I was going to suggest that you mount a sliding gate latch to the top of
the door on each side. Then drill holes in the track to be able to lock the
door down and do the same at the top when the door is up so it won’t come
down.
Get a set of “break away” hinges. They are essentially what you made but
more robust. Then install a strut across the top section. Further down the
road, you could potentially install an opener and never have to put your
hands on it again.
This is essentially what I meant in my other comment, but you need to flip
the hinge around. The hinge is so thin that it will easily bend with use.
If you want, I’ll give you my e-mail address and we can talk.
Slick ideas! Here’s one that might work… well.. two actually. You can cut a
couple inches off the bottom of the vertical tracks, and use those same
style of top roller mounts you’ve made, then just install some cheap POS
opener from Craigslist, and then it’s just a matter of hitting a button to
get that door open. With a normal opener, it would pull in and push out
your top section as needed. If you can find something like a Genie
Excellerator for cheap, those were pretty much meant to be mounted flush
against the ceiling, and it would handle pulling in the top section before
the door can go up, and pushing the top section back against the opening
when it closes. This would also solve the need for some type of lock on the
top section to hold it in place.
As for your hinged side doors, back in the old days they used what was
called a “side sectional” (still used in Europe, actually) door, which
could be accomplished with some barn door slider hardware, and then a
threshold of sorts to hold the bottom of the door in place. You could have
it slide down away from the garage door as far as possible before rounding
the corner. Then there’s no notching your exterior door, and no having move
the tracks for the garage door every time. That could be locked by a simple
drop bolt on the back end of the door, since having the garage door, you’d
have easy access to get in and unlock the slider.
Awesome job. Great idea for the top panel! Love it when spur of the moment
re-engineering works out so great :)
I was going to suggest that you mount a sliding gate latch to the top of
the door on each side. Then drill holes in the track to be able to lock the
door down and do the same at the top when the door is up so it won’t come
down.
Get a set of “break away” hinges. They are essentially what you made but
more robust. Then install a strut across the top section. Further down the
road, you could potentially install an opener and never have to put your
hands on it again.
Looks good thats awesome the way u made the hinges
You could have the other door become a sliding door or have them open
outward.
This is essentially what I meant in my other comment, but you need to flip
the hinge around. The hinge is so thin that it will easily bend with use.
If you want, I’ll give you my e-mail address and we can talk.
Slick ideas! Here’s one that might work… well.. two actually. You can cut a
couple inches off the bottom of the vertical tracks, and use those same
style of top roller mounts you’ve made, then just install some cheap POS
opener from Craigslist, and then it’s just a matter of hitting a button to
get that door open. With a normal opener, it would pull in and push out
your top section as needed. If you can find something like a Genie
Excellerator for cheap, those were pretty much meant to be mounted flush
against the ceiling, and it would handle pulling in the top section before
the door can go up, and pushing the top section back against the opening
when it closes. This would also solve the need for some type of lock on the
top section to hold it in place.
As for your hinged side doors, back in the old days they used what was
called a “side sectional” (still used in Europe, actually) door, which
could be accomplished with some barn door slider hardware, and then a
threshold of sorts to hold the bottom of the door in place. You could have
it slide down away from the garage door as far as possible before rounding
the corner. Then there’s no notching your exterior door, and no having move
the tracks for the garage door every time. That could be locked by a simple
drop bolt on the back end of the door, since having the garage door, you’d
have easy access to get in and unlock the slider.
Try super sneak hinges these are made for exactly what you are going
through.