Excursion Barn Door Mods

I decided that there was just too much fallow space and lost utility on e barn doors if my Ex. I’ve seen a number of drop tray/cutting board designs and thought I’d give it a go. Because we will be using it as a cutting board a sheet metal was not an option. I decided to go with a wood cutting board even though there is a significant weight difference. I wasn’t expecting my cutting boards to be so substantial though.

To help displace the weight I decided to use piano hinge with the intent to use aluminum backing support on the inside of the door and use self-tapping screws to secure the cutting board.

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Large (driver’s side) cut to shape and piano hinge affixed.



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Measuring the piano hinge prior to cutting.



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I used a simple hacksaw to make the cut.


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Squared up and marking the screw points (to make sure the hinge doesn’t shift during the process)

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Mocked up on the barn door. I will do a bit of sanding on the top.

Interesting development: even though I used the OEM barn door “cap” as the template for the outline of my cutting board the board sits higher than I was expecting. I believe it is because the OEM interior cover is beveled upwards giving it more clearance from the floor AND I installed dynamat and dynapad under the carpeting thereby raising the floor height.

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Evaluating the placement of my “new”’anchor points. There are a lot more curves and undulations than I had previously expected. (Uh oh!)


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A visual of the unanticipated gaps between where the hinge will mount and the door wall.

This is where I left it last night.

My current solution is to cut away the curved sections of the door, make a new flat fiberglass section, with a significant amount of prep work to get all of the paint and residue off the backside of the inside of the barn door and resign the two pieces of fiberglass together. Thereby creating a flat surface to mount hinge.

I’m also thinking about cutting away more of the interior door to make storage and access for/to a spice rack or kitchen tools easier. A concern is that the portions of fiberglass that I would be cutting away actually provide support to the rest door.

Has anyone “opened up” the barn door’s interior region by cutting away some of the fiberglass? Any deleterious affect on the door itself, e.g., splintering the fiberglass or having the door(s) out of square?

I can fab a vertical support beam with aluminum, which may be my end solution just for piece of mind.

Ideas, suggestions, and comments invited.


Scotty.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

amgvr4

Adventurer
I am planning on doing a similar upgrade on my Excursion. I will probably make them out of aluminum since I have more tools and skills working with metal than wood. Making some sort of storage compartment inside the doors is also a great idea, there is a lot of wasted space in there.
 

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