing the stiffeners before cutting the doors out.  if my plan for “clamping” the stiffener using a wooden strap goes bust, I will have time to remove all the epoxy before it begins to set, and do as you did by gluing the stiffeners on immediately after cutting the doors out.

 

[tbellenger]

This topic needs to be pinned! I have the same issue with the front of the doors now popping out by about 1/8″. I think I’ll try fritz’s method of a cut through the stiffener down to the plywood and then bend, expoy and glass. Would have loved to have read about this earlier and tried the stiffener before cut method. Oh well…

[faithie999]

i glued on the stiffener before i cut the doors.  the door fit pretty well, but despite the fact that i was fighting the idea of using the strap contraption, i decided to give in and try it.  on another thread, someone suggested using a “backpack clip” so you can properly tension the strap, since it would be virtually impossible to get the right tension on it while you’re trying to screw it in under the fairleads.  i did that, and after tweaking the tension, the door fits perfectly.  you might try that before cutting into your stiffener.  i also had to use a few washers under the bottom fairlead on both doors to get the bottom rod inboard enough so it wouldn’t hit on the bottom of the door sill.  finally, i thought the 7/16 thick foam gasket supplied by CLC was too thick, so i used 5/16 thick from the hardware store.

if you have an REI nearby, they stock replacement clips for $3.50.  they are displayed where the backpacks are.

[kimf]

@SOMDTD, I fiberglassed my doors inside and still ended up with a bit of a spring on the top. I also found the bottom left of the door would pop out with weather stripping applied, so I also sanded the sills down to eliminate some of the pronounced drip edge and it took the bowing of the door right out! Not perfect yet and I think we may use polished marine turnbuckles to bring in the top of the door so I don’t have to push it in at the top every time, but overall, your suggestion was a huge success to take out the bow in my bottom door! Thanks!

[southcitystl]

I’m on Chapter 8 of the manual, building the doors, beginning with gluing the window sills. I didn’t fiberglass the inside of the doors or do anything to manage their shape ahead of time. I stumbled upon this thread while looking for something else and now I’m a little nervous.

How critical is fiberglassing the inside of the doors, what kind of problem am I going to have since I didn’t, and is there anything I can/should do if I’ve just glued the sills in? I haven’t added the stiffener yet. Kind of sounds too late to do any preventative measures at this point.

[Author]

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