Forum Discussion

hedge's avatar
hedge
Explorer
Jan 05, 2016

scorched my door with a torch, any way to fix?

I had the camper out for the holidays and decided to wash it before I put it back into storage. It's cold up here and I guess I managed to get water in the locks and it froze.

I was using a small lighter to try melt out the ice but go impatient and did something really stupid and decided to speed up the process with a hand held plumbing torch.

Well I managed to scorch the door of my hard side (Filon?) above the door handle.

Is there any way to fix it or do I just have to resort to covering it with a sticker?
  • Picture?
    If you don't have blisters, cheap spray can from HD should do decent cover up.
  • Dont ya hate that. I got to end of some interior trim work and removed a piece of tape and removed the cheap woodgrain veneer off the slide trim. Smack dab in your face area.

    Some type of trim as you mentioned. Something durable like thin stainless. Like a surround trim cut to fit around the handle/lock assembly.

    Or tape evenly around it and paint it black or maybe a color that is elsewhere on the rig.
  • Others have given you tips/suggestions

    Hard to say what will work w/o seeing how much damage was done.

    Next time door lock freezes........heat the KEY not the lock
  • Best way to unstuck a frozen lock is with hot water. Then use WD40 to dislodge the water from the tumblers. And follow up a with graphite based lock lubricant.
  • thanks for the tips, I'll probably try sanding and painting it and then resort to a sticker if that doesn't work. No bubbling, just discoloring.
  • Instead try some car polishing compound. You may luck up with being able to just rub it out. Just remember you can try the non abrasive stuff first then go to the sand paper later but not the other way.
  • joelc's avatar
    joelc
    Explorer III
    Next time use a hair dryer. Hast makes waste. But we have all done stupid things.