Komatsu PC60 Door Repair/Replacement Glass?

[Mark A Weiss]

The risks of leaving the door open because it's warm outside. I was working in an area where a felled pine tree is and I misjudged the distance I needed to swing the house around and ended up hitting the door on the end of a felled tree. It dented in the door frame so it won't latch and broke the bottom glass.
Is it possible to get a replacement door, or at least the glass? Options for repair?

 

[Tags]

Well that sucks. It happens to the best of us though. I would try to straighten it as best you can, the price of a new door(if it’s even available) will cause sticker shock to say the least. You could probably order the glass from Komatsu. I have had glass companies cut safety glass and install that instead of factory glass. A local company can do it as long as there’s no holes in it and it’s not curved.

 

[Mark A Weiss]

More and more of these types of screwups are telling me I'm getting too old to be driving and operating equipment. I'm nearly blind in my left eye, which made awareness of things on the left of my machine very limited.
I think what I'll do is take the door off and try to straighten it using various leveraging methods.
The glass is flat, but it's an irregular shape. Someone with a waterjet cutter can easily make it, I'm sure, but not sure if any such sophisticated fabs exist near me.
I'm clearing some land for a second solar array. The last half of the red oak I cut was like one of those building demos gone wrong.. the tree started to lean, but wouldn't go over. So I drove the machine into the wooded area in the midst of the remains of a a large pine that I'd pushed over last month. I'd started to cut the tops, but shifted to other more urgent projects and so the pine was there with butt ends of its trunk about 5' in the air. When I started backing out after pushing the oak over, it seemed like I was backing into a hole, so I decided to swing the house around and drive out straight, but that's when I got snagged in the pine trunks. Was somewhat tired after all that cutting. I'd built a platform on double cinder blocks about 2' off the ground so I could reach the individual trunks where they split from the base of the tree. I was cutting with the saw just above eye level to cut the wedge out, it was quite strenuous and nerve-wracking. My wife said "you're crazy!" as I was on the leaning side of the tree. Then I moved my platform and did the back cut. Got out of there as soon as the tree started to come down, but then it stopped. That's when I decided to bring in the machine to give it a little nudge. What I should have done after it was all done was back out the way I came in rather than turn the house around. Dumb decision on my part...

 

[Tags]

I think you’d be better served to try to bend it back while it’s attached to the machine, once you take the door off it will be difficult to realign it and to get it back on, plus you’ll have to keep reinstalling it to see if you’ve gotten it bent back properly to latch.

 

[Mark A Weiss]

I tried straightening it on the machine, but even with a 16lb sledge, I got zero results. That metal is thick.
If I take the door off, it will be easier to lay it on top of some lumber and sandwich it and use the bucket to push down and straighten the edge.
The latch that holds the door open should hold the door in place while I unscrew the hinges. Another possibility is I take it to a body shop and let them fix it.

 

[John C.]

Most of the bent ones take some cutting of the internal structures, bending and holding it while welding the cut structures back together. Doors are made of some pretty tough stuff sometimes.

 

[Mark A Weiss]

It looks like this will need tons of pressure applied to straighten it out. I can do that if I take the door off and lay it across some flat timbers and then place a wood block over the high point of the bend and push down on it with the bucket in stages, stopping every so often to check the amount of deflection. I'll need to get creative.

 

[John C.]

You might consider using the bucket with a hydraulic jack. Put the jack on the spot that you want to apply pressure to and the lightly set the bucket on the jack. Now use the jack to apply only the pressure you need.

 

[Mark A Weiss]

That's a good idea.
Also, I had another thought last night: if I can position the machine near something solid, like the end of a felled tree, possibly I might be able to line up the dent with the butt end of the tree if I can get it to the right height, and then just rotate the house until it pushes the dent back in. I can attach some blocks to the frame to give it some leeway. It would be the same method that caused the dent but in reverse.

 

[Mark A Weiss]

I managed to straighten out the door enough so that it latches properly again.
What I did was pull the machine up next to a stout oak tree, lashed a 6x6 block to the tree and put some shim blocks around the door frame to allow slight over bend and rotated the house so that the door edge pushed against the block. I had to be careful not to stress the sliding glass panels in the top of the door. I kept checking to see if they slide freely and when I found them binding, I backed off and move the blocks lower and tried again. After 5-6 attempts, the door was pretty straight. Finally, I took a chain to the U hook on the door and wrapped the chain around said tree and turned the house the other direction to pull that back out a bit. I also followed up with a sledge hammer and a wooden stick from the inside to knock out that dent a bit.
At this point, I think I'll go buy a piece of plexiglass at Home Depot and make a template of the cutout and cut it with a saber saw to shape.

 

[Swetz]

In my opinion, glass would be the best, but if that is out, my second suggestion would be Lexan. Plexiglas would be my last. Lowes does have Lexan, see below.

https://www.lowes.com/pd/LEXAN-Poly...id=bb02548ae54016b0396f36ffafe7e88b&gclsrc=ds

 

[Mark A Weiss]

I already bought the plexiglass earlier today. 30x32" for $79.
Now I have to figure out how to size it so it fits into the rubber gasket and how to install the gasket and glass into the door.

 

[Mark A Weiss]

Well it's finally in, but this was my third try. Call me an idiot, but the first one I cut was done from a cardboard template I made by placing a large sheet against the door and taking a Sharpie marker and tracing the outline of the opening. I cut that first piece of plexi and it went nicely. Only problem was that I later found out the glass is supposed to overlap the opening as it sits on the outer ridge of the rubber gasket. So my first glass was 1/2" too small all the way around.
Back to HD for a second sheet of the stuff and try again. For some reason, I was having a tough time cutting this second sheet. The material was fusing back together. While cutting the second piece, it cracked about 3" in, so I aborted the cut and did a new tracing and started that cut. I made it all the way through this time, but while separating the cut piece from the stock, a corner broke off. Arrrgg! At this point, I was "f it" and just used 2 part epoxy on that corner. It's not that noticable. At least the cab is closed and sealed again.