69 a/c car (early build) - this vacuum door was bolted to the passenger side firewall (top) under the wiper door. The black door is riveted to a bracket that attaches to the firewall with 3 screws. As you can see, my piece is broken where it pivots. Anyone know a vendor that makes the door or are these repairable? thanks

 

It is actually the hinge point that is broken from flexing all those years.
Best bet is a Vette salvage place.

 

If you can't find a replacement part, perhaps a you could glue it back together with super glue ... then after that dries, reinforce the break with epoxy or Plastex.

 

You really need the door to pivot open and closed on the crease.
If there is no replacement, some sort of hinge would have to be jury rigged to allow the door to open/close with the vacuum actuator.

 

I bought some ABS plastic sheet from McMasterCarr and have started building myself a new flap door as part of my AC resurrection project. have been a little side tracked lately and have not finished it yet.

you could try that approach if you're pretty decent with your hands.

 

That is the primary air intake door. It should normally (with engine off) be closed, so debris, etc. doesn't get ingested. On specific settings of the A/C-vent system, it either opens or closes.

 

I have found that Wilcox has a technical sheet describing how to create a new door out of ABS plastic. They will also make one custom and i'm waiting for a price quote.

 

i was building mine by measuring the original and some guesstimation because the original edge of my door has crumbled and fallen off.

do they have this tech sheet available for purchace somewhere? could be usefull.

 

they sent it to me for free although they probably picked up a new customer - send me your e-mail address and i will forward.

 

Dan,

Your door is in great shape except that it’s broke in half!

If you can glue and rivet, you can fix this easy!

I went in to the shop this morning and made you a repair hinge for the existing door. Call Joe, at 812-288-7103 and give him an address for us to ship this to you.

Note: I pulled down the repair page on this; there is an error in it. I will fix this when I get back.

Directions:

Remove the cotter pin at the top of the rod coming out of the actuator, the actuator nuts, and the vacuum hose from both sides. Once this is done cut the two rivets out of the old door. You do this from the back side which is in your pictures second one down from the bottom.

When you grind off these rivets, they will stay in the plastic so just use a small punch and punch them out. Insert the new hinge I made you today and glue it to the side of the plastic door that is facing you in your picture number two with plastic fusion or plastic weld. (I marked it for you)

If you want to insert two more rivets between the flapper and the new hinge it won’t hurt anything as long as they are not in the way of the fiberglass inside the fender. If you do install more rivets I suggest doing it close to the actuator depression, drilling them before you glue, and using washers under the rivets to enlarge pinched surface. Once you glue the new hinge, insert the rivets, and put the thing back together.

This is the fastest way I know to get you up and going. I’m leaving town for while and will not be here to fix your old one. If you can not do this or do not want to, send us your old door and when I get back I’ll fix it.

Willcox Inc.

18243