Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Land Rover screen door!

I have a love-hate relationship with mosquitoes, they love me, I hate them. So my 109 has screens on the side windows and I usually camp in a tent. I don't like to use DEET but it seems to be the only thing they can't stand, but it melts plastics.........I don't want it on my skin.
When camping I wear long sleeves and pants when necessary and crawl in the tent when I have to. I remember once on Union Pass in Wyoming while doing the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route the mossies were so thick they would land on the spoonful of food before I could get it under my mossie headnet and into my mouth.

Nothing worse than trying to sleep and hearing that whine as they fly around trying to find a place to land and suck my blood. OK, well maybe what you are thinking is worse.
I killed 13 of them that night in the tent in Wyoming.....

I figured I could make screen door for the rear of my 109 to help out with insects while camping and started to collect ideas and parts on what's out there at my local hardware store. Looking at the magnetic tape like that on refrigerators and talking to the clerk about my idea when she showed me this;


It is 39" x81" which is just wide enough for my 36" opening. It has magnets clipped to the seam in the middle which line up and close, $18.00. Not perfect but will keep out lots of bugs. I went and tried to set it up with super magnets but they wouldn't hold it tight enough, I needed clips, but I was able to mark the length to cut.

Dragging out my beloved mom's old Singer machine, I set about removing the extra magnets, pinning and sewing and cutting off the excess.



I just folded it over at my marks and pinned it and sewed it, so it would hang below the door sill.



I repositioned a couple of the magnets to get a better fit at the top. Then the interior light  above the door was removed and the screen hung with clips and the light replaced. I used those binder clips, but I want to find something that fits in better visually. These will do for the trial period.

Looking at it from the outside



The bottom doesn't quite make a seal and I may have to use some velcro, and the main seam has a small (1mm) space in places. It opens easy and reseals as long as the center is held tight at the top.



Above you can see I just folded it over the lip and put the clips on. Time will tell.

UPDATE 26 May 2020;

This didn't work out so well as it wouldn't seal right, getting in and out. Oh well...

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