by aggie79 » Fri May 25, 2012 9:32 am
Clint -
Congratulations on getting the roof installed and nice work on the hatch ribs. Aren't routers wonderful tools - espcecially if you are building a curvy teardrop?
You'd asked about how to install the plastic hinge. I need to admit that I haven't installed one, but I have seen a couple of installations. On the ones I've seen, the hinge was installed on top of the outermost finish material. That's how I did my hurricane hinge - it went on top of the aluminum skin. Of course I used sealer under it and would imagine the same is done for the living hinge too. Madjack used the hinge on both his hatch and doors. On the doors, he offset the screws on one side of the hinge to the other side. With them offset this gave him more "swing" on the doors since the screw heads wouldn't touch each other. I guess you don't have to worry about that on a hatch. Like you're doing, I think it is a good idea to use a strap over the hinge to spread the load of the screws.
You're in the home stretch now. Keep the sawdust flying.
Take care,
Tom
Tom (& Linda)
For build info on our former Silver Beatle teardrop: Build Thread