After the last post, I cut the edges (rain gutter) of the door openings on the cabin top to Ivan Kristensen’s measurements. Approx 1 5/16″ along the top, 1 1/4″ in the top corners, going down to approx 1″ along the sides and bottom. I then drilled a 1/16″ hole in a skinny piece of aluminum to mark a 1/4″ line from the inside edge of the door. This gap will allow room for the McMaster door seal bulb to sit in and allow the door to close and squish the seal bulb properly.
I then test fit the McMaster seal. Initially just a section along the bottom of the door, then all the way around. I will still need to sand down a couple of high spots in the corners as the thickness of the fiberglass is > 1/4″. I might also need to build up some areas using the seal as a template for an epoxy/flox mix, although I’ve seen some builders say that they didn’t need to do this.. so guess I’ll see what makes the most sense a little further along.
Then it was on to preparing the hinges. You use an AN3 bolt with the threads cut off as a hinge pin. Then proceed to get the hinges up in their pockets and match drilling the 4 holes. The main thing here is identifying that the hinges are different and getting them in their proper location. You can actually see in the hinge pin picture below that the hinge “legs” where the pins pass through actually have an offset to them to match the curve of the cabin top. It’s important for the high side on the forward hinge to point forward and the high side of the aft hinge to point aft. The lower points should be inboard.
The door was put into place, taped up top to hold it in place and the 4 holes on the door side match drilled.
The end result is a functional door!!
adamsrv10 