The 15th International Portafold & Ansfold Gathering) (i.e. 2024)

Our annual gathering will be returning to the Newbury Retrofestival.

So put the dates 9th, 10th & 11th of August 2024 in your diary now and get those dates booked off work early.

Show Address: Newbury Showground, Priors Court, Hermitage, Thatcham, West Berkshire, RG18 9QZ

Don't book direct with the show organisers it will cost you more money, just contact me (07771544419) to get your pitch saved.

Interference between upper & lower doors

Anything you've created that didn't come out of the factory.
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txfsealord
Posts: 178
Joined: Sat, 05 May 2007, 9:24 pm
Location: Pulborough, West Sussex

Interference between upper & lower doors

Post by txfsealord » Sun, 15 Jul 2007, 3:32 pm

Hi all, when I open our upper door, I have to make sure the lower one doesn't open with it as they foul badly. The hinge pins are a long way out of line. Lawrie Newton's, the only other one I've seen, was nearly as bad. He told me they were all like it. Surely the hinges lined up when the vans were new....? I assumed on mine it was a consequence of my hull distortion-straightening efforts. I found another door trouble when using the van, with it supported on the corner jacks. When trying to close or open either door from inside, my weight (11st) in the middle of the rear end bowed the body, making the doors jam. Now Lawrie's did not seem to have this fault. On the Portafold, the gap between the upper & lower hull-halves seems greater, I presume this adds beam-strength across the rear end at the expense of the flat floor that we have in the Ansfold.

I thought I'd start by making a very light crossmember under the rear to add the missing beam stiffness. Everything's got to be very light unless I'm going to get a bigger car! Then make some nylon or ally packing to line the hinges up.

Has anyone else had to do this?

Steve

txfsealord
Posts: 178
Joined: Sat, 05 May 2007, 9:24 pm
Location: Pulborough, West Sussex

Jammed doors

Post by txfsealord » Tue, 31 Jul 2007, 8:14 pm

Hi all, made my rear crossmember, using 18swg tube, 5/8"o.d. I've welded it through the chassis longerons beneath the door, so the effective depth is about 3". I tapered the ends towards the outside, flattening them & welding them together to bolt through the hull next to the outer jack mounts. Sorted!! Door doesn't jam at all & I haven't had to sand chunks of fibreglas from the edges, which was what I first thought of doing when we were camping in it. So glad I waited & thought it through.

The current job is the baseplate of the gas-bottle locker. I'm slightly concerned about the effect on the nose-weight this will have, as the weight's about right at present & I still have some spring travel on the back of the car, which will probably go with the increase. However, I've now got a nice place to mount the Ansfold's spare wheel right at the back, behind my new crossmember. That'll help, plus I bought some stiffer rear springs for the car at the Morris rally, for a Traveller, 7 leaves as against the saloon's 5.

Might as well reconfigure the car to cope with this.....why not make loads more work for myself!

Steve

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