Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Step 21: Build the doors – ¾” birch plywood

You cut out the doors already in step 4. Now it’s time to finish them.

You want to end up with a 1/8” gap all around the door, after the t molding has been installed. So your finished door size needs to be 3/8” less than the opening size, both vertically and horizontally. The easiest way to get your door to size is to rip off the appropriate amount off of the straight edges using your table saw. Hang the door with your stainless steel hinge and test for fit. The hinge should extend beyond the top and bottom of the door by ½”.



With your doors properly sized, cut out the opening for the window.



Stain and polyurethane the inside surface of the door to match the cabin. Paint the outside and the edges with CPES and Uniflex.

Bend some deadsoft t-molding around the edge and fasten it with stainless steel flat head screws. Also fasten a straight length along the bottom edge. Attach a stainless steel hinge along the long vertical edge. Install your door handle. I notched out the t-molding with a grinding wheel for the door handle. Finally, install a window in the opening, with a good bead of silicone caulk for water proofing.

Your door should now look like this.



Hang the door on the body with stainless steel flat head screws. Pick a length that won’t break through the inside of the wall.

Hate to be a bother BUT, can you show me a pic of Tmolding that is not installed so that I can get a better understanding of it. My dooors are rectangle(smaller than any I hanve seen 21"w x 36"h) and am looking for a good sealing from the elements.
Thanks in advance....

Sure thing...

It looks like this...



and you can get it here...

http://www.teardrops.net/LilBear/parts.html

And then you'll want to add some weather stripping on the inside, perhaps similar to this...



Ignore that extra piece of weatherstripping on the body. My door was a little warped...

Hi Mike

love the close ups, just wondered how it looks on a curved door, how do you get the T molding to follow the curve without rippling on the inside of curve and stretching and splitting on the outside of curve?

GeorgeTelford wrote:........ just wondered how it looks on a curved door, how do you get the T molding to follow the curve without rippling on the inside of curve and stretching and splitting on the outside of curve?

That's easy, just get the stuff from a teardrop supplier and it is already annealed. That means that it will bend almost like butter. Check my 'www' under this post and you will see curved doors using this 'T' moulding. It just takes some patience and a little persuasion with a rubber mallet.

Hey MIke thanks for the info... I will check around the local Home Depot or Lowe's and see if I come up with anything like the pics..

We bent ours to a 6" radius, bent easily.

Larry

That's a good question. What is the tightest profile anyone has bent with this t molding?

Mike...

Mike,

Was looking through the forum for info on hinges and came across this topic. Not to be a party pooper but why did you size the door so you need 36 5/8" hinge? Hinges come in 3 foot and 6 foot lengths. With this design I would need to buy two six foot hinges and discard 35 3/8" of each. Why not make the door 5/8" shorter so you can use a 3 foot hinge? Am I missing something?

You're right of course.

The doors are 36" high, but to use a 36" hinge, I would have to make the door slightly smaller... I'll work on revising that.

Mike...

Hate to drag up an old old post but hey why not it fits the question.

We're talking about T molding on a curved door, but the doors have a flat side. what would be the best way to ad it to a fully curved door. I'm looking for a better sealing method, any ideas or other suggestions? I'm open for anything up to and including rebuild the doors (but not the shape)





Thanks

Scott,

Check out Steve Frederick's website or his manual if you have it. He uses a pretty good method of sealing doors and it should be fairly easy to retrofit.

http://www.steve-frederick.com/index3.html

Didn't see anything on there about sealing the doors, am I over looking a section?

And might I add he has sure built some beautiful teardrops

He has links to all of his builds on the bottom of that page. Just go to one of them and search through until you find the section you need.

Didn't see that the first time looks like I have some reading to do.
I had to be different and make an odd shaped door

Thanks