Under Bed Compartment Door
In any case I plan to have a fixed bed and I wanted external access to the area under the bed. I think it would be a great place to put an easy-up, chairs and assorted other stuff that is only occasionally needed.
People on the Boles Aero Facebook pages were kind enough to share pictures of their compartment doors so I could get an idea of how I might construct and install one to look close to original. I decided on a top hinge rather than a side hinge. It seems that Boles switched to a top hinge at some point and I assume this is a design refinement. The door might get in the way more when it's open, but it's probably more mechanically sound. I can imagine the rivet holes for a side-mount door would elongate over time and lead to the door drooping and not closing well.
I fabricated the door out of extruded aluminum angle and box section material I purchased at the hardware store. The door frame is 1.5"x1.5" angle that I miter cut and brazed together using a brazing rod and propane torch. I'd never done that before but it was easy enough after watching a couple YouTube videos. Brazing isn't the same as welding and it's not as strong, but all I needed was for the frame and door to hold together until I attached the panels and installed them, then the rivets would be doing the work holding the pieces together.
The door itself is constructed starting with a 1" square box section aluminum frame. I miter cut a frame and then trimmed off the inner wall of the box section to create a C-channel (I couldn't find deep enough C-channel at the hardware store). I needed C-channel so that I could access the back of the rivets with a bucking bar. If I had access to shaved-head riveting tools then I could have used the box-section material directly, but I wanted the exterior to look near original so pop rivets were not acceptable. I did use pop rivets on the interior though.
For the door face I used a piece of 0.040" thick 2024T3 aluminum (same as the exterior skin of the trailer). It creates a generous overlay with the exterior skin of the trailer. From the pictures of original doors this seemed to be consistent. At the top of the door I sandwiched an aluminum hinge between the door face and the C-channel. The hinge is a specialty item I purchased from Rose Metal Products (via Amazon). As mentioned I used solid rivets to fasten the door face (and hinge) to the C-channel frame. The inner door face is 0.025" 5052H32 aluminum I had leftover from the floor installation. The satin look it fine on the inside of the storage compartment. I fastened the inner face with pop rivets. Between the outer and inner faces I filled with a piece of 1" extruded polystyrene insulation.
Next I measured, marked, prayed and then cut a hole in the side of the trailer. This was probably the easiest but most nerve-wracking step. A mistake here would mean a lot of work to correct. I used a hole saw in a couple corners and then used my electric metal sheers to cut the hole. I squared up the corners using a Dremel tool with a cutting wheel and then filed it smooth.
After cutting the hole, I positioned and clamped the outer frame and predrilled the rivet holes. Then I riveted it in. That part went really smooth. I should mention that I used a liberal amount of Sikaflex 221 between the frame and the trailer skin to ensure a good seal. Water is likely to get in frame area around the door and I don't want it draining down inside the trailer.
Hanging the door was a piece of cake since I'd predrilled for pop rivets.
I purchased the aluminum drip guard from Vintage Trailer Supply. It's close to the original style. Most people would not notice any difference unless it was pointed out to them. The drip guard comes powder coated in white but they have instructions on how to burn off the powder coating.
You may note that I intentionally mounted the drip guard a bit high. This allows the door to swing up more without hitting the guard.
I installed the weather stripping and cut a slot for the cam lock latch. In the next image you can see the 1/2" angle I used to back up the weather stripping.
Lastly, I needed a way to keep the door open while I am loading and unloading. I came up with a real simple design. I epoxied a small ferrous metal plate on the inside of the trailer wall and also the underside of the lower door lip. I connected 2 rare earth magnets ($10 at Amazon) to a short bit of 16 gauge stainless wire (32 cents at Home Depot). The magnets hold through the aluminum to the metal plates. It removes easily for storage. I mounted a small metal plate on the inside of the door that the magnets will hold to between uses. My wife cut out some adhesive vinyl pads for the magnets so they don't scratch the aluminum.
All in all I was pretty pleased with how this turned out. There are some things I'd do differently next time, for instance providing more offset to better accommodate the rivet heads on the inside of the frame. If you want to do this I'd strongly suggest walking through each fabrication step in your mind and then dry running them before you commit. Metal fabrication is not very error tolerant and little mistakes can't be easily corrected.
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