Visit our Popular Forums

JoleneAS · 10-15-2018, 01:58 PM

Hey guys. I'll start with a bit of background. I have a 76 Overlander with a front door that was abused pretty bad. A standard house door knob was put on and the PO damaged the structural integrity of the door to get it on. The door ended up springing, probably from the damage from the prior modification. I took all of the old stuff off, had the door frame welded, I bent it back into shape using jigs that were cut based on the door frame curve, and riveted it back together using new holes. Then I used the KT repair kit from Out Of Doors Mart, retrofit it, and covered both sides with new aluminum plates. I'll attach the photos below.

I'm having two problems. One is that the door seems to be shifted back, meaning that the gap on the left side of the door (when looking at it from outside) is very narrow, while the gap on the right is wide. This means that the deadlatch from the door handle does not actually meet up with the hole in the frame. This part is actually ok I suppose, since the KT repair kit comes with a door strike that protrudes enough to catch the latch. The deadbolt itself does actually extend far enough to go into the doorstrike and into the door frame hole, so at least that part can be secured.

The other problem I'm having is that the door, when closed, sits flush against the frame to make the deadlatch and deadbolt go into the hole. The problem with this is that I haven't installed the new weather gaskets yet, and when I do install them, it's going to prevent the door from latching. If I cut the door frame opening any further, it'll probably make the metal too thin to secure the door. I'm not sure if this makes any sense.

So essentially, I am hoping to figure out a way to shift the door to the right, and to somehow allow the doorstrike to protrude a little further out. What are my options?

For what it's worth, my hinges are not bent, and I've taken both off to inspect the holes. The seem perfectly round and not oval shape to indicate that they've moved.

Edit: Sorry about some of the sideways photos. The first photo shows the doorknob by prior owner and the extent at which it had sprung. It was pretty bad.

Belegedhel · 10-15-2018, 03:30 PM

Welcome to the forums. Looks like you have done a lot of work on this door--not for the faint of heart. I went through much the same effort on my door, except that I completely reskinned both sides of the door to avoid the patch around the new door handle. I'll take a good look at my door at home to see if it brings back any memories of fitment problems.

What immediately comes to mind is that I went through many iterations using little shims to try and get my door properly centered in the frame. As I recall, the bolts that held the "body" side of the door hinge had some play so that the door's fit in the frame could be adjusted. The other thing is that I did have to build up an extra thick strike-plate to better catpure the deadbolt, as I still ended up with a problem similar to yours.

In addition, I used the "original" designed weather stripping, with the two fingers instead of the thicker D shaped stuff. This allowed my door to close more tightly and not be inhibited by the seal.

good luck!

JoleneAS · 10-15-2018, 05:08 PM

Thank you much for the reply! If you don't mind, I'd love to see what you ended up doing with the shims and the built-out door strike since I'm having a hard time envisioning it.

I ended up buying this rubber seal for the door: http://odmrv.com/catalog/index.php?m...roducts_id=338

If I'm understanding, this is the type that you are recommending against for a better fit. D'oh! Maybe they'll take a return.

JoleneAS · 10-15-2018, 05:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Belegedhel

Welcome to the forums. Looks like you have done a lot of work on this door--not for the faint of heart. I went through much the same effort on my door, except that I completely reskinned both sides of the door to avoid the patch around the new door handle. I'll take a good look at my door at home to see if it brings back any memories of fitment problems.

What immediately comes to mind is that I went through many iterations using little shims to try and get my door properly centered in the frame. As I recall, the bolts that held the "body" side of the door hinge had some play so that the door's fit in the frame could be adjusted. The other thing is that I did have to build up an extra thick strike-plate to better catpure the deadbolt, as I still ended up with a problem similar to yours.

In addition, I used the "original" designed weather stripping, with the two fingers instead of the thicker D shaped stuff. This allowed my door to close more tightly and not be inhibited by the seal.

good luck!

Thanks much for the reply! If I could ever bug you for a photo of your built up doorstrike and shims used to move the door, I'd be ecstatic since I'm having a hard time envisioning.

The door gasket I bought is this stuff: http://odmrv.com/catalog/index.php?m...roducts_id=338

Should I try to return this and get something different?

Thank you!

dbj216 · 10-15-2018, 07:49 PM

You have done a lot of work to the door and lockset on your Overlander. Thanks for sharing the photos.

The first picture appears like a sprung door from flying open on the highway, a common problem with Airstreams when the owner forgets to use the deadbolt, like me. I had this happen on my 86 limited, and my 75 Overlander has a poor fitting door showing evidence of the same thing, bent out at the bottom. My KT lockset is still in decent shape thank goodness.

