Garage Doors

[SteveMaryland]

Sorry about using PDF to attach pictures, but this forum won't take anything over 3MB and most of the pictures exceed that.

Garage door rebuild. My second go-round on fabbing new garage doors. Original (1950's vintage) rollup doors lasted for many years but eventually they fell apart so in 2016-17 I designed and fabbed new frame-and-panel doors using Southern Yellow Pine. A huge and brutal labor, outdoors in winter.

First big mistake. These doors were way too heavy, and I had to router out some of the wood to get the weight down. Afterward they were still too heavy, but they worked once installed.

Once installed, they looked great but then the wood started decaying rapidly even with several coats of Helmsman spar varnish. And I thought yellow pine lasted forever! They built old houses with this stuff, didn't they? I saw NO worm or insect evidence. I had the doors elevated off the wet ground with ground-conforming rubber "weather seals". So why did the wood rot so fast?

A huge effort on this first set of Shopsmith-made doors, and they were a semi-disaster.

Second rebuild started last year. Still frame-and-panel design but now using ordinary SPF 2 x 6. Planed everything (on my router sled) to 1-1/4" thick. Lighter and straighter material than previously, so a good start.

I knew I needed a much better protective finish than varnish, so for the first time I invested in epoxy/fiberglass. Long story, but I could only get most but not all the wrinkles out of the (6 oz cloth) fabric. When dry the fabric laid down nicely, but once wetted it seemed to swell. So I did about three panels with cloth, and the rest I skipped the cloth and just used epoxy. Now I worry that the epoxy-only panels will crack and fail. Will they?

Epoxy is very viscous, expensive and labor-intensive but can't beat that yacht-like finish. Bubbles were a real headache but I learned how to propane-torch most of them out.

Salvaged all the bearings and hinges from the original doors. The old door hardware essentially lasts forever.

Sealed the gaps between door panels by routing a 1/4" dado into which fits a strip of recycled-rubber mat, like the kind used for truck bedliner or excercise mat. Works well.

Garage is built on very un-level and lumpy ground so getting the doors to set plumb was a problem. New doors have a component which contacts the ground and is cut to the ground contour yet keeps the door plumb. This component hinges out of the way when door is rolled up. And if/when it gets rotten from wet ground contact, it can be replaced, and door panels are protected. Doors are plumb but garage isn't.

New doors are light, level, roll up nicely, and look like vintage yacht wood! Time will tell. One month into service and no cracks in the epoxy.

I hope I will never have to rebuild these doors again. But I am glad I have Shopsmith to enable me to do these sort of projects. How do other homeowners do without Shopsmith?? And what would I have paid to have someone else fab and install doors like these?

[algale]

Wow, great project! I wanted to build some garage doors but eventually abandoned the idea and just bought some, so hat's off to you!

Epoxy is very, very susceptible to UV breakdown. You should give those doors at least two coats of a good marine grade varnish with UV protectors. I've used Hellmsman and it's ok. Epifanes is the best but $$$. Don't bother to thin the varnishes if you are applying over epoxy.

As you found out, fiberglass was unnecessary here. You'll get all the waterproofing protection you need from the epoxy. Fiberglass is great for reinforcing stuff but not needed in your application and just added weight. Plus, getting fiberglass to conform to the sharp corners of the raised panels wasn't going to be easy as you found out.

[edflorence]

That's a big project. Thanks for sharing the photos of the end result. The new doors look great.

[Majones1]

Very nice! Looks like a lot of work. Your experience with your previous door build makes you wonder how they made the original doors that lasted so long.

[edma194]

Really nice looking doors!

[nuhobby]

This is a super project, and we will all benefit from what you learned!

Chris

[SteveMaryland]

"Epoxy is very, very susceptible to UV breakdown. You should give those doors at least two coats of a good marine grade varnish" Yes, that is the next worry, and I should get some anti-UV coating on before summer. It's weird that I should have to put varnish over epoxy. Now I worry about the epoxy-varnish adhesion. I don't want delamination, not after the mess I had before. One would think that UV protection would be already in the epoxy, considering the sun exposure boats get in the marine environment.

"makes you wonder how they made the original doors that lasted so long" That's right, those 1950's wood rollup doors were incredible. They used flathead flush carriage bolts, and they used a male/female "dropleaf" joint between the hinged panels. Also they were light. I don't know what kind of wood they were made of, just ordinary white untreated SPF as far as I could tell. Painted with the old lead-based paint (maybe that was why they lasted!). The "original original" 1927 doors were vertically-hinged swing doors.

I would say that, as far as size, these door panels (at 86" x 22" x 25 lbs) are about as large a workpiece that a Shopsmith can safely handle. I know Shopsmith has claimed that one person could cut up an 8x4 plywood panel with no problem, but I wouldn't advise trying it, not without a helper.

[edma194]

Most fiberglass/epoxy boats are painted. Wooden boats with clear epoxy coatings have UV breakdown problems. However, let's not go overboard, how much direct sunlight are these doors exposed to? Unfortunately, the best and longest lasting UV protection comes from dark dyes added to coatings, and paint will do better than transparent coatings.

The original doors may have been made from cedar or other more rot resistant wood, and SPF from 60 years ago was much higher quality wood than modern stuff.

[Hobbyman2]

Nice work ,, they do look heavy .

[algale]

Yes, that is the next worry, and I should get some anti-UV coating on before summer. It's weird that I should have to put varnish over epoxy. Now I worry about the epoxy-varnish adhesion. I don't want delamination, not after the mess I had before. One would think that UV protection would be already in the epoxy, considering the sun exposure boats get in the marine environment.

The adhesion answer is to sand the epoxy dull. 150 grit should be fine. The varnish will bring everything back full gloss.

This was the worst part of building my cedar strip canoe that was covered in fiberglass epoxy. The epoxy looks so good you don't want to sand it dull but if you don't and don't cover it with varnish, it will degrade.