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For reference, here's a couple pictures of a door assembly jig I made for my '46 project. It took plenty of extra time, but in the end made door fitting a breeze.
I don't know how common this problem is: my doors seemed to have been made to a different curve than the fuselage. Or maybe they came off a different airplane or were damaged and deformed. Anyway, they didn't fit right. When I took them apart, took out the window and the inner panel, they got all loose and floppy. So I figured the shape of the door is mostly fixed once the inner panel, window trim and the window itself are installed. The idea of the jig, then, was to hold the door in the shape of the fuselage door framing while it was assembled.
I made two jigs, one for each side, quick and dirty. I used 1X4's band sawed to the shape of the 4 curves of the 4 door frame sides. (Clamp a board in place, use a compass to trace the curve of the fuselage onto the board, cut the traced line on the band saw, clamp it back in place) Then I joined the 4 boards together right on on the fuselage. Removing the clamps gave me a wood "box" flat on one side and an exact reproduction of the compound curve fuselage door frameing on the other side.
I rebuilt my doors then, clamped in their individual box jigs on a work table. When I took them out of the jigs and mounted them on the fuselage, the fit was, at last, perfect.
I don't know how common this problem is: my doors seemed to have been made to a different curve than the fuselage. Or maybe they came off a different airplane or were damaged and deformed. Anyway, they didn't fit right. When I took them apart, took out the window and the inner panel, they got all loose and floppy. So I figured the shape of the door is mostly fixed once the inner panel, window trim and the window itself are installed. The idea of the jig, then, was to hold the door in the shape of the fuselage door framing while it was assembled.
I made two jigs, one for each side, quick and dirty. I used 1X4's band sawed to the shape of the 4 curves of the 4 door frame sides. (Clamp a board in place, use a compass to trace the curve of the fuselage onto the board, cut the traced line on the band saw, clamp it back in place) Then I joined the 4 boards together right on on the fuselage. Removing the clamps gave me a wood "box" flat on one side and an exact reproduction of the compound curve fuselage door frameing on the other side.
I rebuilt my doors then, clamped in their individual box jigs on a work table. When I took them out of the jigs and mounted them on the fuselage, the fit was, at last, perfect.
Attached Files