Rebuilding the door.

Saturday evening I decided to take the door off the trailer and take it apart. I could tell there was significant rot at the bottom, and I only had a few hours that evening and a few Sunday morning to get something done. The door seemed do-able.

I started by taking off the broken (!) and seeming irreplaceable bargman L-66 handle/lock combo thingy. Easy to take off. Next I took out all the screws that I could find and... the door was still in one piece. So upon closer inspection I found that there were some staples as well. Okay. So I began pulling staples. And more staples, and more and more and more. Who put these thing together?? Arg! Finally after a million staples, I reached the door's center I ran into some special guests, wasps. Luckily it was cold on Saturday night, so they weren't attacking me - but I made my dad kill them anyway! I hate wasps.

The door was now in pieces and I could see the yucky rotted frame. It looked like only the bottom and the area around the lock and handle were no good, but since it seemed like it would be an easy enough framing job, so we decided to rebuild the whole thing.

Here's what the old frame looked like:

Sunday morning I made a 7:30 am trip to Home Depot for sub floor glue, insulation, window sealant, and a tarp. When I got back I measured each piece of the old frame carefully and cut the new 2x2's to size. Once I was ready, my dad came out to help, and we discovered that measuring is NOT a talent of mine. Every piece had to be re-cut. Then when we started putting it back together we began to realize that the wood in the original door was not 2x2's but something just slightly smaller. Great. My dad solved the problem by shaving each piece on the table saw.

Here's what the new frame looks like:


Finally we began piecing the door back together. We had to take the lock side with all the horizontal supports already nailed to it, slide it in under the side, top and bottom metal lips, and then attach the hinge side to the frame. It looked like my measurements were off again! The wood framing for the lock was visible from the front of the door. DARN. Oh well, my dad said he could fix that. So we moved on and cut the insulation to size and placed in into the door. Now we were ready to seal it up!!

My dad cut a piece of thin plywood and glued it down to the frame. Then he added a few staples to hold it into place. I had about 30 minutes before I had to call it quits and it looked like we were going to make it! The door was going to get finished!

OOPS. We forgot to notch out a place for the little plastic spacers. OH GREAT - and the plywood has been GLUED to the frame. Now what?

Well, we had to put the door aside until next weekend and try to come up with a plan to fix that little (big) problem. I was so sad.

Good news is that my dad found someone selling trailer parts for $80.00 on CL. Windows, doors, trim, drip caps, a table and more. This was a good find!! So I left Zippy behind and went to get the parts.

Next time on the Adventures of Zippy Lee...

We'll try to fix the door. Again. And more polishing, of course.