Doors pt.1: Started From The Roll-Up, Now We Swing (DIY Tutorial)
This is a two-part series on how I transformed
my van’s original roll-up door into a pair of swing doors.
Part 1: Framing, Insulation, & Wrapping
I wanted a step van with swing doors in the back. The problem was, every van I looked at that had swing doors was ~$5,000 more than a similar van (make/model, mileage, year) with a roll-up door.
I didn’t want to spend an extra $5,000 for something I thought I’d be able to do for under $1,000.
I bought a van with a roll-up door and decided that replacing the roll-up would be the first priority in my conversion.
The original door was dirty and noisy. The tracks that supported it were mounted inside the van on the ceiling, and they took up a ton of room that would be valuable headspace once the bed frame was in place.
I began building the frame and thinking out all the steps needed to build a strong and handsome pair of doors. This is how I built my swing doors, step by step.
Tools:
Materials:
1 ½” kreg screws
Door knob
Dead bolt
2x4’s
Plastic
.040 White aluminum
2 ½” wide x ⅛” thick Aluminum flat bar
¼” Beetle kill pine
Foil Tape
Flashing
Stair Edge (Drip Guard)
#8 1 ½” stainless steel pan head screws
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Framing
I measured the dimensions of my door opening and accounted for a ¼” gap on top and bottom, and an ⅛” gap on the sides and in the middle (between the two doors). It’s good to give yourself a little play with these gaps to ensure the doors will fit well and won’t interfere with the floor or surrounding frame.
After drawing a mockup of the door frame, I used a miter saw to cut all the wood to size. Note: Be sure to check your wood for warpage, cracks, or an ungodly amount of knots. If you want square doors (which you do), buy straight wood.
I framed my doors with 2x4’s and used a Kreg jig with 1 ½” kreg screws and wood glue between each joint. Make sure your frame is square by making cuts as exact as possible and using a framing square when joining pieces of wood. Check square by measuring diagonals or using 3-4-5 method (it’s very important to make sure your doors are square! If they’re not, fix them before moving forward).
When designing the frame, I considered the placement of my hinges, ensuring they wouldn’t interfere with anything on the exterior of the vehicle. I also knew I wanted a window in one of the doors.
I went to an RV salvage yard and found hundreds of windows. Many of them weren’t what I was looking for (double pane and small enough to fit within the door frame); after looking through them all, exactly one fit the bill and $60 later I had a window for my door.
I measured the window to figure the dimensions to include in my door frame. The window frame has a flange that overlaps whatever cutout you make to ensure a watertight seal. The dimensions you cut will need to allow the window to slide into the hole, but still allow the flange to catch the outside of the door.
I ripped a couple 2x4’s and attached them to the sides of the frame to give me the right width for the window opening.
I measured the length of the window from inside the top support of the frame and placed another 2x4 to catch the bottom flange of the window.
I found the radius of the window by tracing it on a piece of cardboard. I used this radius to make rounded corners in the frame to catch the rounded corners of the window flange. I attached them with wood glue and several brad nails on each.
Last step for framing was to reinforce all outer corners with 90-degree angle bracket (pretty cheap at Home Depot). I screwed in these brackets to strengthen the joints and prevent warpage and saggage down the road. Nobody wants saggage.
Repeat the process and you’ll have two door frames.
The salvaged window for my door.
Exterior Wrap (Plastic & Aluminum)
After framing, I moved to the exterior wrap. The exterior wrap is what protects the frame from Mother Nature–rain, snow, wind and dirt will stop when confronted by your exterior wrap, if built correctly.
I chose .040 white sheet aluminum for my exterior wrap. Aluminum lasts much longer than wood when exposed to the elements, is more lightweight, and looks better on the outside of a vehicle (especially considering the entire body of my van is made from aluminum).
.040 Aluminum works as a great barrier between you and the outdoors, but it’s crucial to have something beneath it to give it rigidity. Without a rigid material between the frame and aluminum sheeting, the aluminum would be more susceptible to dents and damage. I used .090 plastic sheeting to back the aluminum.
To wrap your doors:
Acquire materials from a plastic and aluminum supplier. A little time on Google should yield results. Make sure you get enough sheeting to cover the surface area of your door(s).
Cut your material to the appropriate dimensions using some clamps, a guide rail, and a circular saw. When cutting any finished sheeting:
Make sure the surface your cutting the material on is clean in order to avoid scratches.
Place the finished side face down on your clean table top to avoid scratches from the foot of your circular saw.
Be sure to clamp material in at least two places, not including the clamps used to hold guide rail in place.
For metal, use lubricant on the bottom of the circular saw foot and cutting oil on the blade to help the saw glide smoothly.
