Open and Shut door issue (2 Viewers)

[Pommie82]

Hi everyone,
I have taken the plunge and subscribed as I have an open and shut problem and hope to be pointed to a helpful thread.
The Habitation door on "Jennifer" an 08 Rapido LeRandonneur 965M has dropped on the hinges.
The door shuts but does not lock properly. I am an engineer so usually quickly repair or adjust stuff
I have adjusted the twin lock pins but no improvement.
The hinges are strange double pin internal affairs
The pins and tracks are worn.
Brownlows and Rapido are saying I need a new door and frame (Which they can't fit) at £ 7500.00
I have tried multiple people and companies for spare hinges or aftermarket door.
Has anyone else had this issue and how was it resolved.
We love "Jennifer" but can't justify £7500
Pommie 82

 

[denisejoe]

Is the philips screw on the left an adjustment screw

 

[nicholsong]

Hi everyone,
I have taken the plunge and subscribed as I have an open and shut problem and hope to be pointed to a helpful thread.
The Habitation door on "Jennifer" an 08 Rapido LeRandonneur 965M has dropped on the hinges.
The door shuts but does not lock properly. I am an engineer so usually quickly repair or adjust stuff
I have adjusted the twin lock pins but no improvement.
The hinges are strange double pin internal affairsView attachment 852668
The pins and tracks are worn.
Brownlows and Rapido are saying I need a new door and frame (Which they can't fit) at £ 7500.00
I have tried multiple people and companies for spare hinges or aftermarket door.
Has anyone else had this issue and how was it resolved.
We love "Jennifer" but can't justify £7500
Pommie 82

We had a locking problem on our N&B Arto while on tour, since resolved, but we solved it by getting an external lock fitted - lot cheaper than £7,500.

Our problem was that the door was not shutting completely to allow the locking mechanism to engage when turning the key outside, but the locking knob worked from inside. Just needs a good shove from outside.

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[donkey]

Remove the hinges, one at a time. Withdraw the pins. Obtain some oversize rod, cut to length. Drill out the other bits (no idea what they would be called)

Geoff

 

[Two on Tour]

Hi everyone,
I have taken the plunge and subscribed as I have an open and shut problem and hope to be pointed to a helpful thread.
The Habitation door on "Jennifer" an 08 Rapido LeRandonneur 965M has dropped on the hinges.
The door shuts but does not lock properly. I am an engineer so usually quickly repair or adjust stuff
I have adjusted the twin lock pins but no improvement.
The hinges are strange double pin internal affairsView attachment 852668
The pins and tracks are worn.
Brownlows and Rapido are saying I need a new door and frame (Which they can't fit) at £ 7500.00
I have tried multiple people and companies for spare hinges or aftermarket door.
Has anyone else had this issue and how was it resolved.
We love "Jennifer" but can't justify £7500
Pommie 82

Looks to me that if the door is raised and held i.e. a block of wood and a jack, and the pivot pin (arrowed) removed, then the washers between the hinge elements can be removed and replaced with thicker washers to take up the wear.

 

[Pommie82]

Is the philips screw on the left an adjustment screw

I had assumed it was just to secure the hinge while riveting in place.
I will have a look when I am next at the Storage. Thanks for the suggestion

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[Pommie82]

Looks to me that if the door is raised and held i.e. a block of wood and a jack, and the pivot pin (arrowed) removed, then the washers between the hinge elements can be removed and replaced with thicker washers to take up the wear.

View attachment 852673

The wear seems to be in the aluminium channel that the pins slide in, The inner end of the pins and metal spacers have sunk into aluminium. The pins are tight in the right angled hinge elements. I think I will have to commit and remove 1 hinge and see if I can lift it with spacers and tighten the worn slot

 

[Pommie82]

We had a locking problem on our N&B Arto while on tour, since resolved, but we solved it by getting an external lock fitted - lot cheaper than £7,500.

Our problem was that the door was not shutting completely to allow the locking mechanism to engage when turning the key outside, but the locking knob worked from inside. Just needs a good shove from outside.

I was hoping to avoid an external lock

 

[Pommie82]

Remove the hinges, one at a time. Withdraw the pins. Obtain some oversize rod, cut to length. Drill out the other bits (no idea what they would be called)

Geoff

I think I may need a combination of thicker rod and spacers to correct the wear.
This is why I was looking for new hinges
C'est la vie!

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[Lenny HB]

The hinge will be a standard hinge bought in by Rapido just a case of internet searching. Those hinges are known by 3 names, Hidden Hinge, Invisible Hinge & Concealed Hinge.
As it's a French van could be worth searching with French search engines like Google.fr.

Worth contacting manufacturers of similar hinges email them with a photo they may be able to point you in the right direction.

