Well after all the hard years The wind, frame twisting, and careless attention, the entry door is in need of a major repair. The door has a major tweak right where the rubber retaining bracket mounts to the door. Repeated slamming of the door when opening has caused most of the damage. The receiving peg that holds the door open is the first thing that hits the door hard if the wind takes hold an it slams open.

I straightened the door some years ago but a couple more slams against the peg has finally broken the frame of the door.

The door was never mounted correctly either. Even though the paint lines are lined up and straight when the door is closed, The door drags on the bottom when closing. There is a 1/2 inch opening at the top of the door (when the door is closed) that has never sealed correctly and can not as the opening in the chassis appears to be incorrectly made.

If I try to move the door up to center it in the door opening, the paint lines will not be lined up or correct.

Over the years I have tried to use sealing foam tape to no avail and was really a cover up for the major issue.

I am removing the door now to rebuild the internal frame that is broken and then will add material to reduce the opening at the top of the door frame on the body.

I will also change the retainer that holds the door open to eliminate that peg. I will add cushioning along the door to distribute the forces along the door frame if it slams into the body during opening.

My server is down for a bit and will post pictures later.

I find if left with passenger side facing south that the alum. expands and will expand so as to bind on the striker. But it is a 1988 and a Barth so life is good.

My door appears to have been replaced with an Alumax in 92. It closes like a bank vault, fits perfectly when level, but I've noticed when not level it will tweek and be hard to open. I've always wondered if this was a factory replacement or an upgrade.

It is amazing how much the chassis and body will distort and twist depending on heat, jack position and being level. I have a number of chassis to body bolts (3/8 inch all thread) that have pulled and there is a 1/2 inch space now on some of them. I have been replacing them with 1/2 inch grade 8 bolts and will try to get most of them replaced later this summer. Will require removal of carpet in most places and I am not ready to start with this yet.

I have found a number of things that are wrong or damaged with the door. I should just replace it but for now I will put some bandaids on it until I figure the final solution.

Hinges have worn and the door is lower than it should be.

Rivets and screws holding the hinges to the door/frame are loose or stripped.

Outer door frame is broken above the latch where the rubber grommet attachment is that holds the door when open. (due to repeated slamming open in the wind)

Door height is about 1/2 inch shorter than the opening. With the door being lower for the above reasons and being shorter, there is a BIG gap at the top. Even when the door is positioned properly at the latch and closes without scraping at the bottom, the gap at the top is still does not seal.

Door has corrosion at the bottom typical to what is seen with the storage compartment doors.

I made progress yesterday and have a few things fixed and hope all the bandaids will be in place today.

I rebuilt the latch mechanism and at least that works very well now.

I will be looking for a door manufacturer to make a new door later, this one is beyond good repair.

something like this?

http://randgsupply.com/Warehou...arecornerrvdoors.htm

www.dexterdoor.com/rv_mh_literature

http://www.all-rite.com/rv-parts-i-5.html

Thanks Doug,I will look into these later.

Ed, Bill G and I rebuilt my door. Put new threaded rods into to and tweaked them to straighten out the door. That worked well. I even had to replace the inner door lining because my dog ate it.

Ed: Do I remember that your door is not a front entry? If so you might consider a commercial door and frame combination and then just deal with the mounting of the door jamb. These are available in aluminum, steel and fiberglass and you can have any number of "lights" (window(s)). You've seen my front entry and that is a laser cut 11 ga aluminum plate that we made to replace an old corroded and bent 18 ga rv door. If it is salvageable a good welder can fix the frame and overlay the thin sheeting on the door.

Whatever you do or change, remember that the refrigerator has to go thru the finished opening. I was surprised what had to be removed to get the old frig out. Just a note the unit I replaced is not still available and the replacement unit is taller , sooo one of the drawers under it was remove and the frame was rebuilt.

With some contemporary coaches, they remove windshield to extract/replace refrigerator.

Thanks for the comments and suggestions!

Yes my door is a side entry, the door is a bit to short and when it is dragging on the sill, there is about a 1/2 inch gap at the top. The door internal frame is made of wood and that has broken because of repeated slamming of the door opening to the retaining pin mounted on the side of the coach.

