I know that Austin Chummy doors come in various shapes and edgings and that they changed from beaded edges to flat overlap edges in about 1928.

I am making a special bodied GE Cup in aluminium, rather than fabric and am wondering how to tackle the door edges. On a fabric bodied Cup the edges have a fabric covered piping attached to the outer edge of the door. I can't see how to replicate that look easily in alloy?

Some Chummies have a beading round the edges of the doors and I wondered what does this look like and how it is made and fixed on. Also who supplies that type of beading?sizes etc?
Alternatively I could take the approach of later Chummies and make the door skin oversize and overlapping the door aperture edges for a flush look.

If my panel beating was much better I could make the door a snug fit with no beading or edging, like a Swallow, but this is way beyond my current level of coachbuilding skill!

Perhaps other special builders, with cars with doors, have addressed this before?

Regards

Bill G

Location: Scottish Border

Bill, you are getting to one of the trickier parts of your heroic build! If you decide to make the door panel oversize so it overlaps the main body, I think the general method is to cut some steel sheet to shape around the edge of the door frame and the aluminium is applied and crimped around the steel. This obviously makes a steel and aluminium sandwich which is inviting corrosion. With the Cup I would keep the doors as they would be if they were ply and fabric covered, but use an aluminium 'T'-shaped section around the sides and lower edge, so that the beaded section covers the gap around the door. The door frame might need to be trimmed down to suit. I think the section you need will be available from Paul Beck or possibly Woollies.

Paint steel and aluminium with, unremovable, KBS Coating's very tough/very flexible rust proof paint and there will be no electrolytic metal to metal contact. You can hit the painted surface very hard with a hammer and it will not mark or chip.
www.kbs-coatings.com (POR15 is similar but not as developed)

OR why not use alloy instead of sheet steel. I achieved similar result when trying to waterproof Nippy boot lid by screwing on a strip frame to the outside of the lid and faring the edges into the lid surface with filler. The strip bridged across the gap to the body and a'P'sealing strip round the edge of the body completed the job. My baby Nippy no longer had a soggy bottom!!!!

Location: NW Devon