Lower Door Repairs

I had all intentions of working on the boot cowl today, but just could not get excited about it . So I started on the lower door repairs. The lower door as received was a mess. The internal supports were broken and the door latch pins would not work.  Last month I fitted new internal structure and had my friend Bill weld it up. The problem came from me not jigging the assembly properly and I got some distortion. After much bending and tweaking  it still did not fit so I had to cut the forward upright to allow me to pull the front of the door down. I made an angle slice to make it easy to work and weld.

Here is where it needed to come down about a 1/4 inch, the door latching pin would not hit the hole in the fuselage frame. Cutting the upright made this easy to get right.

Here it is after welding and grinding the tube smooth.

I also made two new latch pin and spring assemblies, both the originals were in really poor shape. I had a little trouble with the brazing , all I had was solder flux and I guess that is not the proper flux. There is also a fine line between hot enough and too hot, that was difficult to control with Oxy-acetylene.

The washer on the left is brazed on, then the spring and another washer go on then the end is flattened and drilled for the actuating rod. I got the washers brazed but did not want to use the old springs, I will pick up some tomorrow.

I also brazed the door handle support, this had some old braze still existing and the new braze did not want to stick. it's not pretty but it's stuck together. Here it is before.

And after.

I could not figure out how to make the actuating rod in one piece, so you can see here the link I made at the handle arm. Due to the strut cutout in the door I made this rod and the two will over lap about 1 inch. I will weld the two together at final assembly.

Here is the door installed with the new pins . It will look a lot better after a little sandblast and paint.
I understand why everyone wants $450 for one of these doors new, there is a lot of work in this assembly.

I should finish the door tomorrow after a trip to get some new springs. I will probably sandblast and paint this while it's cool and dry. That's it for today.