Whilst trying to assemble to doors I was stumped! I have no idea why, but it seems that the door hinges no longer line up?! In all honesty I was never happy with the door hinges as the door didnt open fully and it was going to be slightly difficult to get out. I also never liked the external hinges! So I scrapped them!
What I have decided to door now it to make the door removable. The idea being that the top of the door has a aluminium plate with a return that hooks under the door aperture and then the catch locates the door at the bottom at both the front and back.
The first component is the arm to operate the locking rod that runs along the door. This has to be slotted as the pin in the original locking rod would bind up as it would be forced to move through and arc.
I then pressed in a brass bush to reduce the friction in the mechanism.
Next was the upstand for the slotted hinge. This is spigotted into the bush nd is ever so slightly proud so you cn do the button head up nice and tight and it all still works.
Here you can see the pin in the original locking rod operating the slotted hinge. There is then another rod operated by the other end of the slotted hinge to lock the front edge of the door.
I wanted to put another spring into the system to make a very positive opening mechanism. I thought the easiest way would be to screw a bolt into the side of the ally block below going to another hole at the end of the slotted hinge for greatest mechanical advantage. To do this I had to machine off a little of the ally, as you can see below, as it just caught on the spring. It still worked, but it made a little noise so I thought it was better to just do it correctly!
Below you can see where the front locking pin locates. I decided to bolt some ally plate into the spider to stop the pin from fretting the fibreglass and the whole thing coming loose.
Similar same at the rear.
Now all I need to do is to make the ally plates to locate the top of the door.
Tags: Bodywork
