A little project update on Chug A Lug

Well That's disappointing.

I have the Passenger door hung and its very obvious that the doors will not be laying flat or any where near flat against the side of the top and tub when fully opened. The bottom of the door is way to close to almost touching the rear tire. Any kind of off road and they would touch. So I can still have them open while off road but I will have to create a much larger bump stop then I had been hoping. And of course some way to hold the door against the bump stop. Looks like the Width with the doors open will still be less then my Mirrors but still disappointing.

Took about an hour of fiddle farting around to get the door to close. It was hitting the front edge jam. The piece of 3/4" square tubing I have press fit over the 3A door channel on the Windshield. I still have a bunch of adjustments to make to get it better. But it will do for now to get me to the Company meeting tomorrow morning.

One of the things that will change is I'm going to make a small piece of Aluminum to move the Door Knob on the inside back about an inch to give the knuckles more clearance between the knob and the 3/4" square jam. Could be a knuckle buster the way it is. I also have about 3 places where the skin or 1/8" sheeting is to close to the Hinge and causing paint on the hinge to be scraped off. A little File work will solve that. Ten some touch up painting.

I was really worried about the Little tension knobs I have around the window either hitting the upper arm or somehow getting in the way. I don't think that will be a problem.

The door the way I designed it to follow the Tub door opening sure makes for a snug fit.

I also found a nice shop scratch right in the middle of my expensive Scratch resistant Polycarbonate window. I sure not the last one.

So time for lunch

Then the drivers door.

Once everything is as good as its going to get with the doors I will pull them and apply the .040" Aluminum skin.

Oh and yes I still need to finish up those damn front corners. But thats for another day.

Well I got the drivers door primed with Zinc Chromate On the window and jam surfaces Also did the lower interior panel so I can get those areas painted tomorrow that need to be black. While that paint dries I can finish up the Passenger door and get it ready for primer (except I have to wait until at least Thursday for the Primer to show up. So If I am going to drive CHUG to the big company start up meeting Friday I'll have to reassemble the passenger door and just run it. Hopefully no rain Friday.

I would have gotten a lot more done today but the State of Oregon decided three weeks before I never have to use Unemployment again to completely change their computer system and no matter how I try to log in and ID myself to this new easier to use system will it verify me. SO I spent 4 frecking hours listening to the most brain dead hold music possible only to have my phone hang up on me. SO I guess I get to do that tomorrow as well if I can even get them to answer.

BOY is it faster modifying and creating the molding parts for the passenger door when I have an example right there to measure things like screw spacing and for just the basic HOW to DO it. I should have the Passenger door ready for Primer by tomorrow evening Might even have the interior pieces done as well. I could use some other primer but I really want to have the Zinc stuff on the doors due to the additional exposure they will suffer,

I even found some cheesy plastic bolt head covers that will cover the 4) nuts that hold the Lock in place. I might have to put a little dot of glue on them to hold them in place no matter what. The wife uses this glue in her crafting that is a little gummy even when set up should work well to put a drop on the nut and push the cover into it.

So looking and measuring it appears mounting my 11lb propane tank on the back of the hard top would not be a great idea. Its just a little to big. I wouldn't be able to pull the hinge pin for the tool rack on which ever side I mounted it. Without dismounting the tank and that would be annoying. So I am now looking at buying a little 5lb tank. Amazon has them for $50 and around here the 1lb Coleman bottles run $10 on sale (I knew I should have bought more when they were $5.00 each) So with it costing about $3.00 to fill a 5lb tank here in town so $50 divided by $10.0 is equal to 5 small bottles the propane is $3 instead of $50 The math is making my late night head hurt but the 5lb tank has to pay for itself compared to 5 bottles. And it takes up less room. I already have the hose and such to hook to my stove.

I can only imagine what a 1lb bottle of propane some place like Frenchglenn or Fields Oregon must run. SO logic says the 5lb bottle will save me money on one week long trip. And I can mount it up high enough I think I can get the hinge pin out when needed.