I have found that the hinges were lose, some of the rivets were lose and the retaining screws on the door side were lose. I tightened all I could and it is better. Found that the fiber washers between the hinge pieces (door/side) have been worn allowing the door to settle downward. I added some 1/8" circlips under each hinge bearing and that also helped.

I put a straight 4X4 along the outside of the door and with "C" clamps pulled the center of the door back out to straighten the outer frame of aluminum. I actually pulled a bit more so that when the door was closed it maintained full closure along the door edge.

I then placed a 1/4 X 1 1/2 aluminum flat stock along the inner side edge of the door and it is screwed into the inner wood frame. The door closes well but still has a big gap at the top left edge.

All these changes were at best a bandaid but it is all I can do for now. I leave in another 2 weeks for my next event at Blytheville AR.

When I have the time, I will build a new door from scratch and it will match the opening and have all new hardware. The original door was not built correctly and after further deterioration from 22 years of use not worth any more time to try to rebuild.

Ouch! The Barth structural drawings show an aluminum stud (or Rib) fixed on each side of the door and they are anchored into the side steel beam of the floor and then the top plate of the aluminum structure. There should not be wood anywhere, according to the engineering drawings. So that door had to be added - I can't believe your coach was so special that wood was used. When you take up the challenge I would recommend stripping out the entire assembly and then building a proper aluminum frame that will fit a proper door- all aluminum, piano hinges if possible and as tight a fit as possible. Sorry you won't be back in Houston this year.
Best wishes,

Yes I would like to gt back to Houston but if I can it will be in October. I do have reasons to be there.

The door is original. Paint lines, mounting holes and latches all ore original equipment as supplied by Barth. I talked with Richard Muise and he has rebuilt and squared his door up and his also had a wooded frame.

I do plan to make templates of the opening and will make the new door entirely out of metal, tacking precaution to make sure all cross bracing is in place to prevent sagging.

Once I have the chassis re-bolted to the frame with proper bolts and retainers, I will put the template of the door the opening and then jack all four corners and measure the amount of body twist that will effect the size of the door opening and then clearances needed.

I will also examine the chassis door frame and rebuild or modify as needed for a more stable mounting and latching system.

It will be a big project but I intend to do it only once!

...what is the core of everyone's door made of?

Is there any plywood in the deck of these vehicles?

I posted an explanation of how to replace storage compartment doors a few years ago but since this subject is the same I decided to repeat it now.
The basic side doors in Barth and many OTB coaches are just like residential doors on mobile homes and such. They are wood framed with finger jointed hard and soft wood and then skinned with luan wood panels faced with 18 to 22 ga aluminum.
Junk!
I called Whiting Door Co, located in New York state and described what I wanted - 12 to 14 ga aluminum faced with aluminum honeycombed internal structured panels that I could weld on a channel frame for my compartment doors. They had cut offs from tractor trailer doors (they make about 80% of those in american trailers) and they cut and sent me ten - each one pre-cut for each of my doors. We disassembled the old doors saving the frames. That is done by using a cut off wheel, or Dremel( if you have enough time) to cut the weld at the top corner of each door. Drill out all rivets and remove locks and mounts for gas shocks. The panel, rotted usually, will slide up and out. You do have to use a utility knife to slice the caulking on both sides. Clean out the panel frame, drill out any remaining rivets and then slide in the new panel. Carefully replace the top frame, clamp carefully making sure it is square and tig weld the cut corners of the frame. No need to weld the panel to the frame. Caulk with a paintable caulk , or don't as they aren't going to leak if painted properly. Then re-attach hardware and you are done. Use the old panel as a pattern to drill out and file the openings for the locks. Use solid head pop rivets to attach the piano hinge at the top and replace the gas shock mounts you removed when taking the door apart. You are done.
For your entry door use the same technique and order a proper thickness panel, still using aluminum honeycomb panels. Building a frame is just getting appropriate rectangular or channel aluminum and welding it up. Spacers to attach to the Barth can be made of the same channel or tube. Whitingdoor.com
They use newer alloys of aluminum that are corrosion resistant, you can choose and they are very knowledgeable about over the road doors exposed to salt, sea and the elements.