Door Hardware
The door hardware was surprisingly a lot of work to install. But I am satisfied that the doors will latch and lock securely.
First, I attached the doors to the canopy and attached the gas assist strut. These struts come charged with compressed gas for a much heavier door, so I had to release a good amount of gas until it felt like the strut wasn’t going to launch the door to the moon.
Next came the door lock. My finishing kit came with door locks that had mismatched keys; and one lock came with keys that were the wrong code for the lock. SMH. After I determined it was going to be too difficult to re-key the locks, I decided to buy a new set of locks that were match-keyed. The door locks are pretty generic t-handle locks that are also commonly used for pickup truck caps, but these locks are modified by the factory somewhat. I found a set of Bauer locks model T-303 that were really close to the locks that Sling uses, although slightly larger.
I cut the holes through the doors per the kit instructions and proceeded with the install.
After fitting the lockset and cam catches to the door frame, next came installing the latch cams onto the wall. They have to be positioned perfectly in order for the door to latch and lock properly. I found that the ideal position for the forward cams is just below the lip that the door sits in, which caused me to break through the canopy outer skin a little while drilling holes for the M5 rivnuts. I had to drill theis deep otherwise I couldn’t get the rivnut to seat properly on the inside. I’ll need to repair this prior to paint.
The second issue I encountered was having a mix of parts for the cams. Sling has changed the design of the doors a few times, and my kit was sometime of a tweener. My doors are the original Sling 4 vintage, but later designs added reinforcements for the lock cams. The lever was also redesigned, but I have the older style. I received some but not all of the parts to reinforce the cams per the updated build instructions — I did get the steel plates (item #13 in the picture below) that sit on the edge of the door frame, but not the “hook capture plate”, item #4 CA-PLT-010-X-C-0. Rather than order these parts and have to wait, I fabricated my own capture plates since they are simple enough.
The next few photos show the progression of drilling holes for the forward latch plate, installing rivnuts, and then attaching the hook capture plate. I was surprised how much more difficult it was to drill through the steel plate compared to aluminum.
Placement of the reinforcing plates for the rear cam was more difficult. The required location for these plates interfered with rivnuts I had already installed in the sidewall skins to secure the upholstery panels. The green tape with the vertical line indicates where I need to install the cam & reinforcement plate, which is directly over an existing rivnut.
I wasn’t able to drill out the existing rivnut and be able to install a new one just a few mm away, so my solution was to redesign the hook capture plate into a tee shape — problem solved
Overall I think the installation looks tidy. I selectively powder coated door latch components in a black paint and left the knobs and other pieces in their natural aluminum finish; it matches the aesthetic I also used on the instrument panel and throttle quadrant. The pull strap to makes it easier to pull down the door once seated.