 

[jockaneezer]

If that central pin will knock out (up the way) I'd try sliding in a few shims, something along the lines of these ?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/295491998624?mkcid=1&mkrid=710-53481-19255-0&siteid=0&campid=5339023013&customid=&toolid=10001&mkevt=1

 

[Pommie82]

If that central pin will knock out (up the way) I'd try sliding in a few shims, something along the lines of these ?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/295491998624?mkcid=1&mkrid=710-53481-19255-0&siteid=0&campid=5339023013&customid=&toolid=10001&mkevt=1

I am going to remove the central hinge and experiment with shims and thicker pins.
But will exhaust the new hinge avenue first

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[Pommie82]

The hinge will be a standard hinge bought in by Rapido just a case of internet searching. Those hinges are known by 3 names, Hidden Hinge, Invisible Hinge & Concealed Hinge.
As it's a French van could be worth searching with French search engines like Google.fr.

Worth contacting manufacturers of similar hinges email them with a photo they may be able to point you in the right direction.

Good shout with google france

 

[Dutch 68]

The wear seems to be in the aluminium channel that the pins slide in, The inner end of the pins and metal spacers have sunk into aluminium. The pins are tight in the right angled hinge elements. I think I will have to commit and remove 1 hinge and see if I can lift it with spacers and tighten the worn slot

Just take a hinge out and bring to a fabrication shop, and they will replicate / improve some nice new hinges for you, not a difficult job when you got the right equipment, if you want it on the cheap, go into a college where they have the proper gear too and like a challenge for their students

 

[denisejoe]

Fi you could jack the door up just taking up the slack you could fit c-clips as a temporary measure to see if new washer would work.

Stainless Steel E Type Circlip, 4mm Shaft Diameter | RS

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but the size you want

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[Burgo]

https://www.sdslondon.co.uk/soss-concealed-hinges.html and their other pages on the site?

 

[Pommie82]

Finally collected Jennifer and removed a hinge.
It turns out all the bushes are worn on the top hat and internally.
I discussed with my Son in Law who has a High End 3D printer
He drew up the 3 sizes of bush and printed a couple of samples in Kevlar impregnated polymer.
Once we had the sizes right, he printed 3 sets of bushes.
I stripped cleaned and reassembled 1 hinge at a time.
The door now sits central in the frame and the locking bolts locate perfectly.
£ 20 fix instead of a £ 7,500 new door and frame as advised by Rapido

 

[Captain Yoghurtpot]

Nice one.
Result!!!!!!!
Love it when a bit of thought is put to exercise rather than just accepting a " fobbed off" answer.
Love tinkering with bits on our old motorhome like this.

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[nicholsong]

Finally collected Jennifer and removed a hinge.
It turns out all the bushes are worn on the top hat and internally.
I discussed with my Son in Law who has a High End 3D printer
He drew up the 3 sizes of bush and printed a couple of samples in Kevlar impregnated polymer.
Once we had the sizes right, he printed 3 sets of bushes.
I stripped cleaned and reassembled 1 hinge at a time.
The door now sits central in the frame and the locking bolts locate perfectly.
£ 20 fix instead of a £ 7,500 new door and frame as advised by Rapido

View attachment 864543View attachment 864541View attachment 864542

View attachment 864544

Well done that man!

 

[St3v3]

Finally collected Jennifer and removed a hinge.
It turns out all the bushes are worn on the top hat and internally.
I discussed with my Son in Law who has a High End 3D printer
He drew up the 3 sizes of bush and printed a couple of samples in Kevlar impregnated polymer.
Once we had the sizes right, he printed 3 sets of bushes.
I stripped cleaned and reassembled 1 hinge at a time.
The door now sits central in the frame and the locking bolts locate perfectly.
£ 20 fix instead of a £ 7,500 new door and frame as advised by Rapido

View attachment 864543View attachment 864541View attachment 864542

View attachment 864544

List them on ebay and put a link in this thread. You might sell a few!

 

[Derbyshire wanderer]

Finally collected Jennifer and removed a hinge.
It turns out all the bushes are worn on the top hat and internally.
I discussed with my Son in Law who has a High End 3D printer
He drew up the 3 sizes of bush and printed a couple of samples in Kevlar impregnated polymer.
Once we had the sizes right, he printed 3 sets of bushes.
I stripped cleaned and reassembled 1 hinge at a time.
The door now sits central in the frame and the locking bolts locate perfectly.
£ 20 fix instead of a £ 7,500 new door and frame as advised by Rapido

View attachment 864543View attachment 864541View attachment 864542

View attachment 864544

You cannot beat fixing things that are supposed to be unfixable. Well done.
Now wait for the requests for others needing new bushes

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[Spriddler]

Brill. That's the way to do it!

(And well done to your daughter. She certainly knows how to choose a good 'un).

 

[olley]

Look up SOSS or concealed cross hidden hinges, you might find a replacement.