Door Sag/Shell Bowing Out

[Rick G]

Hi Cyndi,

About a year ago I was trying to get rid of a 3/4 inch gap in the bottom of the door on my 74 Boler. My door was out of shape, but not water-damaged. After much research, I ended up with a 3 part solution. The thread is here: http://www.fiberglassrv.com/board/in...howtopic=35037

First, I took off the interior square bar by the door and straightened it as much as I could (which included putting it on the garage floor and jumping on it) and then put it back on. This helped a small but noticeable amount by changing the curve of the wall back straighter. That is what that bar is for.

Then, the big (relatively) repair was to cut three horizontal slots part way through the inside of the door, bend the door to the correct curve, and fibreglass it into place using a pre-canned automotive product. This procedure is described in detail in the thread. It was not hard to do and only took a couple of hours, other than my nerves at cutting into the door of the trailer.

Third, I made a new door edge plate on the floor from a piece of metal roof evestrough, which was not only easy to work with but also already painted.

This has worked perfectly and still is in the right shape a year and several thousand miles later. It was also very cheap, only about $20 all told.

Good luck,
Rick G

[cyndi H]

Cyndi,

I can understand the project burnout. At that point you're just like "Give me a solution wherein I don't have to do anything but just put it on!" LOL

If you do use the closet wall to make a "shape wall" pattern (which is a good idea, btw, as that wall is unlikely to be distorted), you might like to use the "tick stick" method. I'll try to describe it painlessly.

What you do is cut out a piece of paper or foam board or thin wood or whatever (rigid is better) in an approximation of the right shape. You can have large (inches) gaps at the edges. Then you tape it to the sidewall of the closet.

Now, make a "tick stick." This can be as simple as a popsicle stick with a point on one end. It just has to be flat and have a pointy end. What you do is place the stick on the pattern so that the pointer is right on the edge of the closet that you are trying to copy. So in other words, the "fat" end of the stick is on your paper, and the pointy end is right where you want your "good" wall to be. Now just trace around the back part of the stick that is on the paper. It doesn't have to be the whole stick; just the back part (the front and pointy end will run off the paper).

Now, do that in a bunch of different locations, always with the pointy end in a place where you want your new piece to emulate the shape.

When you are done you will have a piece of paper/foam/wood with a whole bunch of random looking "back end of arrows" tracings on it.

Now you tape that paper/foam/wood onto your "good" new piece of wood. Then you put the pointer down so that it fits in all the tracings, and this time put a dot at the very tip of the pointer, on the new material. Do this for each place you traced the pointer on the paper, and then you can connect the dots and, Voila!, you have your shape. Of course you also need to cut the opposite edge (straight/vertical) where you want it to end on the inside of the trailer.

I hope this makes sense; if I find a photo or drawing I will post it. As you can imagine, tick-sticks are very useful on boats, where you have all kinds of crazy curves and shapes.

Another way is to take some narrow strips of thin wood (something like cheap "door skin" plywood) and hot glue them together in an approximate shape (it can be "square" and angle-y). Then tape that shape up to the closet wall and take other small strips of thin wood (like, say, 5" long) and hot glue them onto the main stick like "fingers" that reach out to the edges of the trailer where your "good" wall shape is. You end up with something that looks a bit like an inside-out fish skeleton, but it works.

With either of these you can then use a flexible batten (long strip of wood) to connect your marks in a fair curve. I might make the first "good" pattern out of another scrap and then test the fit; then make the final one. Or, another way is to make the "good" one the first time, but have extra material on the "back" side (the good, straight edge). Then put your newly cut, nearly perfect new shape up against the closet wall and scribe the edge for a perfect fit, then trim it. Then you can cut your final straight edge on the "back" side (facing into the trailer).

To scribe, you just tape (again!) the nearly perfect new piece up on the closet wall, as close to the edge as you can, then take a pencil and tape a small block of wood to it (or put a washer around it, or anything to space it out just far enough to make a mark on even your least fitting section). Then "run it around" the curve with the block or washer on the outside wall and the pencil point on the good new piece. That should allow you to trim to the mark for a good fit.

Raya

Thanks a lot but that's what my brother was explaining how to do. i'm an artist so i process things easier visually. i'll figure it out though. Your directions were better than my brothers Question: would a correctly curved metal tube addition from floor to bottom of present one work? if i found the size i want it may even fit inside the other one. i'm waiting for an estimate for a longer replacement for it. if i can do it i will do that as that one section is really the only problem (touch wood) The lack of bottom door curve i dont care about for now. thanks again, youve been sooooo much help!!!!!!!!

[cyndi H]

Hi Cyndi,

About a year ago I was trying to get rid of a 3/4 inch gap in the bottom of the door on my 74 Boler. My door was out of shape, but not water-damaged. After much research, I ended up with a 3 part solution. The thread is here: http://www.fiberglassrv.com/board/in...howtopic=35037

First, I took off the interior square bar by the door and straightened it as much as I could (which included putting it on the garage floor and jumping on it) and then put it back on. This helped a small but noticeable amount by changing the curve of the wall back straighter. That is what that bar is for.

Then, the big (relatively) repair was to cut three horizontal slots part way through the inside of the door, bend the door to the correct curve, and fibreglass it into place using a pre-canned automotive product. This procedure is described in detail in the thread. It was not hard to do and only took a couple of hours, other than my nerves at cutting into the door of the trailer.

Third, I made a new door edge plate on the floor from a piece of metal roof evestrough, which was not only easy to work with but also already painted.

This has worked perfectly and still is in the right shape a year and several thousand miles later. It was also very cheap, only about $20 all told.

Good luck,
Rick G

Whew! i read that whole thread. so did you take pics of the door slits? If you did i'd like to see them. i dont get the part about straightening the pipe. i thought that pipe was supposed to be bent to the shape of the shell and then hold it in that shape? thanks

[Rick G]

Whew! i read that whole thread. so did you take pics of the door slits? If you did i'd like to see them. i dont get the part about straightening the pipe. i thought that pipe was supposed to be bent to the shape of the shell and then hold it in that shape? thanks

The bar on the inside of the wall by the door is supposed to be curved, to help maintain the shape of the trailer wall. However, over the years it can bend a bit in response to the constant gravity pulling down on it. I straightened the bar as much as I could, but it was still curved, just not quite as much. I didn't want to make the bar completely straight, and it seems to have a lot of spring to it so that it would not actually straighten out no matter what I did. The result was still a curved bar, just not as curved, which I think matched the original shape better since it seemed to pull the door in closer to the frame.

As for the horizontal slots, I was so nervous about the procedure that I did not think about taking pictures, nervousness which proved to be unnecessary. I think I took a couple of pictures after the first coat of Bondo-glass was set, and will try to find them.

The key for cutting the horizontal slots, which I did with a standard 1/8 inch thick blade on a hand-held circular saw (skill saw), was setting the depth to only go about 3/4 of the way through the door from the inside. Oh yes, I removed the door from the trailer to do this, which allowed me to put it on a table and make sure that the slots were cut fairly evenly. This allowed the door to curve a bit with each slot, but not enough to make a line visible from the outside. I ony used 3 slots spaced about 1 12/ inches apart because that was all I needed to make the curve fit my door, but I could have used more (or fewer) spaced at different intervals.

Hope that helps. I have been very happy with the result.

Rick G

[Squamoton]

This video shows what you describe:

https://youtu.be/AsPh6ZPqSck