I bought the 11lb tank for the Trailer anyway.

I know I know off in the weeds again.

So its been a slog. First trying to figure out how to do the door window install. Then actually making all the parts and modifying others. Then I had to make the lower door interior wall (its made from .040" Aluminum sheet) Once I had that patterned then I had to make the panel below the window lets call it the rub panel. As its where my elbow will rub against if I'm touching the door. I also came up with a really slick way to lock the doors from the inside (these are basically a Pickup truck Tool box latch with an interior knob) it involves a simple Micrata Toggle that rotates behind the bolt preventing it from retracting and allowing the door to open. Use will tell me if I need to do something else. But with Suicide doors I really wanted something simple and Positive to prevent the door from opening and this does that.

I'm going with a Black fabric on the door interiors hoping it will show dirt a little less then the Gray. I'll most likely at some point make up a Black panel about 2" wide to go around the inside of the top where the walls and roof sections meet to help tie it all together looks wise.

I still have to adjust the thickness of the Micarta strips that are the clamping surface that will push the installed window into the foam weather striping. Easy enough once I get how thick I want it figured out I'll just put the pieces in the Milling machine vise and crank away with a mill end. Then a little Hand sanding with some 220 for a smooth finish.

The Lower panel right now has a void behind it but after I get a chance to prime all the interior metal on the doors I will place a layer of Saran wrap on the inside of the void and then spray foam in between I'll have to be careful to have it clamped just right I don't want the foam expanding and moving anything. The Saran warp is a barrier layer to keep the foam from sticking to the panels. Allowing me should I need to to remove the panel and the foam. The Foam will also help sound deaden the door.

The doors are not exactly the same so while having already done one the Right door should go much faster I will still have some careful measuring and sizing to do.

Here is a view of the Driver Door interior. Keep in mind all the Aluminum will end up A Satin or Semi gloss Black when finished.

I'm going to make a arm rest that will clamp in place of the Window when its removed. I might also work out how to make it an Arm rest lower on the door when the Window is in.

And Of course I still have to Skin the outer door. I want to live with the Windows for a week or so before I Skin the doors as there will be no changing some of my clamping system once the Skins are Bonded on.

Our Big Company Start up meeting is this Friday so the fun and games are about to come to a screaming halt once the weather breaks. 

End of April Audrey retires End of March I will start taking SSI. Then its on to August which is where if all goes well my coming retirement. 

 

 

Maybe I think I got a good handle on how to do this now. I'll keep the clamping type molding but now instead of having to remove those pieces to get the window out from behind them I will be able to slip the window out the front through a redesigned front jam. The key will be being able to use pieces of heavier stock to replace most of the rigidity lost from having no connection between the jam and the sheeting on the door window surround. 

Should have something to show in photos by end of the week. Now I am just hoping I don't get called back to work for a couple more weeks so I can get the doors done. Cause working on it weekends with the weather getting better the wife will be all over me to work on the front of the house and to rebuild the front yard after all the street work the city has done has destroyed it.

And sometimes you just have to change to a different GEAR.

I started working on finishing the Doors this morning and it soon became obvious that the method I was going to use to be able to take the Windows out easily had three big problems. The hinges I was going to use to pivot the moldings out of the way were going to be a huge PITA to get all screwed to the frame and I didn't have enough of them which would entail a 3 day wait for shipping and more $. Also the Idea of having little twist lock toggles to hold the moldings in place when the windows were in place were going to be a problem getting them to retain tension.

SO in the middle of it I changed how the whole thing is going to be done. When I get it done I will of course show photos. As its like most of the insane stuff I do hard to explain. But it will be much cleaner looking and be actually self adjusting.

On another note the little plastic spring clips came in for my Prop Rods and I got those in place as well as running the Weather stripping along the bottom of the Hatch. Now the only way exhaust fumes can come in the back of the jeep is through the narrow (less then 3/32" gap between the tail gate and the rear of the Tub. And I will just have to figure out how to close that up if the smell still makes it in the cab.