Cabin door alignment

[PT20J]

The cabin door on my J has about a 1/4 inch gap at the top when the door is closed but not latched. This makes it take a fair amount of extra force to latch as the clamshell at the top latch has to spring the door top inward before the mechanism goes over center. The service manual says, "NOTE Door contour can be altered slightly to conform with cabin contour, if needed, for proper fit and sealing." Has @M20Doc or anyone else done this? Any tips on how to do it.? The door is pretty stiff.

Thanks, Skip

[RLCarter]

Pucker factor would be pretty high for me, I’ve “tweaked” car doors by blocking them open with wood then pushing at the top or bottom depending on which way it needed to go. I’m not sure I wouldn’t remove the window so it doesn’t crack when flexing things around, that is unless you want one of the ones with a storm window in it

[Guest]

I’ve never had to change the shape of a door before. I would think that blocking the lower half open a small amount then gently pushing in the upper will change it’s shape.

Clarence

[takair]

Skip

Is it by chance caused by the door seal?  You may just be taking up the gap caused by a good seal which pushes the other edge out. If the latch pulls it in and you don’t have leaks, this may be a good thing. I suspect that checking the door contour is best done without a seal in place. 

[ArtVandelay]

Skip
Is it by chance caused by the door seal?  You may just be taking up the gap caused by a good seal which pushes the other edge out. If the latch pulls it in and you don’t have leaks, this may be a good thing. I suspect that checking the door contour is best done without a seal in place. 

+1

I had this problem but on the forward upper edge, even when latched, bulky seal was the problem. But was pushing door out instead of there being a gap.
I don’t think it’s a good thing if you need to apply considerable force on the latch handle.

[PT20J]

I’ve had this problem ever since I purchased the airplane two years ago. The door seal was original and very compressed. I pulled it off and verified that the door was not quite flush at the top before I replaced the seal with the Brown Aircraft T-9088 called out in the IPC.  With the new seal, it is worse. I screwed the “bullet” latch at the top of the fuselage out a couple of turns and that improved the latching force, but it’s still not right. Based on the description in the service manual, I wonder if the doors were all hand fitted to shape at the factory. 

Skip

[Hank]

Just now, PT20J said:

I’ve had this problem ever since I purchased the airplane two years ago. The door seal was original and very compressed. I pulled it off and verified that the door was not quite flush at the top before I replaced the seal with the Brown Aircraft T-9088 called out in the IPC.  With the new seal, it is worse. I screwed the “bullet” latch at the top of the fuselage out a couple of turns and that improved the latching force, but it’s still not right. Based on the description in the service manual, I wonder if the doors were all hand fitted to shape at the factory. 

Skip

Most likely. So don't feel bad about adjusting the fit, just do it carefully!