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Coach Door Rebuild?


Guest wemit

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Guest wemit

Has anyone here tried to rebuild their coach entrance door? Mine is coming apart near the bottom and is sort of "loose" when its open. It flexes in every direction. I suspect the interior is gone.

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hard to copy pics from yahoo. Didn't load in correct order but 

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If you mean the door itself is sagging out of square, then my
preferred repair is to completely disassemble the door after taking
careful measurements for the window and latch locations. Then I start
the rebuild by cutting a sheet of 1/4" or 5/16" exterior plywood to
the door size, complete with the window cutout. That will make an
outer rigid surface behind the original aluminum skin, preventing the
door from sagging in the future. Next, I rip down well dried pressure
treated 2x stock to make 1" thick perimeter and window frame, with
extra blocking added for the latch area. The frame width is determined
by the aluminum edge trim.

With the framing glued and screwed in place, the remaining cavity is
filled to flush with insulating foam boards cut to fit snugly. Spray
adhesive is applied to the inner plywood surface to hold it in place.
The spray adhesive is also then used to attach the inner and outer
skins to the assembly, and the edge trim is reinstalled with a thin
layer of butyl putty tape behind it. After the door has been refitted
to the coach, the latch assembly is reinstalled, along with any
accessory door catches, etc., and you now have a door that will
probably outlast the rest of the coach...
 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I just did a major rebuild on my coach door last month... didn’t start off with that intention, but the more I tore into it, the more I realized it needed a complete redo. 

Mine didn’t have a wood frame around the perimeter; just a solid foam slab with ply on both sides, fiberglass exterior skin, (surprisingly) tough vinyl-wallpaper interior skin, all surrounded by aluminum channel. The carpentry skills needed may not be advanced, but you have to make darn sure all dimensions are captured at the outset and carefully duplicated, if your new door is going to fit, still be lockable, etc.

Learning about options for foam to wood, vs fiberglass to wood adhesive is a must, too.

I was able to reuse the foam core from my door, which worked well as a template for cutting. Most difficult part for me was figuring out how to source the ply, at the needed thicknesses, in order to reach a final width that fit snuggly into the aluminum channel (calipers + math are key; also huge amounts of sanding).

One of the final steps on my project involved using 3M spray adhesive to attach old FG skin to new ply: in hindsight, I was an idiot to not get another pair of hands to help quickly position the floppy skin correctly. Warning: you have one chance to get that right!

 

 

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