Meanwhile in the Netherlands,...

[smeerkees]

Ok.
This is where i am at the moment.

I removed all the alignment blocks and i have to say the hinges seem to work great.
the alignment of the hatch looks good too.

However since al the alignment blocks were removed you can see the complete result without any tension in the material.
I see i have to lower the horizontal beam above the hatch a little by about 3 mm (a little more than 1/10 of an inch).
It probably happened during welding in the middle rib (backbone) of the teardroptrailer. Since that is a curved (pre bend) part you have to be very careful with bringing in heat with welding.
So ok,a little more to do....

The next job is first to mount the alignmentblocks again, and mounting ( welding) the vertical rib in the hatch.
After that lowering the horizontal beam above the hatchdoor a little to smooth things out.
Than, try to make some detailphoto's of the hingebrackets clearing the "watergutter" drain.
Only than i can see if i can mount and use the 3rd.hinge in the middle of the hatch, and if so weld it in, etc.
And than: creating the "rainwatergutter" drain system behind the doors, and hatch.

However at that time it will be 2024 for month's already.

Meanwhile still searching for a suitable set of door and hatch handles and locks.
Some time ago i found something on an American internet site, however they don't ship to the Netherlands.
So looking further.....

[smeerkees]

For making the "rainwatergutter drainsystem" i already bought some tools.

Maybe you know what these are? ( see fotograph)
(When you work with metal you surely do).

I mounted a set of 2 on a thick steel plate so i can clamp the whole thing on my workbench when in use.


Well that's it for now.

Greets from the Netherlands, Kees.

[Tom&Shelly]

Does it realy work? Yes!
I hope to make some more detailfoto's of the hingebracket clearing the "watergutter" system in de future.

Looks good!

Tom

[smeerkees]

Hello Everybody,

Here is a small update as promised about the "overall" design idea of the "raingutter" system.

Espessially for Tom, and Shelly.

I made a bunch of pictures in the hope to give you an idea.

From the underside: with hatch in open and closed position.

[smeerkees]

And from the topside.

There is about 2/3 a 3/4 of an inch space between "gutter, and hatchhinge so enough space for the rubber seal.

[smeerkees]

Here an idea for the underside of the hatch.

The "gutter" will probably be a little less deep here and there, that is according to the depth i need for mounting the rubber seal.

The last picture is the underside of the hatch, and because water won't run uphill, i have to make 2 little drainpipes (both on the left and on the right side) with hoses through the floor of the trailer.
Yhe inside diameter of those drainhoses will be about 2/3 of an inch.

So In case of much water to dispose the biggest exess will run through the gutters outwards the underside of the hatch, and since that is not exactly the lowest point, the last bit of water will be gone by the 2 drainpipes left and right.

I hope you get an idea of it all.

The idea at this moment is to first form the sides 1 by 1 and Tig weld them together, and than glue those gutters to the existing beams. (For the hatch, and both the doors ofcourse) It has no structural strength to it, and i avoid a lot of heat in the structure. (espessially to avoid for the bended beams)
I know that there are solutions in the automotive world for things like this. Products like panelbond from 3M. Or something like JB Weld.

I have to say, the hinges fit remarkebly well. there is no play at all.
However there is one little thing to remember.
Since i didn't know the exact outcome of the hinges i did not make bumpstops for a maximum openig of the hatch in the design of the hinges.
I now think about 90 degrees of opening will be plenty.

Now i can use a pair of hatchstruts for maxumum opening (as also used in cars), or i can make some kind of bumpstop on the hinges itself.
In that case something a little adjustible would be great.
Either way i need to make something to not destroy the "gutter system" when the hatch will be opened to far.

So now i have to learn some skills for bending, stretching, and shrinking and otherwise manipulating thin metal plate.
The big blue and yellow things in a previous update are shrinking, and stretching blocks i bought already.
Metal can be pretty manuable but you have to learn some skills how to.

Well, thats about it for now.

I hope this update makes one and other a little more clear.

So for now greetz from the Netherlands,

Kees.

[smeerkees]

Hello everybody,

Here an update from the Netherlands.

Next project is how to form metal for the "raingutter system".

How to form (sheet) metal in multiple dimentions.

For this i had a big help from a YouTube channel called: Make It Kustom. (By Karl Fisher).
Here i learnt a lot about shaping and forming (sheet) metal with a minimum of tools.
Most tools are hand tools, and some of the tools you can make yourself.

One of the most important things i learnt is to see (sheet)metal a bit like childrens playdough or formingclay.
It is way more manuable then you think.

So i bend some L formed strips of 1.2 mm thick strips of sheetmetal and worked it with both my shrinker and stretcher press.

Here some photo's of the first try's.

[smeerkees]

It took some time but eventually here is the first try.

[smeerkees]

Ok, now both shrink, and stretch on the same piece of strip.

[smeerkees]

The shrinking part,

[smeerkees]

And the stretch part:

[smeerkees]

You literally shrink and stretch the material.

In the case of the sample about 15mm (3/5 of an inch) on a length of about 20cm (about 8 inch).
So 3/5 inch stretch in 8 inch, and 3/5 of an inch shrink in 8 inch.
When you look at it it seems pretty much.

Also when you measure the thickness of the material with a caliper you can see the changing of the thickness .

The stretch side got about 0.1mm thinner,
and the shrink side about 0.1 mm thicker.

Now remember to take it slow and work from the edge slowly inwords.
Very small pumps and not to heavy with the handle of the forming blocks at a time.
And working on your actual workpiece, keep your workpiece at least 1 inch longer per side. This keeps the teeth of the formingdies away from the edges, and your "bend" wil go till the end of your sheetmetal piece. As you can see on image nr.2864 on the left side of the bend.

The complete S shape took me about 20 minutes

[smeerkees]

So, how much did i bend the metal piece approximately?
Well, more than enough for my project.

I taped the sample piece on the sharpest bends of my project, (the sides of the hatch, and the top of the doors) and as you can see, more than enough.

Thats it for today.

Next side project is how to make a slider/giding system for my anglegrinder to make realy straight cuts on a big piece of sheetmetal.

Greetz from the Netherlands, Kees.

[pchast]

You're doing a beautiful job there.

Its rare to see metal work like that where I am in NYS.
Most body work and repairs are done with bought parts.

[KCStudly]

Neil Paskin (Pask Makes on youtube) has a simple jig method for cutting sheet metal that might work for you. Let me see if I can find a link.

https://m.youtube.com/@PaskMakes/videos