Door Frame Corrosion

[Steve Pierce]

After removing the door on Cathy's TriPacer to repair the gummed up latch I also noticed this corrosion on the bottom front corner.

I cut the damaged area out, sand blasted the area and then used a section out of another wrecked door to make a repair section out of. I used a piece of 5/8" 4130 square tube as a liner to reinforce the splice. Since the original tube is a hemmed seam I had to cut a longitudinal groove in the sleeve tube so it would slide inside of the original hemmed 11/16" tubing that Piper built the door out of.

Now I just have to sandblast, prime and paint the rest of the door and then fit some new sheet metal on it.

 

[stevesaircraft(Bri)]

Nice work there Steve... Dad just did a repair on the project Pacer's rear door where he removed one half of the original tube and replaced it with a 90 degree bent piece of new... worked good..

I see some missing headliner.. Starting on the skylight mod.??

Brian.

 

[Nathan Hiebert]

Mine had the same problem, in the same location. I had to replace the hinge too.

 

[Greg W]

Since you guys seem to be comparing door issues here is a photo of mine. Had to replace the whole lower tube on the rear door
. I am working on the engine nowand still think that 8103C will be back in the air this summer, we are still getting snow.

 

[Clayton Harper]

As a by-product of a Trimmer Seaplane door mod, I have a well repaired left door for a Clipper. Anyone interested?

 

[Pacer 24C]

Mine had the same problem, in the same location. I had to replace the hinge too.

Did you find any corrosion in he main fuselage?

 

[Clayton Harper]

As a by-product of a Trimmer Seaplane door mod, I have a well repaired left door for a Clipper. Anyone interested?

I must have been looking at it backward, MEANT "RIGHT DOOR", or maybe it was Dyslexia.
It is a right door.

 

[DRBPA16]

I have the same problem on the rear door. So now I need to find a used door or a good welder! Still trying to figure out how to pot pictures from the iphone.

 

[Brian]

I have the same problem on the rear door. So now I need to find a used door or a good welder! Still trying to figure out how to pot pictures from the iphone.

You should be able to navigate and add photos taken from your IPhone and in your Photo Library easy enough. For attaching non photo documents like PDFs or Photos taken with other Digital Cameras then Drop Box is a good tool. With Drop Box you store Photos and Docs out in the cloud from Windows or IOS devices then from your IPhone you can download and attach to your SWPO Post. Drop Box is free storage up to about 8 GByte size limit. ( Initially they allocate you 2 GBytes, but seems like as you use it up they offer more as I now have 8GB with no annual cost )

 

[Jim Hann]

I have the same problem on the rear door. So now I need to find a used door or a good welder! Still trying to figure out how to pot pictures from the iphone.

Are you using a browser or Tapatalk?

 

[Clayton Harper]

You can use 5/8" square 4130 tubing. It will slide into the door frame if one corner is ground away about an inch. I cut the door frame at 45 deg. TIG weld the corners. You may want to space out the surface with some aluminum.

 

[DRBPA16]

Thanks CLayton, I cut the bad stuff out and going to slip and piece inside the bottom rail as an added support. Looking at TIG welders right now, seems Everlast TIG ac/dc 180 is a good little unit and would weld anything on an airframe. The Miller welders are off the chart expensive.

 

[piperrocks2013]

Thanks CLayton, I cut the bad stuff out and going to slip and piece inside the bottom rail as an added support. Looking at TIG welders right now, seems Everlast TIG ac/dc 180 is a good little unit and would weld anything on an airframe. The Miller welders are off the chart expensive.

Good Morning, I had to get a Tig Welder to do some welding on my airframe this spring. Cant speak for the Everlast models personally but have had welders complain to me about the stability of the arc. If you are new to it, you want to try get a decent welder as Tig itself is not easy to learn. (assuming you are new to it). I broke down and bought Dynasty 200 no regrets! but you should look for a used Syncrowave from Miller or decent Lincoln if you are on a budget. I have had few welders in my time and even built a few from Heavy Duty Power Supplies from Communications equipment and one from DC 3 Aircraft Generator. But One thing is certain is cheap welders usually have cheap results.

 

[violinmaker]

funky squ. tube for door frame repairs ?

I notice the door frames are a funky squ tube made by folding thin,flat sheet over 5 times. Does that raw
material still exist to use for repairs ? If "no"---- does everybody just use the thinnest wall chrome-molly
in 5/8 or 3/4 ?????? (and just put in a new piece of that for the full length of the section --)

I am guessing that material maybe has some kind of resistance weld on the two sides which overlap (?)
which would be hard to duplicate.....
Tim

 

[dgapilot]

Re: funky squ. tube for door frame repairs ?

I’ve got the same issue. The thinnest wall tube is .035 I think, and original is .020 as I remember. Haven’t decided how I’ll fix mine yet, weld a new tube in the bottom, or clean out the corrosion and weld on some .020 formed into a channel as a repair.


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[violinmaker]

Re: funky squ. tube for door frame repairs ?

You could take 2 pieces of the bigger piper channel and nest them-- and spot weld down both sides--- but I don't much
like that idea----
I would not see a big problem with the .035 regular square except it does not match the size of what piper had----
(which seems completely odd-ball----)

 

[violinmaker]

Re: funky squ. tube for door frame repairs ?

