I’ve got one of the famous wind damaged doors on my 182. It closes and locks but it isn’t flush and it aggregates me.

Is it a fools errand to mess with it since it does close and stays closed in flight? It seems like taking the door to an automotive body shop would result in a quick fix but does anyone here experience with this?

Thx.

An automotive body shop would be a big mistake, you’ve got me nervous just thinking about it!

Heat treated aluminum alloys of the type Cessnas are constructed from do not lend themselves to automotive style repairs, not to mention the fact that any repair of note would need proper documentation.

What is the extent of the damage? That would dictate how qualified an individual would be required to affect a repair.

You need a good tin man with lots of grey hair.

Try to fix it yourself and post pics

What year is the 182 I have a new left door for 70s type

Cub180 wrote:What year is the 182 I have a new left door for 70s type

1962

I will get part no off door and post it .

Automotive body shops any more mostly R and R stuff....remove and replace with new. Not many really good tin benders around any more, unfortunately.

You'd be better off to get in touch with EAA and try to find someone who's really handy with aircraft grade aluminum. But, frankly, fixing something like wind damage is likely to require complete disassembly of the door, repair and re-skinning. That's going to be a big job.

Likely better off to find a replacement door and just do paint.

MTV

I don’t have any pics yet but the first photo on the following webpage showing the red witness line accuracy describes what I’m dealing with.

http://welch.com/n46pg/2019/07/05/reali ... sna-doors/

Door I have that is new part no 1217045-203 left door for 182 for 400$

DJ Balla wrote:I don’t have any pics yet but the first photo on the following webpage showing the red witness line accuracy describes what I’m dealing with.

http://welch.com/n46pg/2019/07/05/reali ... sna-doors/

Problem you're going to have is that aluminum has stretched some and compressed some. And, the door frame is doubtless bent some. So, re-skinning the door would fix the problem, I'd bet. Trying to straighten out that outer door skin could be done if you disassemble the door, pull the skin off, and own an English Wheel.

Me, I'd buy that $400 door.

MTV

Cub180 wrote:Door I have that is new part no 1217045-203 left door for 182 for 400$

Thank you! Let me check the parts manual and see if it fits.

Ok if it works can send pictures have new lower hinge and flip out window

Man I went through this last year and it was a HUGE PITA. I bought two used doors and unfortunately even though the part numbers were the same, they didn't fit worth a darn. Ended up sending both back. In the end, a local shop ended up repairing my damaged door by replacing the hinges and building a doubler for the front bottom corner of the door which saw the most damage. It's not perfect and still doesn't close 100% flush but its close enough for government work. Lesson learned. Hope to never deal with that again.

I did promptly buy a Cessna Window Lock......

https://www.cessnawindowlock.com/