Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Who sells T-Molding that will bend around the radius (easily) of my doors?
I am going to finish the door frame using bondo and paint, so the door opening will not require a molding. I only want to use the molding for the doors themselves.



Thanks!

Whew, that is pretty tight. What you may have to do is anneal a piece and bend it, then anneal it again and bend it some more. I played with different thicknesses and found 1/8 to work out OK, the thinner pieces would buckle.

But like I said, that radius looks pretty tight so I don't know if it would work.

To get your attention, I am posting this back to the top of the list!

Come on guys and gals!
Where can I get T-Molding for my doors.
I know at least one person has done this.
I'm practicing with annealing, I'm afraid soft would be susceptible to bending on the edge of my doors.

asianflava wrote:Whew, that is pretty tight. What you may have to do is anneal a piece and bend it, then anneal it again and bend it some more. I played with different thicknesses and found 1/8 to work out OK, the thinner pieces would buckle.

But like I said, that radius looks pretty tight so I don't know if it would work.

I would have to agree. I do not see it possible to bend that radius even annealing it. I don't even think you could do it with a shrinker-stretcher. In order to bend that tight of a radius the metal need somewhere to go. You would need ti V-notch the inside side of the "T".

As far as where to get it, I am getting mine at a carpet store. I is soft enough to bend, but not that much.

I do plan to notch the inside radius.
What do they use this for in a carpet store?
Thanks!

Bandit wrote:I do plan to notch the inside radius.
What do they use this for in a carpet store?
Thanks!

They call it hatch metal.

This is the one I used.

http://www.tacometals.com/prod-level6.asp?c=3&StartPage=Home&rootN=A50-0305&sID=1&ssID=124

I beleive Taco Metals sells direct.

Bandit, as the Rain man said, it should be available thru a flooring store and is called hatch trim or trap door trim...and like the others, it would be hard to amke that bend without cutting the metal either with a notch or radiusing inside section of the "T"...the outside section should strech enough on its own...we did some angle in a 2" radius and as long as it was the outside leg it would strech enough...most of the TD supply houses sell a deadsoft "T" molding (Lil Bear, Teardrop Fix-it, SoCal td's etc)
madjack

I did some testing this evening with annealing and kerfing. I used a small torch that uses MAPP gas and Oxygen, sooted with a standard candle and it took less than a minute to anneal about a foot of the aluminum. All the soot burned off.
I then tried kerfing it and found that I need to kerf it before I anneal it. When I kerf after annealing, the small tabs are so soft that they bend down with the scroll saw blade. Tried kerfing before annealing and it worked much better.

Everyone I've heard from says that Grant's stuff is great to bend, so I'm gonna go with that.

I got my t-mold from http://socalteardrops.com/ Bent very easily with no annealing, no kerfing. Not quite as tight a radius as you have though.



Rick

Rickxr2,
Where did you get the drip rail?

I could add some radius to my doors, but it would require adding a filler and a lot of finish smoothing work to make it un-noticeable.

Bandit wrote:Rickxr2,
Where did you get the drip rail?

I could add some radius to my doors, but it would require adding a filler and a lot of finish smoothing work to make it un-noticeable.

My trailer is grasshopper/weekender/or whatever you want to call it. I have gone with square corners and they don't look bad since the rest of the trailer is angular (like yours). No bending the trim. Just a thought.

Joanne

Bandit,
I got the drip rail from Mobile Mart. I'm not sure if they sell it from the internet, I picked it up from their retail store in Tulsa.

www.mobile-mart.com

Rick

I kerfed the aluminum and then annealed it and it is working quite nicely. I'll post some pics later.

Rainjer, the T you used looks like it has a ridge cut halfway down the leg. Could the leg be broken off at that point? Long story short I need a T with a 3/8 or 1/4 leg.

Mc