broken back door! help needed.

[henlife]

hello there
i took my morris traveller to spain and france this summer...but unfortunatley the full load in the boot caused the left hand door frame to break. My partner has looked at it, but we are wondering how best to get it fixed. it is the top left hand corner that has broken but this has caused problems in the middle and bottom joints. What is the best way to fix this? brackets? glue? i have contemplated buyign another door from ebay but then the wood won\'t match?
also...the car is quite good conditoin but there is some rust appearing on the bottom of the left hand door. how best to repair this. i am thinking on the lines of rubbing the bottom 4 inches down, putting rust killer on, then painting. i have a tin of spray paint from charles ware...not sure of end result? should i do whole door? decisions decisions.
by the way we had lovely trip abroad in august. just me, 3 kids and a tent. lots of interest in the traveller and she performed very well!
any help would be appreciated
lucy

[bmcecosse]

If it's the timber frame of the door - then I suppose a bracket screwed across the joint may hold it together while 'glue' sets, but I'm sure our wood Craftsman will be along in a minute!
Door rot - well, you really need to cut out the rusted metal and weld in new - but rust killer/cataloy filler and spray paint may keep it lookng reasonable for a while - but are not a proper repair of course.

[jonathon]

Even when new, the rear traveller doors are 'quite' fragile. In this case I'd be tempted to go for a new door.

[simmitc]

Can you post a picture of the rear door so that we can get a better idea of damage? If it's just that the joint has come unstuck then glue and/or metal brace will be fine for short term (translation: probably the next ten years) but the ultimate solution will be a new frame. It will still be ash, so won't look too different from what is there already, but wood is a natural product and unless matched perfectly, will be obviously new.

The front door should ideally be repaired as per BMC above (not a job for a novice or the faint hearted!!) but rust killer and filler may keep the big repair at bay for a while - again it depends on how much rot there is.

Ultimately the car will be usable with the cheap repairs, which can be re-done several times, but would benefit from a "proper" job. It all depends on what you want from the car, and how much you are prepared to pay.

[wibble_puppy]

the ultimate solution will be a new frame. It will still be ash, so won't look too different from what is there already, but wood is a natural product and unless matched perfectly, will be obviously new.

also, some v interesting stuff aupickup was telling me recently, or was it alex holden, anyway, the ash used for traveller woodwork originally was grown under different conditions from the wood used nowadays - the conditions favoured stronger, more durable wood. Also the ash used nowadays is harvested younger and you therefore get less of the strong heartwood in your frame. Hope I've got all that right (if I haven't they will be yapping at my heels in no time ). anyway to cut a long story short it's good, apparently, to stick with the original woodwork if you can - ie if the patches etc can be made structurally strong enough.

phew

good luck lucy, and glad to hear you had a lovely holiday, I recently had a fabulous holiday in a traveller welcome to the site

wibble xx