Something I failed to think of when drafting the specifications for Waiouru needs to be rectified. There are no door stops on the rear cabin and exterior stern doors. The doors can swing open and strike the paintwork. The problem is slightly different for each set of doors. In the case of the rear cabin doors there are external brush satin finished stainless steel door hooks.
The ‘eye’ for the hooks can (and do) sometimes hit the cabin bulkhead when they are being opened from inside.
The rear doors don’t have hooks and tend to swing open and closed when Waiouru rocks.
The small clip on the port (left) rear door is used to secure the elastic strap on the pram cover. However it tends to strike the bulkhead when swinging. These doors really need some door hooks to secure them open in the same way as the rear cabin doors.
The side hatch doors do have a doorstop. These are chromed brass with a centre rubber buffer.
The first priority Is to to prevent the two rear sets of doors from doing any further damage to the paintwork and I’ve been looking for the same style doorstops fitted to the side hatches. The doorstops were delivered to the chandlery below Braunston bottom lock today and I was quite pleased with the price as they were cheaper than the best price I could find online. The chrome mounting is fitted to the bulkhead with M4 machine screws. I’ll use stainless steel to match the chrome. The rubber buffer is shaped like a mushroom with the ‘head’ being exposed and the shaft inside the chrome mounting.
There is a weakness with these fittings. The rubber ‘mushroom’ can be ripped out if snagged by a rope, tunnel or bridge side, etc. Apparently you can’t buy replacement mushrooms which are probably the cheapest component in the doorstop. To further reduce the risk of the mushroom being lost I filled the rear cavity with construction adhesive.
Once the adhesive has set the surplus is removed with a razor knife.
When positioning the doorstops it’s important to recognise the ‘eye’ portion of the cabin hook might be deeper than the doorstop. Well they are on Waiouru. So there is little point in fixing the stops next to the hook. Remembering my schoolboy geometry, the doorstops need to be moved towards the hinge. After some experimenting the location of the stop can be established.
In this position the door will be pressed against the stop and the hook will still fit in the eye. This actually stops the door rattling. Before the stops are fitted using two M4 machine screws I applied a small bead of construction adhesive to the threaded holes. This reduced the potential for rust to form at the hole.
It’s a pity I didn’t think to include the doorstops in the original specifications as I wouldn’t now have to do all this additional work.
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