As One Door Closes . . .

I have had great difficulty finding a suitable main door lock/handle.
The main problems are caused by the method of construction involving the fibreglass and plywood sandwich and the trimming of the edges with aluminium angle.
Eventually I borrowed a lock from my friend "Sich" and made a test setup to determine that it would be satisfactory in my situation as well.

Part of a door frame with cutouts to fit the lock in and the stile striker plate.
















Add a spare piece of laminated fibreglass























and fit the external handle




















and then the internal handle (which will eventually have a trim piece behind it)




















This eventually proved the concept (though "it ain't gonna be easy")
so a Left Handed and Right Handed door frame were constructed.


















Progress was then interrupted for a while with some commercial work to pay for the insurance for this thing.
Would you believe that the insurance company can't understand why I was disturbed when I found that they had included a clause restricting cover for a "motor home" to within 200 km of Perth.
What did they think I was going to do - park it in the backyard ??
And then another friend whom I helped build a VW based trike has found that a number of people want them so he is building a couple more.
Guess what that means for me?
Today he needed some of the front suspension and steering made up so that used up a fair part of the day.


















I was originally going to use "piano hinge" for the main doors because of its weight carrying ability.
You have a screw about every 100 mm which would be a good thing as the frame is only 1.6 mm thick and I "forgot" (read did not anticipate) to put in any reinforcing at appropriate hinge points in the frame before it was all trimmed up.
There are plenty of cheap stainless steel hinges of this type around but unfortunately they are also of the "nasty" variety!
So back to standard hinges and I'll use three per side to improve the weight carrying ability.
The locks are also of the anti-burst type which have some weight carrying ability opposite the hinges so hopefully it will all be OK.
Another little problem :

















While the door stile has plenty of width and requires a wide hinge to get past the trim/fibreglass/plywood covering it will be too wide for the door frame.
Of course you can't buy uneven sided hinges!!
So of course you have to make them yourself . . .


















and of course you need six of them . . .
















One day it's going to seem like it was worth it . . .

Reality Bites !

It's that time of the year when all the big bills arrive . . .

So I succumbed to the lure of financial inducement and have spent the past week doing paying work.

In the little time I have managed to finagle the hot water system has been mounted in position but all the connections are going to have to wait a little longer until I get more of the relevant water and electrical systems in place.

The mounting system is a little strange (to me anyhow) . . .
There is a pressed metal (almost foil thickness) frame which mounts from the outside

This is held with 5mm stainless machine screws into 5mm rivnuts previously located in the frame (described earlier) and the by now seemingly standard white silicone roof and gutter sealant controlled by masking tape etc..
If I follow my own rules and procedures the process now seems quite painless and I no longer have "siliconephobia" . . . I'm cured . . . I'm cured . . .


















This leaves a small gap between the opening recommended and the frame into which the front edge of the HWS fits and surrounds the frame which has a strip of sealing tape around the outside presumably to keep out water from the outside.
I don't know if it's just me but it seems that the designers of these components have never heard of "gravity", "wind" and "capillary action".
But then some of my friends remind me I am being presumptuous in suggesting designers may have been involved in the production of these items. . .























So this rather fragile front edge of the HWS has to be persuaded into the slot left by this manner of fitting and over the "seal" all the while being hidden from view inside the wall!























Eventually this process was accomplished - but not without a minor hiccup.
Having no faith is the sealing system provided by the manufacturer I applied a liberal amount of silicone to the front frame and pushed the HWS into position before screwing it in place.
Of course the next day when checking everything out I discovered the silicone had (of course) leaked into the joint and it was now "impossible" to remove the HWS for service.
A considerable amount of "friendly persuasion" was necessary to remove the HWS, a process I considered probably better performed now than in some "outback" location when a repair or service was necessary.
Several other potential shortcomings were also observed . . .
- there is a pressure blow off valve fitted (which even the manual says may leak occasionally due to expansion) but there is no provision for allowing said water to escape!
(I'm going to have to figure that out later), and
- when located the only things holding this assembly together were three long metal thread screws which passed through some bent tabs in the frame and screwed into the flimsy face panel of the HWS.
Obviously this thing is designed to sit on some sort of shelf as it will be full of 25 litres of water and it would just tear itself apart so a shelf was designed in, but i seems that some more restraint would be in order.
The body of the unit has a polystyrene insulating cover with large chamfered corners so it lends itself quite nicely to some large "chocks" fabricated from "angle iron".
It was also decided to put in a thin rubber mat to provide for a little resilience when under way and to prevent too much chafing.
The chocks being tried in position

















