Big Oops!

On our way from Deep Creek lake in MD, I stopped for gas and for a moment forgot I was driving a 30 footer. The driver’s side took a big hit with damage to 2 basement doors and the exhaust system got pulled apart. We paid an emergency garage to come and cut off the end of the exhaust pipe and I limped it home.

When I got home I assessed the damage. Two doors would need to be rebuilt, some framework welded and the exhaust system redone.

Getting the doors off was not an easy task. All of the doors are hanging on a track that would possibly allow all of the doors to be taken off one end or the other. However both ends were blocked so I decided it would be easier just to remove the rest of the door from its top piece. There was glue holding it together, but with a heat gun, pry bar and lots of patience I finally got it off.

The new doors were easy to make out of 1×2 pieces and 1/8″ plywood filled with an insulation board.

I removed all of the plywood off of the fiberglass skin, patched the front of the fiberglass and sanded to a nice smooth finish.

I attached the fiberglass skin to the newly built door using fiberglass resin.

A friend of mine has a sheet metal shop and was able to straighten all of the door frames. If this was not possible I found aluminum U channels on Amazon, but they were not needed.

I attached the door back to its top frame with screws, glue and clamps.

Meanwhile, I had a welder come out and work on the damaged metal. He cut out all of the bent pieces and replaced them with new metal. After I took the fiberglass off of the old doors, I installed them briefly until the welding was done. What you see is the damaged wood on the doors.

Home Depot had this carpet on sale, and I installed new rubber seals from Amazon.

I also installed new latches found on Amazon. This is the finished look. My wife didn’t want me to paint it (yet anyway). It may not look just perfect but everything inside is new and the outside is sanded and sealed.

I took it to Tony’s Custom Exhaust in Glen Burnie, and in less than an hour they replaced the whole exhaust system. They eliminated the resonator and replaced the muffler with a new one. There is now just one tailpipe all the way to the back tire.