Bifold door mod

Monday, May 14, 2012

Bifold Door Mod for our Jayco Jayflight.

The first step I took in this project was to order a custom sized bifold door from my local lumber store.

I asked for a 26x80 inch door (as our opening was 26.5x81 inches.) They cut down a standard 30x80 inch door. The only problem with this is that when the door arrived it was only 78.5 inches long and 25.5 inches wide. I am not sure how that happened, but my guess is that a standard 80 inch door is actually 78.5 and so they only cut down the sides, they could not add to the bottom. 

white painted wood header for above door.

It was a week before holidays when it arrived, and so I decided to add my own white header on the 

ceiling to make it work the way it was. But I am sharing this information so that if you decide to do this  mod you can be aware of the issue.

Once I received the door I removed the ugly brass hinges that came with it. My idea for hanging this door is that it would look good on both sides, and so I was planning to use a piano hinge instead of the standard hardware.











If I was to do this project again, I would ask the factory not to attach the hinges in the first place, and it would have saved some work filling the holes.

Here is how the door looked once it was stained. I used 2 coats of a Varathane brand stain, which came in a black tube and was water based. I used the colour "Early American" and I coated the door with two coats of oil based urethane afterwards. This combo turned out to be a perfect match for the colour of our Jayco cabinets.

Once the door was stained, I attached a 72 inch  piano hinge to it on the two sides that would sit to the rear when installed. (These are the two sides that do not have a factory hole drilled into the bottom or top of them.)

We attached our home made wood header to the ceiling to give us the extra inch of height we needed, and then we added the factory hardware onto that. There was a solid wood backing behind the ceiling panel where the privacy curtain was previously attached.

We took the curtain that was previously attached to our bedroom and installed it on the bunkhouse door which gives our teenagers more privacy when sleeping and allows us to go to the bathroom at night without disturbing them with the light. It also serves to create a private dressing area for anyone who is sleeping on the jackknife sofa.

Next we installed the hardware that attaches to the wall and floor.
We used a measuring tape to make sure this was sitting evenly with our
top track.

all that remained was to snap the door into its track. You will see in this photo that I chose to have 

the door close flat into our bedroom rather than into the entrance way. This allows us to keep our coat hooks and stool as they were.

With the door opened

Here it is with all our stuff back in place. It is a very small area, yet it has now been configured with a proper door, coat storage, a stool and a countertop extension... and it all works!

With the door closed

One final bonus is that I now have a place to hang our wet bath towels in our room, and as you can see in the next photo, the door still folds totally flat, and they stay hidden.