I expect it was some kind of mild low carbon steel which was rolled onto a square form and then slid off. Low carbon
to prevent any spring back -- which would have made it impossible to make--- (I would think-)
Like to see what the machine looked like that made it ……..

 

[forkzilla]

Re: funky squ. tube for door frame repairs ?

I made a piece of 11/16 square tubing by welding two angles together that I bent on my brake, from 24 gauge sheet metal. 5/8 was a little too small and 3/4 was a little too large.

 

[Steve Pierce]

Merged your thread with another on the subject. I use an another old door as a donor for material or use 5/8" 4130 square tubing.

 

[Frank Green]

As I recall from 10 years ago I had the same problem as steve and the tube was like 5/8 id 11/16 od square. I believe I needed a piece about 10" so I made it out of 3/4 x 5/8 from McMasters by surface grinding 4 sides and grinding a radius on the corners on a belt sander.

 

[violinmaker]

I had bought a miller dynasty about 8 years ago and like it so far. The new welders sold at harbor freight (Vulcan) have
gotten OK reviews on the welding forums---- not a nice as miller --- but maybe easier to get spare parts for than made in china everlast. The everlast apparently work fine-- but everyone is concerned that if a circuit board blows- the whole thing is disposable. The Vulcan is (I believe) made in America or designed in America--- to avoid the replacement parts avail. problem. You can read the thread on weldingweb about it.

I was noticing that on the doors--- each different side of the door is a different size squ tube...…. Seems like a strange way to do things--- that they wouldn't standardize the tube size---- but I guess they didn't have to since they were making their own material----- but it makes it kind of a pain now-----

I will see if I can do Steve's fix with the inner sleeve. (if I have scrap material for the outer section--)


Tim

 

[Steve Pierce]

Piper bought the tubing. It is made like towel bars are made with a folded seam. The doors were all 1/16" tubing. Someone probably repaired your doors with something else. I did not do any inner sleeves, simply cut at an angle and butt welded together. It is not a structural part but a fairing.

 

[dgapilot]

I had bought a miller dynasty about 8 years ago and like it so far. The new welders sold at harbor freight (Vulcan) have
gotten OK reviews on the welding forums---- not a nice as miller --- but maybe easier to get spare parts for than made in china everlast. The everlast apparently work fine-- but everyone is concerned that if a circuit board blows- the whole thing is disposable. The Vulcan is (I believe) made in America or designed in America--- to avoid the replacement parts avail. problem. You can read the thread on weldingweb about it.


Tim

I’ve got an Everlasting 210EXT, been using it for about 3 years now, so far so good!



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[violinmaker]

I have heard mostly good reports from everlast users-- they seem to weld great--- just some are worried about getting parts --- That's the single biggest reason I went with miller- even though it was 3x the price of Chinese.

Steve--- wow that surprises that piper didn't mfg. that stuff.....
I have 3 doors (pieces of doors--) and it looks like every tube is a different size even on one door---- that's a little confusing---

 

[violinmaker]

Steve:

"I used a piece of 5/8" 4130 square tube as a liner to reinforce the splice. Since the original tube is a hemmed seam I had to cut a longitudinal groove in the sleeve tube so it would slide inside of the original hemmed 11/16" tubing that Piper built the door out of."

This is what I was referring to when I said "inner sleeve" - did you take the 5/8 tube and cut one side off to clear the
doubled side of the piper tune ?
​

 

[Steve Pierce]

Steve:

"I used a piece of 5/8" 4130 square tube as a liner to reinforce the splice. Since the original tube is a hemmed seam I had to cut a longitudinal groove in the sleeve tube so it would slide inside of the original hemmed 11/16" tubing that Piper built the door out of."

This is what I was referring to when I said "inner sleeve" - did you take the 5/8 tube and cut one side off to clear the
doubled side of the piper tune ?
​

I guess I did do a tube in a tube splice. Slept to many times and worked on to many airplanes since then I guess.

 

[violinmaker]

I bet every single person whose plane you repair is thankfull to have someone that knows how to do work thats to the bone solis and done to be proud of.
I have seen some ( a few really) that just got my blood pressure up they were such jacklegs-- a couple were even IA's---- but many more were guys I loved to watch
work--- likes to observe how they though about approaches to problem solving... and ways to fix problems so they stay fixed. I suspect many of us here are thankfull to have
help when were on the learning curve.
T

 

[Subsonic]

Ok, so here I am spankin' this old thread, standing here with my rotted out lower door frame on my spare door that I'm turning into a patrol door with window in the lower, normally sheet metal area. I wasted a couple hours trying to oxy acet. (gas weld with really small tip), the rusted out part of the lower frame bottom. I learned this lesson about 30 years ago, so had to relearn it tonight. Dumb ass. Should have just cut it out and replaced...So, now having relearned the lesson I am going to section out about 10 to 12 inches of the lowermost part and replace it with something. Prolly some 5/8" 4130 chrom-molybd. Unless someone here knows better now. 11/16" with .020' wall available anywhere? Please advise as I'm going after this fast. Thanks.
-Subsonic

 

[Steve Pierce]

I have used 5/8" 4130 or sections of an old door to repair.

 

[dgapilot]

I fixed mine with 5/8 square 4130 with the corner ground off to slide in the original roll formed tube.


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