Save the rear hatch - rear hatch modifications on the cheap

[John A. Ross]

Lots of chatter on rear hatchs of late. Here I have attempted to recover what would have been a scrap rear hatch as best i can by using a mix of the cheapest materials I can find.

As you can see this hatch is indeed a gonner, no easy way to repair the channels plus the rot is well under the seam you do not see.

[John A. Ross]

Stage 1 complete, now I have some surplus heated glass

I cut around the inner section of the frame with the cut off tool so I did not stress the frame oo much, these are suprisingly fragile







I will stick the spare glass up for grabs to anyone local as it will need to be collected


The seam now needs removed, so back at it with the cutter








You can really see here how rotten these seams actually are

BUT

We are only after the outer skin

[John A. Ross]

WQith the seam removed you can see the obvious bend that the lower frame section wantt to take, even with the odd braze point in the fold it does want to bend out at the edges.

The lip on these would need to be rolled so I suspect there was some tension already in the metal.


AS can be seen one has to remove a lot of crust, most of thise only visible after you cut the fold / lip off

[John A. Ross]

And same again with the upper section, strip off the fold and lip to leave an outer skin only

Again more brown stuff and crustier than a burned piece of toast


As I have to work outside to do all this daylight, the cold and my aching hand called time on work for today, less than 2 hours on this so far.






And of course a quick preview of what is left




Tomorrow I go in search of some 4 or 5mm acrylic sheet to add some "glass" back in.

Ultimate plan would be to have proper glass made as the last prototype I made was too light and the clear plastic lacked the weight and rigidity to close properly


End goal here is to have a working hatch for minimum investment

[Colimp66]

Interesting to see how it was put together John and more so how your taking it apart as well..

[John A. Ross]

Interesting to see how it was put together John and more so how your taking it apart as well..

Col, I missed the pictures on some of the cutting but will model them up to show the cross section of the hatch, its actually a wonder of fabrication and i suspect fibnsihed by hand.

No accidents this time

[Dave Lane]

More pics , very interesting concept

[John A. Ross]

More pics will follow Dave

Its a fair weather project as I need to work outside while the sparks are flying


I am off in search of clear sheet tomorrow. Ideally it should be glass, it really does need the weight but I will do the concept and then ask Phil Philgsmith if the club fancies a small run of real glass from Ricky Evans

- J

[Macrootes]

John, looks good.

[John A. Ross]

Cheers Alex

Will see how it turns out

Do you want this spare heated glass I have here as spare for the Calidonian ? Macrootes

John

[John A. Ross]

OK, another hour or so in prep, unforyunately my hand is not holding up well so I have skipped my usual attention to detail on prep and just left the fram at 120 grit

It is not getting an epoxy coat as the dew point is all wrong, so a coat of galv is all it is getting.

This stuff is suprisingly cheap and seems to do the deed, it has held up on the underside of the transit anyway !

Shocked to see though Screwfix now only sell the 400ml tin, so that would be £6.99 out my budget








Sorry Alex, left that rear screen out back in fantastic condition and when I went around side of house today I had to seep it up.

It had been outside at least a year in the frame, guess unsupported the cold then sun killed it off lesson learned

[John A. Ross]

And another day, small baby steps and anothe rhit to the budget, £2.99 from home bargains for some matt black paint

Boat really being pushed out here.

If I had took my normal prep steps I would have been a full day at this prepping every cravice, then epoxy coat/filler and sand down to at least 320 grit before prime and paint

These steps are being skipped in lieu of proof of principle.


So no long list of pictures today, everyone knows how to use a rattle can, I hope paint ist still wet which is why it is shiny, it will be matt when done.

I am limiting what I do on prep, rpime and paint as having to do everything outside it is cold, very much humid and totally the wrong place to paint, so it makes full prep a waste of time almost

[John A. Ross]

And thius is what I was getting up to rather than waste daylight watching paint dry as I have no sofas here to sit on impman65 like Rob used to have

john

[John A. Ross]

The outer fram has lasted well lying outside

Will get back to that in next few weeks. No rust seen through the cheap paint, still on budget

[Colimp66]

John,
Did you get any clear sheet for the window mock up?

I have enough spare 6mm polycarbonate/lexan whatever you want to call it from when I made up the windows for the Pest that will work for you. FOC.

Cheers
Col.