Use appropriate blades in your saw! There are specific blades for wood, aluminum, and steel.
Cut plastic, place on door. Cut out for window if including one. Plastic can be taped to frame with Gorilla Tape to prevent it from moving while getting aluminum in place. Tape can be left indefinitely after mounting aluminum, it won’t hurt anything.
Cut aluminum, place on door. Clamp aluminum in place and prepare the flanges (the flanges will act as a means to secure the plastic and aluminum sheeting to the wood frame, so clamps are good for now).
Exterior Wrap (Flanges)
I attached 2 ½” wide by ⅛” thick aluminum flat bar to the sides and bottom of my doors; the flange will add strength and sex appeal, but it’s primary purpose is to weatherproof. This extension will overlap the body of the van by 1 ¼”, and once weather stripping has been adhered to the back of the flat bar, I’ll have an air-tight seal.
Determine lengths of flat bar for sides and bottom of door. (If building two doors, bar will be attached to both doors on the outside edge, but only on the inside edge of one door.)
Cut bar to length (I opted to cut bar at 45 degrees for mitered corners)
Mark the bar every ~8” inches, 1 ½” inches in from the outside edge. Use a punch (I prefer this one because it’s high-speed, low-drag, and you don’t need a hammer) to re-mark each point. The punch will create a tiny divot for your drill bit to seat, which will prevent the bit from walking and ensure your holes are in line. Once all marks have been punched, use a 3/16” drill bit to prepare the bar to be mounted to the door.
Use an orbital sander with 100 grit sandpaper to polish the bar. This will get rid of any scratches and give your flanges a hot ’n steamy finished look. (TIP: Usually, flat bar will come with numbers and words printed on it. It takes a while to sand these words off, but acetone will make them vanish quickly so you don’t have to waste time and sandpaper).
Clean the underside of the bar with denatured alcohol and apply a strip of butyl tape from end to end.
Clean the edge of the aluminum sheeting and place bar square on sheeting, ensuring bar is overhung at least 1 ¼” inches.
Double-check bar is in the correct position and clamp in place.
Pre-drill ⅛” hole on one end, use #8 1 ¼” stainless steel pan head screw to secure flange.
Repeat step 8 until all holes in flat bar are filled with screws.
Repeat steps 1-9 for remaining outside edges of door and one inside edge (Note: It’s not necessary to add a flange to the top edge of the door. Another method will be used to waterproof the top edges).
From flat bar to flange.
Insulation
2x4’s are 1 ½” deep, so naturally I went with 1 ½” rigid foam board insulation (Owens Foamular 150, but RMAX has a slightly higher r-value). Polyiso foam board has one of the highest R-value to thickness ratios (very dense), so it’s preferred when space is tight.
Insulation is easy, just:
Measure the length and width of each square within your frame.
Cut insulation to size. To cut, take a flexible chisel and grind the edges to get a sharp edge around the perimeter; it’ll slice foam board like butter.
Once insulation is in, use HVAC (foil) tape to hold it in place and air seal the edges. Your door will now protect you from the elements!
But now we need to make the interior look pretty...
Interior Sheeting (Plywood)
There are many ways you can sheet the interior of your doors. I went with ¼” beetle kill plywood because beetle kill is downright sexy: this type of pine is rare, and might be difficult to find outside of Colorado, but it’s worth the extra dough if you have access to it.
The blueish grey stain is a result of blue stain fungus being spread throughout the tree by bark beetles. The beetles don’t weaken or contaminate the wood, and the fungus is burnt away during the kiln drying process, leaving behind a very unique blue-grey pine.
If you’re using plywood to sheet the interior of your door:
Measure the length and width of your door
Add ¼” to these measurements and cut ply with circular saw or table saw (extra ¼” allows for a little wiggle room to ensure ply fully covers door frame)
Place ply on door frame, make one side and either the top or bottom flush (this should leave you with a small overhang on two edges of the frame), clamp ply.
Use a router with a flush trimming bit to get rid of any overhang.
Add a set screw to each corner to hold ply in place, remove clamps.
If including a window, route hole in ply.
Drill holes for door knob, dead bolt and hinges (coming in pt. 2).
Brush on matte polyurethane to finish and seal the ply. Let dry for at least 24 hours.
Predrill ⅛” holes around perimeter of door and use #8 1 ¼” stainless steel pan head screws to secure ply to frame.
At this point your doors are just about ready to go up! Check out Doors pt. 2 for details about the specific hardware I used (door knob, locks, and hinges), and guidelines for mounting and weatherproofing your fresh DIY swing doors.
Dry that polyurethane for at least 24 hours.