Rubber mat being marked for the chock positions


















The rubber mat cut to fit over the chocks.
You can just see the slits which allow the mat to form flaps which cover the chocks when in position.


















The heater in it's final position.




















And from outside




















It's turned out quite nicely.
The only drawback being it needs the cab of the truck tilted out of the way for any major work.
I can live with that !

I Can't Believe It . . .

A whole week trimming edges, fitting "centa-flex" hinges, silicone sealing every joint and seam and still only just over half way through fitting the "pinch-weld" compression seals.
However it looks as if one more day will see that done (oops I forgot some work came in today) and then I can fit the doors to the bays and the locks to the doors and then, and then, and then I can start making the striker plates for the door locks to actually close against.
It just goes on and on and on . . .
and I want to get to the interesting stuff like fitting out and electrics and . . . wait a minute I still have windows and main doors to do before it is waterproof . . . aaarrgghhh !!
Any way this is what the doorlock looks like when fitted in position.
I think it will look OK . . .























So these are the processes for getting to the finished door . . .

fit the hinge


















and mask up for silicone sealing and fill the gaps with silicone


















I discovered after the fact that the hinge needs to be trimmed back on the corner for ease of opening and closing so when the silicone has set it needs to be ground off























seal up the corner which will be under the pinchweld seal from this


















to this.


















I didn't try and weld these as the angle was fitted to the frame and if the weld penetrated to the inside it would be very dificult to clean up.
As you will see there isn't much room for the seal . . .
So cut some pinchweld a little too long for one side and fit it too a temporary piece of angle


















Hold it in position with another piece of angle cut to the correct angle


















and cut the soft part with a trimming knife


















and then (I hope "Worksafe" never reads this) put it in a drop saw fitted with an aluminium cuting blade (as this stuff has a lot of bits of aluminium moulded into the "pinch" part to enable it to get a grip on the frame)























and trim off the bit not wanted.
It seems a bit tedious but if you try to just cut it in the saw the soft part of the seal distorts and gets cut at the wrong angle or it just gets ripped up.
So it looks like this


















This gets put back on the frame so it can be marked for correct length and the whole process repeated for the other end.



































Some special contact adhesive is applied to all ends and when appropriate the pieces are all fitted back onto the frame and pressed together


















Repeat for what seems a never ending series of doors . . .

Why did I think I needed this many???

Inch Worm, Inch Worm . . .

You just have to keep at it . . .

While it's really tempting to hang a door just to see what it looks like I keep remembering that it will be embedded in the dreaded silicone and I wont be able to just take it off and put it back as I like so I guess it's do the stuff which should be done first.

So paint all the metal work on the doors so they will be properly sealed when the trim and silicone goes on.

And while there is a perfectly good door just begging to be riveted in place I really need to finish off the door openings first.


















So out with the masking tape and work my way round from one end to the other . . .


















Paint all the exposed metal and wait at least one day for the paint to harden a little.
I am using a "hammer finish" silver.
I tried a white to be in keeping with the rest of the "house" but it didn't look all that good at all. The hammered finish covers a multitude of minor imperfections that I keep telling myself "wont be noticed by the end of the week".

Now all the gaps between the trim around the openings and the inner sealing surface for the doors needs to be filled as well.
This process of making a nice joint in a corner with silicone seems to be some sort of arcane art that I am only beginning to master.
With much advice from friends (and sometimes I think enemies :)) I think I may have found a combination of operations that does the job . . .
I just don't seem to be able to get an even enough bead to just apply it and leave it so I have decided to tape every thing . . .
Surprisingly this only adds about $2.50 to the total cost and sped up the job immensely.

