Rebuild 93 coach entry door - Printable Version

Rebuild 93 coach entry door - Printable Version

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Rebuild 93 coach entry door - 77newell - 05-30-2015

I will outline the steps I took to rebuild my entry door that had both the interior and exterior skins delaminating. The adhesive was releasing from either the skin or the frame. The adhesive was a solid black with straight edges so I assume it was originally a tape in form.

Support the door from the bottom and remove the screws holding the door to the hinge. Two people are required due to the weight of the door.

Place the door exterior side down on a pair a sawhorses with padding on them to protect the finish on the exterior side. I placed the sawhorses about 66" apart.

Next was the removal of the trim around the interior door handle and latch mechanism. It takes a bit of manipulating to get it off around the door handle but it will come off. I also then removed the handle bar from the door. I then removed the interior door handle (chrome) just to reduce the amount of stuff on the door but it is not required. It is also not required to remove the exterior door latch handle, though I did that too as it had a broken hinge.

Drill out the rivets holding the bottom of the interior decorative panel. Mine would not slide out so I took a broom handle inserted into the bottom and pried up. The plastic channels holding the sides and top got broken in the process. I found later that there was no local source for these strips. More later on this. I removed and set aside the decorative panel.

I then drilled out all the rivets holding the interior structural skin and the plastic strips for the decorative panel. There are maybe a 100 or so rivets.

Then began the fun. I used a utility knife with the blade fully extended and a small soft head hammer. Starting at a corner I drove the knife through the adhesive along the length of each side. Basically I kept the knife handle at right angles to the side of the door and used the hammer to drive it along the side thereby cutting the skin from the frame. Once the skin was released I removed it and set it aside. One person can handle the skin.

Next, the door was flipped. The adhesive was cut the same way. This skin, unlike the interior one, was stuck to the foam inside the door. A long hand saw was used to cut it loose. The skin was then lifted away and stored.

The hand saw was used to cut and grind away the foam until a straightedge showed everything was flat. This was done to both sides. I also needed to remove some of the wood veneers in the middle of the door to achieve the desired flatness. I did this to eliminate the bulging of the door which stressed the adhesive and I believe contributed to its failure. The flattening also made it possible to adhere the skins to the aluminum structural parts in the interior of the door thereby spreading the load and making the door stiffer.

Then more fun, I tried various ways to remove the adhesive from both the skins and the frame. Using Kutzit brand antique and furniture finish remover seemed to work best. I put on a coat, waited a few minutes, used a paint scraper to remove a layer, repeated this until the final layer was scraped clean with a razor blade. One more coat of remover was then applied and wiped off with towels. Then I wiped the surfaces down with mineral spirits per the label on the remover.

There was a crack in the frame on the inner side of the frame just above the door latch. This was repaired with a epoxied wood block inserted into the inside corner, it was also screwed to the top horizontal steel frame above the latch. I had planned to add some additional reinforcement, but deemed the resulting stiffness sufficient with the wood block.

At this point I leveled the sawhorses to ensure that their top surfaces were parallel.

I then made a trial fitting of the skins to determine how they would best fit onto the frame and how I would line them up when the double sided tape was applied. It also helped determine where the outside edge of the tape needed to be on the frame. At this time I put a clamp crosswise to the frame just below the door latch to pull the sides of the door frame together. Other than at the top and bottom of the door nothing holds the sides of the frame together other than the foam. In the middle where I put the clamp the frame had bulged outwards, the clamp corrected that.

I wiped down all the bonding surfaces with a 50-50 mix of isopropyl alcohol and water per the instructions for the 3M 4951 double sided tape.
I then put the tape on all the aluminum parts of the frame, the interior of the door frame had several horizontal and vertical stringers that I applied tape to that had no adhesive in the original construction of the door. At this point I left the plastic covering on the exposed side of the tape.

I made 4 short 1X4 boards with eyelets in the ends with wires attached and placed these crosswise of the door on the foam so that the skin could be supported above the adhesive tapes while final positioning adjustments were made.

Without the boards in place, I laid the exterior skin in place and verified it's final position and how I would keep it in that position during the adhering phase. I then set the skin aside, peeled the plastic from the taped joints, placed the spacer boards in position, and reset the skin on top of the boards. I placed positioning pins in the holes at the top of the door where the roller for the awning was installed as well as where the screws for the trim extrusions were. I then pulled the board near the top of the door out and pressed the skin into the tape at the top. Making sure I didn't move the skin, I pulled the rest of the boards out and pressed the skin firmly down into the tape on all the joints.

The door was flipped over and the process repeated on the other side. I used the rivet holes and 1/8" drill bits for alignment holes. However, before I adhered the skin I reinstalled the door handles.

The interior trim panel that had been held on by the plastic channels was installed using the double-sided tape except at the bottom where I replaced the rivets that had been originally used. I then installed the black interior door handle and the door locks.

With the door on a jack stand and with the help of a friend, I used the air suspension system to align the holes in the door with the holes in the hinge. After installation of the screws it was determined the door was setting slightly low so the screws were loosened, the door pried upwards using the jack stand as a fulcrum and a 2X4 as a lever, and the screws retightened. The door swung nicely. A small adjustment to the door latch pin was needed to get the door locks to work freely. Finally, I installed the cover over the door latch mechanism.

There was one late surprize. Just before installing the door on the coach I noticed that in the area under the trim pieces on the exterior of the door the skin arched away from the frame sufficiently that the tape would not hold. I cut the tape out in those 4 areas and injected structural adhesive (Sikaflex that Richard had given me for which I'm enormously grateful) into the gap. I pushed it back into the joint several times with a plastic blade and refilled the joint. I wanted to ensure there was plenty of bond achieved. If I were to do this whole job again I would deal with this issue the same way since getting those trim pieces off without messing up the paint would be nearly impossible, plus with the skin flattened in those areas the paint lines wouldn't match.

The door now closes with a distinctive thud, way cool. I'll post a few pictures once I get them properly sized. The job isn't complicated, just a bit tedious. It also requires a selection of tools - nothing big and expensive. The 3M 4951 tape I used came from U-Line in a 36 yard roll and I used most of it on this job.

Be well y'all

RE: Rebuild 93 coach entry door - Fulltiming - 05-30-2015

Nice write up. Thank you!

RE: Rebuild 93 coach entry door - encantotom - 05-30-2015

those plastic channels that held the interior panel on i think are cracked on most coaches. so in using the 2 sided tape on the inside, you just left them off totally?

nice writeup

tom

RE: Rebuild 93 coach entry door - 77newell - 05-30-2015

I left the plastic strips completely off. Since the fabric on the panel is wrapped around the outside edges it looks quite nice.