SonexBuilders.net

Dear Sonexites,

My wife and I just bought a new house and the garage door is the now-traditional sliding type, which when open covers the ceiling, obscuring any ceiling lights and making ceiling-mounted storage in the area of the door impossible. Surely this is something that has plagued airplane builders everywhere. Does it not annoy you folks that the rollup garage door gives you less room to hang completed wings from the rafters?

With an eye to optimizing my garage -- and who knows what evil I might get up to later ;) -- I wonder if anyone has built an alternative bi-fold hangar style door. The commercial ones are of course exhorbitantly expensive, but it can't be too hard to build two panels and a bunch of hinges, with a skate wheel on either end running in a metal channel, can it...?

Here's a DIY project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qd5H_A4j8d8

Here's another one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIqfLuASe_c

Attached is a picture of my garage and how I might do this.

Ihab

Ihab,
I hang my canoe from the garage ceiling. When the garage door opens it goes over the end of the canoe. You should spend your time and $ on a tail kit!

ihab wrote:Dear Sonexites,

My wife and I just bought a new house and the garage door is the now-traditional sliding type, which when open covers the ceiling, obscuring any ceiling lights and making ceiling-mounted storage in the area of the door impossible. Surely this is something that has plagued airplane builders everywhere. Does it not annoy you folks that the rollup garage door gives you less room to hang completed wings from the rafters?

With an eye to optimizing my garage -- and who knows what evil I might get up to later ;) -- I wonder if anyone has built an alternative bi-fold hangar style door. The commercial ones are of course exhorbitantly expensive, but it can't be too hard to build two panels and a bunch of hinges, with a skate wheel on either end running in a metal channel, can it...?

Here's a DIY project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qd5H_A4j8d8

Here's another one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIqfLuASe_c

Attached is a picture of my garage and how I might do this.

Ihab

How about an aluminum roll up door.....

http://www.rinderledoor.com/product/hig ... roll-doors

Terry

Ihab,
I have a 20' X 20' two garage with the usual doors and no headroom above them when open. I understand your concern for space but I've been able to build my Sonex "in my half". When my wife goes to work (I'm retired) I can use her half during the day but must relinquish it when she gets home. So far the arrangement has worked fine but now with the fuselage soon getting the engine hung, I can see a potential problem.

So I would agree with Bryan and worry about the doors later.

SNX1508 wrote:How about an aluminum roll up door.....

Wow, interesting. Never thought of that! And much simpler too!

Darick wrote:So I would agree with Bryan and worry about the doors later.

Got it, thank you!

Ihab

Won't help overhead storage space, but if for some reason you want additional lighting when door is open, mount lights on the door. the new LED replacements for 4 ft. shop lights would seem ideal for that.

David A.