Alrighty then - with the windows done, let's see what I can do with the entry door.
The first thing I did was get the eye-brow down off the shelf. I guess these might be called a rain or water diverter; I don't know exactly. Old RVs had them over the windows, as you likely well know. Somewhere along the way I read how my style of windows had the diversion designed into the upper aluminum framing and so they were eliminated. The entry door framing doesn't have that feature. Most of the Travel Queens I've seen have the combination like mine.
After washing off the dirt in warm soapy water with a brush, and a Naptha rap to get the butyl tape residues, I straightened the edges and hammered out the dings, then steel-wooled it up good.
So now let's get this window out.
Back when I did the window screens, I used just about every scrap from my one roll. I had just one small piece left over and I was going to throw it away, but DW had other ideas. If you think I'm bad on use and re-use, she wrote the book! So at her request, she took control of that last small piece of screen, and saved it for "something else", then stashed it somewhere in the depths of her sewing room.
So yesterday I went to her with hat in hand and reminder her of that scrap and asked her if I could have it back. She was more than willing and my lesson was learned - again. Yeah, it will fit perfectly. (When I throw away the tiny pieces I trim from it, I will not be consulting DW.) ;)
This is not the original steel screen, but is old enough that replacing is a no-brainer. I'll do it later after polish finishing. Today we are just dis-assembling and stacking.
Window, with curtain rod brackets. Door knob, and two holes for the open door retainer latch part.
But let's get the mounting frame off the door first.
Just like the windows, each framing corner was held with two screws. The bottom hinge side had damaged screw holes and was not holding (seen in the picture above). I'll discuss why and show close-ups.
Here are the frame parts.
On the left, the latch side. Note the "dead-bolt" prep from the factory. On the right is the hinge side. Note the full length hinge pin and the three hinges, each with a top and bottom plastic bushing. In the center are the top and bottom cross-framing. The bottom (threshold) is the dirty one in the fore-ground.
Close-ups.
What to look for here? Well note how the threshold was screw to the camper floor. As the floor weakened and gave way, the screws pulled it downward. With every step as people "came and went" more damage was done.
Eventually pulling the frame to frame retaining screens out of the holes on the hinge-side bottom framing shown here.
I have an extra donor door. I haven't examined it thoroughly, but it is a wider door (I think the same height) and I should be able to get at least two good segments from it for a new Hinge frame and a new threshold frame.
I also made a pile of the two door locks. Note they are the same units (used on my 1966 and my 1968). Both brass and both having weathered differently on the outside knob.
Yesterday at the home center we bought a new "Kwikset" brand lock-set "with dead-bolt" that is brass and matches the knob size and shape almost exactly. It's not the most expensive brand, but it isn't the cheapest, and for $20, it does the job right fine. I kind of wanted to get brass on the interior, and an aluminum-like color for the exterior, but I didn't want to buy two sets and let one go to waste, so I compromised and went "original" style. So the camper back-side will have that little brass ball hanging there with all the other aluminum. Hey - if it was good enough for original!
As many of you probably already know, this door window is more like modern style RV windows than it is like the other windows on these older RVS. The older style has a flange with screw holes that mount into a wood framing on the structure. This door window and the new style RV windows have a sandwiching effect, where the screws mount into an opposite surface framing and squeeze together to hold tight in the structure. For this window, I pulled all these screws...
And set it aside with the interior flange counterpart.
A few close-ups.
You may have noted the glass is clear - not opaque. True, it means we have to have some sort of curtain, but we like having the option. When we did our home remodeling projects, we put windows on every side. We really like being able to look any direction, for whatever!
One of the things that really struck us about Lil' Queeny was the great number of window openings and visual freedom it gave us. That is so important to us for any size space, but it becomes paramount in a small space.
One of the things we hate (and yes I know that is a strong word) about our new Travel Trailer is that front bedroom wall. You can't see out that direction. You can't see the tow vehicle, or anybody around it. We don't want to fix it with a camera. We don't like spending money to try and fix somebody else's poor planning. If we keep it, we'll either deal with it, or find some acceptable solution, but we are expecting Lil' Queeny will give us everything we need.
So this leaves me an entry door like this. Tomorrow we'll go further.
