Metal door frame

[taylorukuk]

Has anyone any tips on how to align the metal door frames correctly to ensure a good door fit (first attempt today failed miserably!)

[Robert Lees]

Photos?

[taylorukuk]

None at the minute Rob - Will take some tomorrow.

[Hank Jarrett]

Makes a difference if the door is sheet metal or steel tube and if the door opening is wood or metal too.

[taylorukuk]

Hi Hank,

Door is sheet metal and opening is metal frame also (I have reviewed your previous posts on this) - I think the issue is previous "restorer" has cut the opening for the catch in the wrong place...

[Hank Jarrett]

It IS possible to close up the gaps and well worth it. I guess the first thing is to restore all the past messed up "repairs" to original, then make gap fillers to control air infiltration. Once the gaps are all closed up you will be amazed how much quieter the cockpit is. Also MUCH warmer in winter! When I did my 41 (different from yours with wood doors and door frames) you couldn't pull a dollar bill through the closed door gaps anywhere around the door. A little tedious but well worth the effort! I will be really interested in what you do on yours since I haven't done the 45 yet and she has tube doors and wood trim around the tubes. I will be looking to copy any good ideas you come up with!

[Scott]

First repair the doors. There are several places where they crack, especially if someone has tried to improve the fit by bending/twisting the doors.

Second, repair the frames. They crack at the flange relief cutouts and the cutouts for the fuselage tubes. Someone may have tried to weld them in the past but the welds will have likely cracked because the material I believe is 24st which is not weldable.

Third, make lots of aluminium shims. They may have been wood from the factory but you want metal to get and keep.a good result.

Install the frames and attach only the forward ones first. Support the others with string clecos masking tape whatever. The fronts need to align with the aft edge of the boot cowl so shim for that, and also shim to get the aft top corner of each door in the right place. The top of the doors end up close to the bottom of the wing and root fairings. Install the root ribs or wings to ensure you know where the bottom of the wing is going to end up.

Once your happy with the foward and top positioning, and the whole of the forward frame is shimmed and bolted in place, you can shim the top bottom and aft door frames and bolt in place.

There is a striker plate that is attached to the rear frame. Make a new one so that the hole for the latch is in the right place. I waited until final assembly, with all the fabric work done, before I made the striker.

I'd add some photos but the site's not letting me upload or post the url at the moment. Some shots under "fuselage" and "Final Assembly" on my blog.

S

[Hank Jarrett]

Scott, can you post a link to your web site? Great advice on getting a door in, straight and sealed!

[3Dreaming]

Scott, I believe there is a place in the profile settings that you could enter your blog address, so it would automatically show in the signature line of every post.

[Scott]

Yes the link is in my sig already

https://www.c-fclr.blogspot.com

at the moment however this site is not letting me paste urls for photos, or upload files.

[Robert Lees]

Yes the link is in my sig already
www.c-fclr.blogspot.com

at the moment however this site is not letting me paste urls for photos, or upload files.

Try this:

Taylorcraft doors

[Robert Lees]

I don't have a problem with my website (see above link); maybe a Blogspot problem, Scott?

[Scott]

I can type the url code but the site won't let me copy and paste a url or upload a photo file. Never had a problem doing either before. Using Android

[Scott]

https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DUehXxTho...0/DSCN5092.JPG

Ok, appears to be an android issue associated with the last update. F*$% I hate these frigging computer/device companies that can't leave well enough alone!

There's no chance of any of the machines built in the last 20 years still functioning in 80 years!

[Robert Lees]

Scott's first-mentioned page here

Seems to work OK for Windows, Scott.