Wing doors on 73 43' DCMY

[Bill Root]

My boat does not have wing doors. After 3,000 miles and four months on the Great Loop I'm getting tired of dealing with canvas flaps. (So is the Admiral)Does anyone out there have experience installing wing doors on one of these boats? Cost? Maybe a template or frame kit so I could make them myself? Too much to hope for, I suppose. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[eze2bme]

Bill
Earlier this year I installed wing doors and a hard enclosure on my '79 43DC. My doors are not the usual single door but rather a bi-fold design with uneven door widths - this mimics the Isenglas front and side panels. I had vertical jambs made from mahogany as well as the doors and window frames. I made mock-up pieces out of pine and had a local millwork/cabinet shop fabricate them for me. All were painted with Imron and then had glass installed to match the windshield and side window glass. I did all of the install myself.

In addition to the wing doors and hard enclosure I also had new weatherboards and gates made so that there was no gap between the bottom of the teak handrails and stern deck. These were made out of expanded PVC board (1/4" thick) and painted with Imron.

The material cost has been about $4000 ...

Send me an email at "eze2bme@aol.com" if you want more information and some pictures. Please put "wing doors" in the subject line.

Tom

 

[Canuck Dennis]

Check previous threads, lots of info there

 

[jack mattocks]

I have two wood wing doors off of a older Chris. They are in good condition and have the original hardware. I will get size and send you pictures if you have a interest.

 

[SKYCHENEY]

We did not have wing doors on our 43DC either. But, I have been aboard a couple that did. The thing I noticed is that some installs are better than others. If you can angle the doors to get a wider opening it helps.

 

[Trojan]

My wing doors are 3/4 plexiglass. Maybe 24" wide.72" tall.

BILL

 

[sgharford]

My wing doors are the same as Trojan's. Always wondered if these came stock from Hatteras or aftermarket.

 

[REBrueckner]

I made some for my 48 YF from acrylic, similar to plexiglass, to replace the old glass framed teak framed doors......happened to be 15/16" thick...no wood frame...nothing to paint....highly recommended.

 

[TedZ]

Here are mine. Understand they are under construction...just put a for-the-winter coat of varnish now. I hate the curved trim...like the look but i tried to do it at the marina with no shaper. Wrong...needs to be redone. there is cleaning and caulking yet but it gives you the idea. Doors are real mahogany.

Ted

 

[StratPlan61]

I fabricated a set of wing doors for a previous boat, a 44' Trojan FBMY. Mine finished out veruy similar to Ted's. I used 3/4" plexiglas, ss piano hinges full length and perko handles/locksets. I used 3/4 Poplar for the door frames and thresholds, then epoxied a 1/8" sheet fiberglass outer covering on all door frame/threshold pieces and EasyPoxy painted them. They came out great. Lots of angles to cut on the door frames but easy to do with a handheld jigsaw. I sanded all edges of the plexiglas and had a local plastic shop flame polish the edges for $25. Use several new drill bits for drill hinge holes/lockset holes, drilling slower than normal so as to not overheat the plexiglas. All total I had about $400 into them. Putzy but rewarding. Make certain to angle the thresholds where the overboard drains can flow off rainwater. I used aluminum angle material to create a rain drain at the bottom outside of the doors.

 

[Bill Root]

Thanks to all who responded. Very helpful.

Ted: Your photos look great. How did you handle water run-off, since the bottom frame section of the door would create a spot aft of the midships scupper with no drainage? One of the things I'm hoping to correct with the wing door arrangement is rain water collection on the aft deck.

Bill

 

[Trojan]

I have a drain right in the corner by the rear of the door. Where the door frame and the gunnel rail meet. The raised bottom door sill and added a thin weather strip too prevents any water from entering the aft deck. When I have too much water coming down the gunnel and the scupper drain can't it. It just flows over the gunnel rail. The door sill is higher than the gunnel rail preventing any water intrusion.

BILL.

 

[Jaxfishgyd]

Mine had wing doors when we bought her. Only has 1" drain hole on each side which is not big enough to drain water off.

