Regarding the air vents on the Tiger, your challenge now is to replace the
factory plastic "hinge" with something more substantial that will outlast the
car. When mine failed I attempted a repair outlined in the CAT shop notes
using metalic tape. When assembled I found that it wouldn't hold up for me.
I figured there had to be some way to adapt a metal hinge of some sort to the
vent. I ended up using a piece of hinge cut off a a 24" brass piano hinge.
I used small brass
machine screws and nuts, many washers for spacers and a few small pieces of
thin sheetmetal.
One of the wooden (?) rollers that attaches to the bottom of the spring was
missing so I drilled out a piece of a small wooden dowel to replace it. The
tension on the spring can be increased by using a larger diameter dowel. A
dowel too large would probably put too much pressure on the spring and the
box and something would break.
I used self adhesive faom weather striping and additionally coated it with
rubber adhesive and it stayed on very well
Anyway, the doors now sound close with a thump. Sort of sound like a small
Cadillac doors closing. I spent about 8 hours fooling around with these
things in the cellar one winter knowing that I would need plenty of time and
patience. I just couldn't bring myself to replacing them with anything that
had a plastic hinge.
So, if anyone is interested in a challenge, try adapting a metal hinge. Once
you find a method it should outlive the car.
Mark Lafayette
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