Finishing the side doors

For real this time!  We talked about covering the edges of the doors with T-molding in this post about the door construction, but after a little over a month of sitting in the garage, the edges got bent and the more we looked at the overlapping detail, the less we liked it.  Unfortunately this meant we had to order new T-molding, but we figured it was a live and learn experience – and we have a lot of those.

While the new T-molding was on order, we still needed to sand down the door to get the correct spacing between the door and the side wall.  We decided to sand enough off to leave roughly a ¼” all the way around.  Then the door was fit in place with shims so that we could figure out the hinge.  The hinge was cut down to size and temporally screwed into place on both the door and wall of the trailer (we did three screws on each side).

After this we removed the hinge and sanded the face of the door down.  Then I was able to stain and protect the door with spar urethane in the same process we described here.

When the new T-molding arrived we decided to work as a team to figure this out.  We first slowly bent the top T along the edge of the door but installing stainless steel screws along the door and bending as we went.  The first time I think we bent it too quickly and it had a number of stress marks.  Luckily with the slower bending, they were much less noticeable.

For the corners, since we didn’t like the overlapping detail (and after asking advice from Grant of lil bear) we figured we have a go at mitering the corners.  I was able to locate an old protractor and to calculate the angle, you simply measure the angle and divide it in half.  We then traced the angle onto the molding and cut both the top and side molding with a hack saw.  After a bit of sanding with a rasp, it fit.  It wasn’t perfect, but it was a much better detail that what we had before.

We also mitered the trim at the bottom, a simple 45 degree angle.  On the hinge side of the door, both the curved top molding and straight bottom molding were cut flush with the edge of the door.

Next we carefully removed all of the T-molding so that we could attach some aluminum trim Darrell fabricated at his work.  This was done at the same time as the trim he made for the door opening.  This trim was glued on with construction adhesive with the corners overlapping to prevent leaking.  For the curved top we decided for a more simple fix and just cut a flat piece of aluminum to cover the exposed edge without trying to wrap around face of the door.  With this installed, we ran a bead of caulk along the T-molding and re-screwed it into place.  After all of this the hinge went back on and we attached it to the trailer!

Installing the 12x18 window proved to be a bit more of a challenge since it didn’t come with any instructions.  After pressure fitting the window and the frame in place, we were left with a gap leaving the door sandwich exposed.  There were screw holes on the inside frame but not the window itself, so we turned to website we ordered the window from to try and figure out how to attach the two pieces together.  It seemed to indicate that you needed to drill a hole into a small channel on the inside of the window frame.  So this is what we did and then we screwed them together.

We later figured out that by doing this we actually were drilling into the weep channel of the window.  During our water test water was definitely coming in!  AHHHH!  So to fix this, Darrell basically filled all of the holes he drilled with caulk and filled the underside of the window below the weep channel with additional caulk.  After it cured, we water tested again and had no leaks… yay!  There was still an ugly gap left, but we were able to buy some inexpensive foam tubing to fill it up.  It can easily be removed, which seemed like a good idea so we can periodically check on the window to see how the caulk is holding up.

The door handles were last on the list.  To do this we first had to decide on the position we wanted, then a hole had to be drilled through the door for the turning mechanism to push through.  After the weather stripping was installed (which I’ll talk about in the next post) the doors were too far out from the face of the interior wall for the latch to work.  We solved this problem by cutting small pieces of ¼” plywood to fit behind the inside latch.  This pushed it out far enough to have the latch engage while still keeping a tight seal.

Trimming out the doors

When we framed out the door openings in the side walls, we knew that they would eventually be covered with some sort of aluminum trim to provide some protection to the exposed wood edges.  We also figured that it would cover any imperfection in our cuts and framing too!

