Driving in a "high wind event" we discovered after we got home late at night that we lost the street side engine compartment door. Is there somewhere I might find a used one off a junker? Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

DAMN!
What a bummer.
I suppose it was hand made with dozens of individual louvers riveted into an alum frame. Must not be replaced with solid sheeting.

There is a shop in TX that specializes in vintage alum trailer restoration. Thought I had saved URL
But can't find it right now.

David, bummer does not describe how I feel..... stopped in north oklahoma to fuel and did my normal walk around checking all compartments with quick pull to make sure they are shut tight and visual on my tires, hand to the wheel hub to check for heat. All was good. About 250 miles later we noticed the door was gone. I have someone local who can fabricate me a door using aluminum grate or he can make some simple louvers. But it will not match. If you happen to track down the URL I would appreciate it. I will do some searching too.

The place I was thinking of for fabrication in TX is this: http://www.txvintagetrailer.com/
To duplicate the original could be costly.
You have such a fine coach, it would be a shame to just weld some expanded metal into a channel or square tube welded alum frame.
The louvers allowed for airflow, but not line-of-sight, into the not-so-pretty engine compartment.

Even if you could find a junker, I would suspect that the doors wouldn't even be the same size anyway.

Typically, you would build the coach frame and then skin the piece with body panels. At this point you would use aluminum sheers to cut the skin off and then build the doors to the effective opening of what you actually have left.

I had each of my lower compartment doors off on my Barth, and even though 2 were almost identical in size, you couldn't mix the 2 up and reinstall it. If you did, it wouldn't have fit.

Here's the writeup: "DIY: lower compartment door panels" that I did back in 2007.

Any sheet metal shop worth its salt will have a CNC turret punch press. They also will have louver dies. Take very careful measurements (=/- 1/64") and sketch up a drawing of what you need. Send it out to a few sheet metal shops and see if they are interested in helping. Be ready to pay a hefty price because the set up time is the same for one piece or 100 pieces.

After research, the cost to fabricate a new engine compartment door turned out to be too excessive for my taste. The more cost effective solution was to have 2 new doors made so that they match on both sides. Getting paint to match was turning out to be a nightmare so I decided on a simple black powder coat. For the money, it is the best I could come up with.

without flash or direct sunlight, I cannot see what you ended up doing. Is it expanded metal in a frame?

What did you do with the good one you removed? What was the quote for a new door? Is the door on the street side the same size as the door from the curb side?

Wasn't the one that blew off louvered? Are you concerned that replacing louvered doors with solid doors could create an overheating situation?

I think I would have built the frame and put stainless mesh in place of the louvers so air can continue to flow. Diesel pushers need air back there.

quote:

Originally posted by Moonbeam-Express:
Wasn't the one that blew off louvered? Are you concerned that replacing louvered doors with solid doors could create an overheating situation?

It appears that they made up a screened door assembly, painted it black, and put it on both sides. While not original, it does look way better than nothing and it can still breath.

OK, looked like solid, but now I see it is a screen. That's a Good Thing!

Do you live near a voc high school? If so, their sheet metal program might be able to fab a door for you very cheaply. One near me has done some great work for me.

Excellent idea about vo-tech school.

I had a 1941 Chevrolet that a slight miss in the engine.
I took it into the vo-tech and the instructor teacher said if you will allow us to completely take the engine apart the students will do a valve job, resurface the cylinder walls and put in new rings. He said you only pay for the parts.

When I got it back it ran like a brand new one.

Jim

This may not apply to Barth but when radiator and cooling inlets are designed for cars (and ships and airplanes)intake openings and geometry are computed to optimize velocity and quantity of air movement and further the shape and baffling is designed to flow air uniformly around and across the heat source. That said, the louvers would seem to me (unless they were not designed) to serve a purpose of directing air flow and allowing the rear doors to have a lower pressure area so as to suck out the hot air before it rises into to floor below the bed. It is very easy to bend the louvers out of 16 gauge aluminum and then fabricate the frame. They used rivets for most the work so a sheet metal shop should be reasonable. You might shop around. OH yes, know why the door blew off? The 1 inch steel tubing inside the compartment has rusted through and the rivets just fell out. Mine did the same as have others on this site.