Shortfalls of outside storage containers

 We bought an outdoor storage container to keep the chlorine, pool shock and other miscellaneous pool chemicals outside.  It has done good job for a few years but I had noticed signs of rust due to stains running down it.  I had not taken the time to look at the hinges to see what state they were in - until one day a door basically fell off in my hands.

The steel hinges that came with the container were not stainless steel nor were they coated very well.  The chlorine containers and such appear to allow enough water vapor and chlorine to combine which I think vigorously corroded the hinges faster than normal - see below.

 

Many people have heard the phrase 'When life gives you lemons, make lemonade'.  Not exactly lemons but since I have been remodeling rooms I had old door hinges laying around. Not exactly lemonade either but was a reasonably quick fix rather than replacing the entire storage container since I could not find a source for replacement hinges. I did buy some stainless still washers, bolts and nuts with nylon inserts that shouldn't loosen easily.  This was actually my backup plan since initially I planned to try and use some threaded rod through the door hinges and attach to the roof/floor.  I ended up deciding that was too awkward to do so went on to plan B.. which worked but only on the second attempt.

Note, I really didn't want to spend much time on this so I made a quick stab at using some large steel blind rivets to attach the hinges to the doors/walls.  What I didn't check was how much the blind rivets I had would "mushroom" on the backside/inside to prevent them from pulling out.  They did not mushroom enough - early on I went to open the door I was working on and heard and interesting metallic ping sound - which turned out to be a rivet popping out of the plastic and hitting the concrete.

Off to Lowes I went.. got some stainless bolts, washers, etc.  and started the process again. Here is a door hinge installed on the container.

So making progress.  Not exactly pretty but should keep the door from falling off.  Oh, did I mention that I didn't end up with enough washers for all the hinges? Sigh.  I'm sure I'll be at Lowes again soon enough.

Here is the storage container with the "new" door hinges.  Other than needing more washers and maybe slightly better spacing/placement of the hinges, I did make one other mistake which may or may not be noticeable in the 2nd picture - not related to the rivet I left. I'll give a "Well done" to anyone who comments correctly on what the mistake is - it isn't totally obvious at the moment but could provide further humor down the road. I made sure to not repeat the same mistake on the other door.

Thanks for reading!

Scott