HOLD DA DOOR
With the car body construction complete and painted...wanted to go back and cover the details used to bring the car(s) to life...and there's a lot of details. For now, let's start with the doors: baggage and end doors.
Started with the line drawings provided in the Shortline News Gazette magazine article. Scaled the door dimensions along with the window and wood panel openings. The doors were designed to fit "inside" wall frame openings. Doors would be held in place with wood cleats on the inside.
Once the CAD drawings were completed, those were handed over to Honest Dave along with aluminum sheet materials to perform the metal machining. Baggage doors were made from 1/8" thick alum sheet. These doors would have a flat face. They're relatively simple. The doors would have (3) window openings on top over (3) wood panel openings on the bottom. After machining the doors to the outer dimension, the glazing and wood panel openings were laid out.
In addition to cutting out the window and wood panel openings, there was a .060" deep recess on the back side of the door for the 1/16" thick acrylic glazing and 1/16" thick basswood with 1/4" scribe lines. Dave found by accident, additional hold downs were needed as the alum sheet was thinned. Here's how the door was held in place.
After the machine work was completed, took the doors home for a "fit test".
However, while Dave had the doors, he went the extra step and machined rails and stiles in the door face. This helped break up a completely smooth surface. Had to admit...that added a nice touch. Here's the baggage door in place with the scribed basswood sheet held in place with tape.
Before installing either the glazing or wood panel, the location of the door handle was marked, drilled and tapped for 2-56 brass screws. Don't recall if Loctite or a nut was used to secure. The top of the car body grab iron was level with the door handle, the longer grab iron was located. Pilot holes were drilled. 2-56 brass hex lag screws were used to secure the grab iron (Micro Fasteners).
After door painting, the glazing and wood panels were glued in place with contact cement. For the glazing, set the window in place and used masking tape to mark the window openings. This, to keep contact cement out of the exposed window area. For the wood panel, set the basswood in place and used a pencil to scribe the panel openings. Contact cement was applied to both window/wood panel and the back of the door...and the respective pieces pressed into place. Here's how all this came together...
The end doors followed a similar process. In this case, 1/4" thick aluminum sheets were used. The reason for the thicker maters was the end door had double hung windows. Needed thicker material to include the double hung window on the face and the .060" deep recesses on the back for the glazing and scribed wood paneling once again.
Holes for the doll house door handle plates (Hobby Lobby) were located and drilled. Used escutcheon pins to hold the door knob detail in place. Superglue was used on the back side to secure the pins. Here's the face and back side of the end doors before painting...
That takes care of the doors. All totaled...need (2) baggage doors and (4) end doors for the combine and coach. Next time, more details.
Carl B.
