The Woe of Doors

build Oct 15, 2020

One of the things I love about the trailer we have invested in is the shape - the front has these wonderful curves, one of which opens and will be our main entrance.

These, however, are also one of the worst parts of the box. The door panel is rusted out top and bottom with some yacky bubbles around the edges, the other side is almost as bad, and both have had a lot of dents and scrapes over the years. While I could patch them it would involve three major patches, possibly some minor ones around some of the rivets, and then at least a repaint. And it's going to look patched.

Instead, I'm looking to replace both panels. Still bouncing between steel (stronger and apparently cheaper) and aluminium (easier to work but more likely to get dinged in use) and am unsure whether I'm going to need to get them rolled by a local place or not - need to get the old ones off and do some repairs on the frames (hopefully within my bloppy ability with an arc welder!) and really that is the only structural problem we've come across.

Next up we need to organise a good jet washing, do a proper investigation of the floor (although the wood seems really good), a little bit of work on where the rear door shuts and cut out the hatches. Which in itself is a little harder than it should be - the hinge I want to use (snail hinge) is very expensive - so I found a cheaper one online and ordered it this morning. which led to two spurious charges on my card which had to be cancelled (thanks Starling bank for your efficiency) and I'm now unsure if I'm going to be receiving it or not! Still - these things happen.

(by the way if you like the crab door knocker on the image, they can be bought here)

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