eBay parts for sale discussions

[Hank Jarrett]

Does anyone know who is selling the two Taylorcraft doors on eBay? Item number 333806489720 and listed as Taylorcraft BC-12D Aluminum Doors With Wood Frames for $400. I sent a question but no response. The seller is in Graham WA and listed as "chazbro". Anybody know who he is and how to contact him?

Hank

[Mark Bowden]

Hi Hank, I bought some Tcraft stuff from him nearly exactly a year ago. eBay intentionally keeps buyers and sells anonymous. Unless you can figure it out from clues or other online market places the seller might have you just have the contact email option on eBay. He replied and shipped promptly to me.

You could try the email link from his eBay "store" instead of the email link on the sale item just to see if there is a broken link.

[Jim Herpst]

Hank, what years were the aluminum skinned doors WITH WOOD frames used ? I thought that was an interim year early 40 s ? 46 were ALL aluminum (including the frame on the door itself) all be it used to close surrounded by wood door frame as attached to Fuselage (early 46s) or aluminum later.?

[3Dreaming]

The pictures on Ebay show that it is the wooden frame that attaches to the fuselage structure that the door fits in. 1945, early 1946. They would be some of the earlies of the larger aluminum doors.

[Hank Jarrett]

From what I have found from original factory photos the wood frames were on the pre war plane and it continued on the fuselages that had been stored and were pulled out for early post war planes. I couldn't tell when they shifted to the metal frames (photos didn't have N numbers so no fuselage Serial Numbers available) but evidently Taylorcraft had quite a few pre war fuselages salted away through the war. (So much for participation in the metal drives!) They seem to be 1010 steel and when the 4130 steel started the metal door frames started (that is a guess on my part and if anyone has done weld repairs and checked the alloy on their early fuselages I would like to hear about it). My 45 (NC-43196) has a 1010 fuselage and was defiantly a pre war fuselage.
,
As to doors. Pre war there were welded tube doors I have seen that went into wood frames. In 41 (not sure if earlier) there were wood doors, at least on the Deluxe, in wood frames. They were a wood workers nightmare and that is what was in my 41. I know. I had to rebuild mine (photos and drawings available) You DO NOT want to build one unless you are a master wood worker! I'm NOT and it took me a LONG time just to repair and rebuild mine. I haven't seen a wood door on a post war from the factory and was told decades ago by a retired worker I traced down that the wood doors and triangle skylights were never put into production because when the war was over highly skilled wood workers were too expensive and the skylights and doors were far too labor intensive for production. They are out there, but must have been by special order. Taylor sure wouldn't have made any profit on them! Pre and post war there were a lot of welded tube doors and from what I have seen they were final assembled on the fuselage and are NOT always interchangeable. They ARE fairly easy to cut the welds, put in the frame and tack back to fit. They aren't a "lot" different, just enough to sometimes be a pain. Later, when all the fuselages seem to be 4130 the sheet metal doors are universal and from what I have seen the factory did not use wood frames any more. I HAVE seen a couple of times where wood framing was around a sheet metal door but it looked like someone had used very thin pieces of wood to close up the gaps for a better door fit. It wasn't a true "frame" that I have seen.

I love digging around in old photos and checking details like this on planes to see when production changes were made. If anyone has differences that look original on their planes I would enjoy hearing from them! One thing I have found that surprised me is that a LOT of L-2s had the 41 Deluxe door handles! Well, that explains what happened to all those handles. Taylor used them up for the war! They never seemed to waste ANYTHING at Taylorcraft!

Hank

[Jim Herpst]

Hank,

43831 was a late March 46 Build. It has wood frames attached to the fuselage which is definitely 4130 post war. Doors are all aluminum. My understanding it was a little later in 46 (may?) When they went to aluminum for the frame attached to the fuselage. The wood frames are a lot of work as well !!. Could not imagine a door fram itself let alone the entire door. Also would be a bit heavy on might think.

[Hank Jarrett]

They are actually fairly light and well designed, just VERY complex and hard to build. When I rebuilt my wood doors i used he fuselage door frame as a fixture to get a good fit with the door. You can't pull a strip of paper through the gap with the door closed. I did cheat a little before I put the ply skins back on and laid carbon fiber tape over the frame sections under the ply. Only added a few grams of weight and stiffened the doors considerably, especially the window frames! I also replaced the door and window hinge wood screws with T nuts under the ply and used machine screws with what looks like wood screw heads. The wood screws were worn in the holes in the wood and looked like they had been soaked with glue in the past to harden up the wood. I REALLY didn't want a window or door to be torn off in flight because a hinge screw pulled out!

[3Dreaming]

Hank,

43831 was a late March 46 Build. It has wood frames attached to the fuselage which is definitely 4130 post war. Doors are all aluminum. My understanding it was a little later in 46 (may?) When they went to aluminum for the frame attached to the fuselage. The wood frames are a lot of work as well !!. Could not imagine a door fram itself let alone the entire door. Also would be a bit heavy on might think.

Actually when they switch from wood they went to steel not aluminum. I have a later 46 here, and tested it with a magnet.

[Hank Jarrett]

That's what makes it so interesting. There are so many exceptions! I think Taylorcraft made a lot of changes for single planes when they had something on hand that would work. Anything to get a plane out the door. Configuration management wasn't a priority.

Hank

[Miguel]

Mine BL12-65 , Serial 3367 mfg in 02/42 has wood doors.-

[astjp2]

Does anyone know who is selling the two Taylorcraft doors on eBay? Item number 333806489720 and listed as Taylorcraft BC-12D Aluminum Doors With Wood Frames for $400. I sent a question but no response. The seller is in Graham WA and listed as "chazbro". Anybody know who he is and how to contact him?

Hank

I think that is the guy who's struts separated from the airframe on floats about 2006?
I have 2 sets of doors, what are you looking for Hank?

[Hank Jarrett]

This handle

[3Dreaming]

Hank, they are Dexter screen door latches and handles. You need to be looking at architectural salvage places. The right side is a locking latch, and the left is not.

[N96337]

I think that is the guy who's struts separated from the airframe on floats about 2006?
I have 2 sets of doors, what are you looking for Hank?

That was Wiley's son.
Didn't he sell that to someone else? I remember him on here, but I thought someone grabbed that trailer full of stuff...otherwise I was getting ready to.
John

[Hank Jarrett]