Ned's Grumman 2 (ish) TD in New Zealand

[Ned]

OK, I'm in the garage again... Putting galley lid latches on so I can keep it shut when I'm driving haha. Also put some blocks in to centre the galley hatch when its closing so the locks line up. Going away with it for a night in the morning so some last minute work to make it a touch more usable

[Ned]

Hey guys,

I'm looking for some ideas on how to 'fix' my doors...

I made the window too big and the door out of just plywood, and its taken too much strength out of the door i think. The pressure of the rubber seal and the door closing quite tightly is making the door bow out and now the top and bottom of the doors dont seal anymore

Any advice on how to solve this without rebuilding the doors?

I was thinking about routing a slot in the door edge to stick a piece of angle iron in and epocy it in place or something to keep it straight, but open to other ideas!

Cheers!

[dales133]

That might work,
Short of rebuilding them with a stick frame its proably a good option.
What thickness are they

[tony.latham]

I just looked at the pics of your doors. I'm assuming you have a lip on the inside with a rubber seal, right?

I think you are on to something about routing and strengthening with metal. The other thing you might look at is a softer or thinner rubber seal.



Tony

[KCStudly]

Can you add stiffening ribs on the inside above and below the window? These could be finished 1x2 on edge. They wouldn't have to extend all the way to the edge of the door or interrupt the seal to greatly stiffen the door. You could even get crafty and integrate curtain rods to make them more like they were planned than an add on.

[felixx]

I shall cast my eye over this on wed night and give you all sorts of bad advice

[Ned]

Cheers guys, all good ideas i shall sleep on it a few more nights and see what to do...

[felixx]

It was nice to see this in real life!
Also it was nicer to meet you Ned!!

the extra foot of width makes a huge difference.

[Ned]

Went away to do some camping at Vinegar Hill in New Zealand (Near Fielding/Palmerston North)

The car club has a yearly station wagon oriented event called wagnats (wagon nationals) where the idea is you camp in the back of your old station wagon for a few days and soak up some rays from the sun and sink some cold beers. I decided to go along this year with the teardrop because i love camping!

Big panoramic of the camp

here you can see the wagon (half) circle with a few tents and my teardrop on the perimiter (wasnt allowed in the circle without a wagon)


Galley still needs finishing once i figure out what i really want/need in there


The tent is not mine! it's my buddy Dave who came to wagnats with me from Auckland and we won the furthest traveled award


Teardrop did well! and no rain so no idea if its any more water proof now or not but thats ok, rather not find out tbh.
Getting pretty good at knowing what to pack for a weekend away and pretty close to being able to lock in the galley design to make best use of the space so will do that soon(ish)