Today was day one of door-a-palooza. I got the passenger side door sorted out, and tomorrow I'll do the driver's side. I was going to try to attach some aluminum L-molding to the edge of the doors to give them a lip to close against the wall, however when I started to anneal and bend it, it didn't take long before I had twisted it into a mess. So I went with plan B, which was to build a lip on the inside of the doorframe using plywood. I wanted 1/2" sticking out, so I made the necessary pieces 1 1/2" wide.
Next came the door latch. In the top photo you can see the interior handle with the latch itself, and in the second photo you can see the exterior handle with the keys hanging out. I couldn't find any decent deals locally for this type of door latches. It would have cost about $80 for all three doors if I had purchased the parts locally, so I ordered them from Vintek. They cost $77 with shipping.
Building the piece to fit the curve was easier than I thought it would be, since it dawned on me that I wouldn't have to try to freehand trace a piece to fit. Instead I just made a new compass. I knew that the doors had a 19" radius curve, and that I wanted the piece to stick out 1/2", and have 1" behind the wall. So I made the holes in my new compass at 20" and 18 1/2", and then traced the curve on the corner of a sheet of plywood, and carried the cut down each side. I ended up with a piece that fit beautifully. If you click on the photo above, you can see the bottom edge. I forgot to snap a picture of the curved bit.
Next came the door latch. In the top photo you can see the interior handle with the latch itself, and in the second photo you can see the exterior handle with the keys hanging out. I couldn't find any decent deals locally for this type of door latches. It would have cost about $80 for all three doors if I had purchased the parts locally, so I ordered them from Vintek. They cost $77 with shipping.The fact that all 3 doors are keyed the same was a major selling point. The set came with 6 keys, any one of which will open any door on the trailer. I just wish the set had come with rubber gaskets to put under the exterior handle. This isn't a big deal though, I found a piece of rad hose in Dwayne's garbage bin that I can cut some bits from to make gaskets.
Total cost to date:
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Prev Total: $596.22
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(1) Sheet 1/2" plywood - $20
(3) Door Latches - $77 (I'll count these now even though they're not all installed yet.
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Subt: $97
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TOTAL $693.22
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