So this is my method:

Tape it all up and apply a decent bead of silicone into the corner


















Wipe it firmly into place


















Peel off all the tape and excess silicone


















and finally (I have Sich to thank for this little tip)
spray the area with "Spray and Wipe" and then carefully run your finishing tool (generally a finger) over the area.


















The Spray and Wipe prevents the silicone sticking to any surface it is not already adhered to so a nice smooth finish can be obtained without smearing it all over the place.

Works for me . . .

But again will need 24 hours to set off reasonably so back to the doors and fitting the handles . . .

There seems no way round it but I will have to make a striker plate to go into the door frame so that the lock will have something to catch on.
The door frame is just too thick to allow the mechanism to reach behind the side frame which is where I want to fit it.
The bottom of the bay door opening has been kept as flat as possible to allow things to slide in and out easily (necessary as the openings are both high and narrow) and I don't want anything to catch on in the opening.
This is a small penalty incurred from using the fibreglass/ply covering which adds another 7mm to thickness.


















And just in case it wasn't clear . . .
the handle in the closed position





















and in the open position





















So now I have to start drilling holes in all the doors I have just finished covering.
I think a test case is in order . . .

la de da de da . . .

all the doors are now fabricated, seal flange attached, fibreglass glued on and zinc primed ready for painting and edging. . . .

So . . . edging . . .

again much deliberation was of little help!

The idea of cutting lots of small pieces with 45 deg. mitres and trying to rivet and silicone them back together neatly did not hold a great deal of appeal.

In previous discussion with the body builders (truck variety) they expressed the opinion that is was often better that rather than try to make a joint so tight that it was not noticed it was often better to open up the joint and then fill it with silicone which gave a neat finish and the silicone a better chance to do it's job!

So a few tests were in order . . .

First make up a very simple jig so that the top flange only of the angle could be cut out in a 45 deg. notch with a new saw blade especially for cutting thin aluminium sections.


















so it looks like this



















Then place in a simple bar bender with a bit of wood backing to avoid too many scratches although the aluminium, like the fibreglass, has a shrink wrap coating to protect it until finished working it is best to avoid being too rough with it.


















A quick pull of the handle and "voila" !


















The width of the saw blade used essentially determined the minimum width of the slot left when bent as the saw blade has t0 pass through the back edge.
To me this looks a lot better than fully cut through and a very sharp corner when arranged together again . . . even if the length was actually correct . . . not always easy.
In place it looks like this . . .

















So a full one was cut and bent . . .
It looks a little rougher than the first one but most of that is caused by the black hole behind it which will be filled with grey silicone and the protective plastic not yet removed.


















From the underneath it fits really well and looks very neat, I'm happy with that . . .


















and the rubber seal will finish it off nicely.


















What it did highlight was that all the frames really needed finish painting before the trim is fitted so lots more priming and painting is now in order.

While that is drying some of the other areas involved also need trimming up and painting so a start was made there . . .
As it was too difficult to get into certain areas to grind welds some small parts were left unwelded which will not really affect structural integrity but need to be filled up so an effective water seal can be made on a flat surface.
This involves what is affectionately known as "bog" or body filler.
This is left to dry also and then sanded smooth primed and painted.



















So while that's drying a search is started for latches.
This is the one I originally had in mind but I now believe is really not very satisfactory as it actually has a number of penetrations through it for the mechanism to work and it will allow water to leak in quite easily.




















I have also used this type of latch before and it is quite elegant and very cheap ($8 would you believe?) but we don't make them in Aussie so of course they come from China!!
They would need a fairly elaborate striker plate to make them work effectively and are a bit vulnerable to attack with a screwdriver.














Then I found this one.

It is completely flat until you press on the lock barrel (after unlocking of course) and then the "T" section springs out about 30mm to make a "T-handle".
Quite "swish" . . . and only $12 !!
Unfortunately there is only one black one in Australia and the plan is not to bring in any more of that colour.
I would have preferred black as with the white skin, aluminium trim and black hinges another finish may start to look a bit fussy.
















But as a friend of mine said :
"If they look a bit scratched up after 6 months you can always paint them black . . ."