FLOAT PLANE DOORS

[210TC]

I may be wrong, but I have seen front doors with glass from top to bottom with no break in the middle. I think they had to do with seaplane ap's.
If anyone has picture/details please post. I purchased an extra set of door's and would like to modify in this way

Thanks
David

[maules.com]

Maule doors that have no swingout windows are one piece plexiglass top to bottom however there is a tube half way up the door to stiffen it, and carry the door latch. An A&P in Alaska first modified the doors to hinge across the top in about 1980 and many have copied that. A pressure cylinder is used to hold it open. The doors are individually fitted to the airframes, so set your hinges and door catch to the frame before adding the skin.

[210TC]

Are you talking about the door that hinges on the top and I think you can fly with it open??
I want to leave mine the original way, I just don't want the outer strip of aluminum mide-way up the door. One solid sheet on the outside.
The steel center tube that the latch attaches too would remain.

[maules.com]

If you don't have or want opening windows in the top half of the doors and want the standard Maule forward hinged door, then a full sheet of .125 plexiglass can be curved across the frame and held in place with soft aluminium pop rivets (large head) which also fastens the door outline skin of .o40 aluminium sheet. You need this thicker guage sheet because you need the stiffness to support the doorseal and the border sheeting is only about 2".
After fastening all parts in place and drilling your rivet holes through sheeting, plexiglass and door frame tubes, then as you deburr you also need to redrill the plexiglass holes one or two sizes larger to allow the plexiglass to expand and contract without cracking at the holes. The movement is significant.

[rogerapfeifer]

hello,
check the lower box tube of the door especially if you are working with an older maule, to make sure the tubing is not rusted out. i did my 1982 m6 and the tubes were completely rusted out. might as well do the repair while you got the doors apart.
fyi, roger pfeifer

[210TC]

Thanks, Im lucky that no rust was found on any of my 4 frames.

Jeremy,
Is this solid glass door approved? I could not be so lucky A!

[maules.com]

In the past, Maules came from the factory with full glass, though a strip of skin went across the centre at the rivet line. The skin material is thicker these days and to pretty it up you could 'brake' the outer edges. Nowadays the skin is one piece per door whereas it used to be many strips butted together and a little untidy/flimsy after a time.