Friend Belegedhel did a good job of explaining how he repaired his door. I haven't done mine yet. Maybe you can see a bit of the door fit problems on my 75 Overlander in the photo below.

David

Belegedhel · 10-16-2018, 08:23 AM

Ok, I took a good look at my door looking for inspiration/something to jar a memory. Attached is a picture of one of my door hinges (I think yours are similar). You can see that there are a couple of shims between the hinge and the body. These were actually factory installed. Again, it is the screws that hold the hinge to the body that I adjusted to get my door centered in the frame. If you still have access to the nuts on these screws from the inside, then you should try loosening them and moving the door to center it. If you already have your interior skins in place, then you may have to get creative to get at the nuts (ie., drill a hole in the interior skin and then patch or plug it).

Another thing to think about is that the "patch" that your latch is installed on from the outside pushes your latch out another .032". If you could put that patch on the interior of the outside door skin, it would bring your latch .064" closer to the inside of the door. Now that I see how small the number is, though, it probably isn't worth the effort.

Another thing I notice in the picture of the exterior of your latch, is that you have an Olympic rivet underneath the latch assembly. If that rivet is standing proud of the surface, you might want to drill it out, countersink the hole and hand hammer/buck a rivet in there that will be flush with the surface so that the latch assembly isn't lifted away from the surface by a rivet head. I had the same situation with bucked rivets landing underneath my hinges, so I had to to the countersinking strategy to get everything as flat as possible.

good luck!

JoleneAS · 10-16-2018, 10:06 AM

Hey guys, thanks again for the help. I suspect there's going to be several of my replies that go through at once (including a possible double post) since I'm in the probationary period on the forums.

So at the hinge side of the door, the door is flush with the body, and I think I'll have enough clearance for weather stripping, so I don't think I will need a shim here. It's the area at the door strike where the door is sitting too snug against the door frame, and I need to figure out a way to give more clearance for weather stripping. The tricky part is that I think this would require permanently modifying the door jamb in a possible dangerous way. If I widen the opening for the deadbolt / deadlatch any further it would basically eliminate any metal holding the latch in place, and I would have to rely solely on the doorstrike plate itself to secure the door. But maybe that's not a bad thing? I drew a photo to show what I'm talking about.

Also, when I tightened the hinges to the frame, I pulled forward as hard as I could but it didn't really shift the door forward unfortunately. The skins are off inside the airstream since I'm gutting it, so I can mess around with the hinge holes. I was thinking about widening the holes a bit so I can push the door forward, but this is another permanent mod on the airstream that I'm not sure if I'd regret? I drew a crude drawing of what I mean for this as well.

Thanks for any thoughts!!

Belegedhel · 10-16-2018, 10:52 AM

I'll take a picture of my beefed up strike plate and post.

Yes, I would ovalize the holes that the hinges go into in the body so that you can move the door more to the center. Don't get too aggressive with it, and all should be OK. You will want to goop up the nut/hole from the inside so that you can be sure you don't create a leak.

I don't think I have any pictures of the shimming I used to center the door, but basically, I got a bunch of very thin pices of wood--think popcicle sticks, and inserted them between the edge of the door and the door frame (at maybe 2-3 points per side, top and bottom). Once I got the door centered in the door frame, I climbed through a window and tightened down the hinge bolts to lock it in place.

good luck!

JoleneAS · 10-16-2018, 10:56 AM

Awesome! I will ovalize the holes a little and goob up the hole!

I'd love to see your strike plate some time. Thank you a ton for the help!

JoleneAS · 10-18-2018, 11:40 AM

I'm looking at something like this to build out the doorstrike area:

https://www.vintagetrailersupply.com...SABEgLaX_D_BwE

I know it's for a different year but it looks like I could use something like this to build out the doorstrike area so that there is clearance for the weather stripping. No idea if it'll work though.

dbj216 · 10-18-2018, 07:06 PM

It's not very expensive and worth a try. It may prompt another idea if it doesn't work out.

David

Belegedhel · 10-19-2018, 09:06 AM

OK, have a look at the attached photo. I put a 1/8" thick aluminum bar about 6" long and buck rivetted it in place with countersunk rivet heads. I then screwed the factory supplied strike-plate on top of that. the strike pocket on my door jamb is completely flush with the outside door frame material (meaning the whole is absolutely as far to the outside as it can go, and still be within the frame). Hope this helps.