 

 We purchased some simple aluminum flashing from Home Depot which usually comes in 10’ or 50’ rolls.  From this Darrell was able to fabricate custom bent c-channels using a press brake he had access to at his work (which he did way ahead of time before he left).  Each of these c-channels had a short ½” long leg that would be on the inside of the trailer, a 1½” bottom to span the width of the wall, and a longer 1” long leg that would be on the outside of the trailer.  He also made sure to hem the edges of the strips so there would be no sharp edges along the sides.  The c-channels could only be 4’ long – the length of the press brake – but that gave us just the right amount of length to cut down for each side of the door.

For each door opening we used three individual lengths of c-channel on the straight sides and then had to hand cut pieces for the arched top.  On the straight lengths, we decided to leave short ‘tails’ so that we could wrap the pieces over or under each other to help protect against water penetration.  After a quick test fit, we trimmed the ‘tails’ to length to give us even corners. 

For the arched top we couldn’t use the c-channel since couldn’t bend along the curve.  So to trim out the top, we decided to use three separate pieces of aluminum – one on each side of the wall with a strip to cover the top.  Darrell hand cut a strip of aluminum 2” wide following the curve using tin snips.  The top 1” would be left alone, but all along the bottom 1” he cut small slits so that it could be folded into the trailer.  He then repeated the process for the other side of the wall.  This made for an unattractive detail, but I really wanted to cover the edge of the wood and we could cover it over with another strip of aluminum later.

After everything was cut down, folded around and fit into place, we were able to glue it all on using construction adhesive.  Since we had a limited number of clamps, we used a whole bunch of blue painters tape to secure everything in place.  We then let it cure over night so we were sure it was completely secure and dry.

The next morning the tape came off and it looked great!  There were a couple of spots that didn’t adhere quite as tightly as we wanted on the outside, but that was fixed with some evenly spaced twist nails (the same we used to finish out the galvanized trim in the cabin).  Unfortunately I didn’t take a close up photo of them, but they gave it a really industrial look we ended up liking a lot

Side Doors

So since we've shown you that the doors have been started in our post about finishing the exterior walls, I guess its time to explain the process!  To begin with, when we cut out the door openings from the Okoume side walls, we did so as carefully as possible and saved the pieces.  In this way the completed doors would fit in seamlessly with the grain and the openings.  A key thing to note too is that i lightly marked which panel went with which wall and faced out.

The framed out walls and saved door pieces from back in the day!

The next step was to frame out the door in the same manner as the side walls - sandwich style.  We wanted to insulated the doors as well because we figured that this would give us a nice warm cabin once they were assembled and everything was sealed.  I framed out the sides and bottom of the door with 1x2 pine and cut down the arched top piece from a larger 1x4 board.  I then used the 1x2 pine again to frame out an opening for the window.  We were able to purchase these inexpensive operable screened windows online that were originally made for horse trailers.  While not the most attractive in the world, the were the right size, type and price.

I next traced out the opening for the window and drilled holes in each corner to make it easer to cut out with the jig saw.  It actually was quite difficult to cut out due to the awkward position and curves, but in the end, with some light sanding it fit like a glove.

After framing out the door, we used the leftover R-4 foam insulation from the walls to insulate the door.  It worked out great because we used up exactly what we had left!  Its like we planned it!

Just like with the Okoume, when we cut out the openings in the 1/4" birch plywood we used at the interior, we marked them up and saved them too.  I simply had to trim it down a bit to fit on the newly framed out door and glue and nail it on with finish nails.  The windows have yet to be officially installed, but they fit snuggly enough in the openings that they hold themselves in place for the time being.  Then, just to make sure it fit and looked awesome, we popped it in the trailer.  Voila!  A door!

We plan on covering the edges of the door and the wall opening with thin aluminum trim, but that still needs to be worked out.  In the meantime, I cut some of the aluminum T-molding we ordered on-line to shape around the door edges.  This molding with act a a backer for the weatherstripping and create finished seal around the door.  I attached these temporarily with some nails for the time being, but I have to continue to shave off portions of the door in order to get a tight but still movable fit.  Another test fit with the T-molding on looks great!  There's still more to do, but they are coming along nicely.

hinge side  / door handle side