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H20ENG's avatar
H20ENG
Explorer
Nov 30, 2018

Hatch door repair?

Hello Again All,
Inspecting the rig after these (finally!) heavy NorCal rains, I noticed that my hatch doors are spongy inside around all the lock holes and the locks wont tighten due to to the panel compressing, allowing even more water to intrude in a vicious cycle.

It looks as though the hatch door frame is riveted together once wrapped around the panel. I'm thinking I can drill the rivets and open the frame up enough to remove the panel. Then remove the panel from the filon skin and replace it with maybe harder blue foam and formica or something tough.

Have any of you ever rebuilt a hatch door? Not looking forward to the huge outdoor kitchen hatch door issues...

Thanks for any tips or links you may have!
  • CincyGus's avatar
    CincyGus
    Explorer II
    Nov 30, 2018
    I've never done a repair like your talking about but I do inspect and touch up silicone on the edges of where the metal frame of the hatch door meets the hatch face during inspections. Sounds like they failed to silicone the edges of the lock when they installed it in the hatch. You have me curious about mine now so thank you for the post. I'll be checking.

    I think the interior of the door panel may be plywood or pressboard sandwiches between the outside finishes and glued on both sides. I'll be interested what you discover.
  • agesilaus's avatar
    agesilaus
    Explorer III
    Nov 30, 2018
    I did it but you probably won't like my repair. I replaced the panel with 1/8" diamond plate aluminum. What we called deck plate in the Navy. It looks OK but not OEM by any means. This was the front hatch on a 5ver. Formica would be too thin and too brittle. You could use smooth 1/8" aluminum and paint to match your unit.
  • H20ENG's avatar
    H20ENG
    Explorer
    Nov 30, 2018
    As far as I know its filon/styrofoam/luan/wallpaper. My thought was to get it apart, scrape off the styrofoam and glue on the harder blue styrofoam then maybe laminate that to protect it. Original filon would stay as the outside skin.
    I do like the diamond plate idea. On my to hauler I think the inside of the door was an abs skin not luan
  • agesilaus's avatar
    agesilaus
    Explorer III
    Nov 30, 2018
    H20ENG wrote:
    As far as I know its filon/styrofoam/luan/wallpaper. My thought was to get it apart, scrape off the styrofoam and glue on the harder blue styrofoam then maybe laminate that to protect it. Original filon would stay as the outside skin.
    I do like the diamond plate idea. On my to hauler I think the inside of the door was an abs skin not luan


    That looks workable to me. From experience I can tell you that construction cement, the Liquid Nail type stuff, works well with insulation board. I've seen some thin insulation board in the big box stores that looks harder than the foam stuff. Maybe a couple of layers of that laminated on.
  • Gjac's avatar
    Gjac
    Explorer III
    Dec 02, 2018
    I have had several areas on the MH that had plywood panels that rotted from water intrusion and would no longer hold screws. I replaced these sections with solid oak panels and epoxy and it worked well.

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