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Day 45 - More on the doors

With all bits painted, it was time for the assembly of the doors. First of all, I made some "plates" to hold the bolts for the screws of the catch mechanism. Using M6 bolts, the gap between them was 13mm - exactly the same as an M8 bolt!

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And with the two of them in place, the catches are now held down very nicely, and it's easy to tighten or undo them.

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I started with the right hand door, getting all the bolts in place, and also fitting the gas spring.

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One of the problems that this had was that the GRP was flexing a bit - on the demonstrator, they'd made a bar to tie the hinge section to the chassis, so I decided to do the same. I don't have any 38mm diameter bar - but I do have 50mm - which makes it a bit more meaty than the roll cage.

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And in place:

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I cleaned it with a zip wheel, put some Sikaflex on the plate that immediately touches the GRP, and drilled some holes to take some M8 bolts. A rivnut was used at the front of the plate, which allowed it to take an M6 bolt (the 50mm tube would get in the way).

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I also did the same for the other side. This was taken after I'd welded it to the chassis.

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There is very little flex in the GRP now - although I had to make the bar that holds the bottom of the gas spring a little thicker, as this was now flexing!

Finally, I painted them both (as well as the inside of the hinge area - you wouldn't normally see it though).

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Tomorrow, I'll do the same for the other end - where the catch mechanism is. It'll be tied to the chassis in the same way, which means the door will be really solidly mounted.

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