I began the arduous task of fitting the aluminum door trim a few days ago. The process is a little time-consuming and a bit difficult, but here we have it.
I used lengths of 3/4" angle aluminum, which should be available at Home Depot or Lowes. One side of the piece should rest against the perimeter of the door, while the other continues outward from the outer surface of the door. A photo would help.
As you can see in the photo above, the angle aluminum is situated in a manner that creates a flange on the outer surface of the door, we're looking at the inside surface on the old door serving as a mold.
I used a propane torch to heat and bend the aluminum for the rounded section. I first attached one end of the aluminum to my "mold", which was the old doors, with a single screw through a pre-drilled hole. I then began to gradually heat sections of the material, gently pushing in the direction of the bend. I did this little-by-little. It'll bend when it's heated enough, you don't need to torque it very hard. In reality, that makes it worse.
Wear a thick pair of gloves, and take your time. They came out pretty decent, the second piece is better than the first, which lends credence to the phrase practice makes perf... improved. There are adjustments to make afterwards to get things a bit straighter, or to conform to the door edges better.
When installing either the bendy part or the bottom section, I first applied silicone caulk to the edge of the doors and squished the aluminum on top. I pre-drilled holes in the sections and used 3/4" screws to secure the sections.
That was about it for the evening last night. The silicone needs to dry before I start sliming everything with it. Installation... soon to come!
-g