 

[TedZ]

I have a drain in the corner also. It is possible to drill a hole through the side, above the headliner, and through the deck, put a pvc elbow in, spear it with an inch piece of pipe with pvc cement, 5200 it all in and fair in to the hull side and angle forming the gunnel. Drill the deck first and measure exactly where the hole needs to come through the side. On my boat, the CL of the hole was about 1/2" to 3/4" up on the angled part. I put a long bit in my hole saw so i could start it on the angle.

This is probably a little confusing but i could take a picture when on the hard in a week.

Perko makes a little grill to finish it off.

Ted

 

[Walter P]

Over the years I have owned a couple of 43 DC's and I installed wing doors on each of them. The first one (a 1973 model) had full height polycarbonate (Lexan) doors which looked great. I remember buying the door material as at the time I required bullet proof panels and the thick Lexan fit the specs. The frames were made of heavyduty 2" X 2" aluminum frames welded at each corner and finished with Awlgrip. They were angled about 35 deg from the original 2' X 4" factory support post. A scupper opening was cut through the gunwale about 3 inches wide and flush with the non skid side deck. Since cutting through the gunwale creates a large hole, it is necessary to access directly under it to lay up some 4 or 5 layers of fibreglass cloth with epoxy. It worked out well.

The second was a 1980 model with the same type of frame but with a "Duranautic" finish to match the original factory brown windows. The doors were made of one half inch thick laminated dodger board material with a quarter inch thick plexiglass (Acrylic) window on the top half. Same scupper detail etc.

Walt

 

[CaptnRick]

Hey folks,

I too have a 1973 43' DCMY with full length flaps and very tired of them when trying to access the side decks so I am right with Bill in thinking about installing wing doors, especially, if I am going to do some Island hopping
(pls see my separate question on using a 1973 43' DCMY for island hopping)

1st question: Has anyone looked into using the fiberboard (trex no-rot material) for the framing? I am leaning that way unless I hear horror stories about it.

2nd question: For those who mentioned 3/4" plexi, or 15/16" acrylic - did you have a plastics shop cut them out for you? If not, what did you use to cut them to size. I understand you ate up drill bits to not heat up the material so I would assume that if you cut them yourself you had to eat up many saw blades. Also, about how much was the plexi or acrylic?

Finally, a low cost suggestion to fill the gap between the aft deck masonite type board and the gunnel rail. I went to the big box orange store and bought strips of bottom door moulding. This is the white aluminum strip with the 1" wide white rubber/silicone strip embedded in the bottom. Using SS screws and acorn nuts I attached it around the perimiter of the aft deck to the masonite type board. It looks great, holds out the bugs and cold air come winter all for under $50.

Bill - great article about your bottom job in the magazine!

 

[TedZ]

WRT fiberboard you need to remember the doors are heavy, likely 75+ pounds and will be opened and closed a million times (slight exaggeration). The best you are going to do with piano hinge material is # 6 screws. Does that work? When i think of fiberboard i do not get all fuzzy but maybe this stuff is something special?

There are very minimal hinge and hardware choices with thin doors.

Ted

 

[Trojan]

I have the full length piano hinges. With no. 6 screws, just a guess, every 3/4 inch. My doors were made and installed by Hatteras. Along with the half hard tinted glass enclosure. I have a half stern door for access to the swim platform. With a two panel 3/4 thick plastic door above it. Hung with the same type piano hinges. I have not had any problems with ether.

Bill

 

[TedZ]

Screwed into fiberboard?

Ted

 

[MicroKap]

Trex is not a structural plastic. There is still wood used in the manufacturing process and over time, you will see mold where the wood fibers are rotting. This will explain why a lot of people were very happy with their decks for the first couple of years, but then had to start powerwashing to try to keep up with the growing mold problem.

There are other materials that do not use wood in the finished material, but I don't remember the name right now.

Also, when it comes to Plexi or Acrylic, please check which one is more scratch resistant and not subject to damage from regular washing with soaps/cleaners.