Hinges

Broken hinge with rivets drilled out.

When I got the Silver Streak I knew the door hinges were broken. Had I understood the significance of this problem I would have kept looking for another trailer. These doors, like the Airstreams of similar vintage, are a door-within-a-door design. There are actually two doors hung on the same hinge. Mine were shot and I wrongly assumed it wouldn’t be a big deal to find some new ones.

After looking around on the internet I found some mentioned on Tom Patterson’s website that were built for Airstreams but were being used by SS owners. They were airstream replicas and were done well. I believe they wanted about $350 for the pair along with a few other accessories that aided installation. I didn’t buy them. I don’t have a problem with them but I am not concerned with restoration. I am a retrofitter on this project and was more interested in a stronger design that would match my existing holes.

If you have a need for these hinges and you are interested in a restoration then these hinges are probably great. I would say go for it.

Broken hinge in forefront. New in rear.

I took my broken, rusted, twisted, poorly made hinges off my trailer and the door. I found a metal fabricator in the Sacramento area and took them in. I wanted the holes on the hinges to match on the door parts with no holes drilled on the trailer parts. I wanted to be able to drill my own holes on the trailer side so I had a little wiggle room when assembly time came. I also asked for thicker steel, a larger diameter pin, and a wider pattern. I tend to overbuild things and these hinges are no exception. The last thing I want is for my door to fly off while I’m cruising down the road.

Side view of new hinge.

After about 4 weeks I got the new hinges back. Not super pretty but I had confidence in their quality.

At assembly time, about a year later, I did have a quality problem with the hinge pin. The fabricator simply welded a nut to the end of some rod and filled in the thread hole. It looked good but I needed to grind the head down to make it function. When I did the weld broke and the pin was instantly turned into a short piece of rod stock once again.

Hinge mounted on trailer and large door

Luckily, I have a grandpa that worked on B-52s in Europe and nuke subs at Mare Island. His brain is built for problem solving. He immediately found a solution. We bought high grade bolts that had a long smooth shank after the threads. We cut the threads off, ground down the hex head to a circular shape and viola, a better set of pins in one short trip to Fastenal. 

I washed the hinges to remove any oils and painted them up with a Krylon textured paint in a silvery color. I like the result.

Attaching the hinges to the larger door was easy. I had the door apart for repair and had easy access to the back of the door skin. I used large rivets I order just for this purpose. The rivets had a rounded head but I didn’t have a large enough bit, so I used a flat hammer head bit and got a flat head finish on the rivet. I like it, it works.

The main challenge in mounting the hinges on the door came with the small inner door. The exterior skin is bent and pressed around the interior skin with the structural framing sandwiched in between. If you try to take it apart you would be bending things that would be very difficult to bend back with any success. I took this problem to my think tank and my Dad came back with the solution we used.

Backing plates for smaller inner door.

My Dad made two metal backing plates with holes that matched the hinge hole pattern. He threaded the holes and bought some stainless steel round head bolts that simulate the rivets on the exterior. It turned out to be a great solution.  He painted the backing plates yellow to help prevent rust, as you can see in the pictures.

I cut small holes in the sides of the door panel to slide the backing plates in. The interior structural frame had to be cut and bent a bit to accommodate the steel plates. I used a long metal blade on a reciprocating saw. Don’t apply too much pressure; once you break through the interior frame that blade will go through the door skins like butter. “Slow and easy,” is what I always say. Let the saw do the work.

Backing plate and hinge mounted

After I opened up the skin with the side holes I removed the pink spun fiberglass insulation. I later replaced it with expanding foam used for door and window frames. It’s the kind of foam that won’t pop out the skin. I used the same stuff to insulate the larger outer door as well.

Once this stuff was dry it also kept the interior hinge plate in place. This was handy since I had to remove the hinges once during the assembly process.

After the holes were cut and smoothed down with a small metal file I inserted the plates and bolted up the painted hinges. Worked like a charm. I tightened those bolts down tight with an Allan wrench once I was confident of the alignment.

At assembly time I did drill out the mounting holes to fit a larger diameter bolt. Once everything was bolted up I had no problem opening and closing the door. It works great and I think it looks fantastic.

When you go to buy your SS or Airstream note the condition of the hinges. I figure you’re going to spend about $400 to replace them whether you go my route and have them made or you buy the nice ones. I don’t think it’s a deal breaker as long as you know what you’re in for. If the hinges are broken at least get a little consideration in the price.

If you have replaced your hinges I would love to hear how you handled the inner door. This was a challenge for me and I would appreciate the information.