Bay door came off

[David Fischer]

My 1997 Marquis  has a large 70" bay door on the passenger side which decided to come off as I was closing the door today.  About two years ago I noticed about a 4 inch split in the hinge on the door and had it repaired with an aluminum weld.  Today that same weld decided to break and then the skin of the door came off completely.   Luckily we are in  an RV park right next to a repair place.  I didn't think just welding will hold up again so I am going to have to get a new hinge.  I had a problem with my water bay door about 6 or 7 years ago and decided to put small pop rivets along that hinge along with an adhesive.  Is this anything any of you have experienced?  I have owned my coach since new and it is now 15 years old, but I plan to keep it.  So, my concern about doors coming off is a real concern.

[Glenn Perkins]

David,

I had a similar experience about 6 years back on our 99 Marquis. I, too, had the inner frame re-welded and rivets placed along the top of the skin into the door frame.  

The only issue I have had since was needing to periodically replace the rivets as they appear to wallow out due to door usage.  I did not use an adhesive strip ... that might have solved the periodic rivet replacement issue.  All in all  though, the repair made has held up reasonably well though.

Good luck.

Glenn and Betty Perkins

[Larry Fritz]

I too have had this problem on my '98 Patriot. My doors are slightly shorter. I was going to have the welds re-welded, but decided on a very inexpensive but visible repair.

I carefully measured all of the tolerances then bored a few holes in the the door, of 8-32 size. I used stainless steel button head bolts (hex) I think, about 3/8" long. Don't remember the length for sure. To get the length, I used a tool to measure the depth. This is important because on the back side I put a nut with a built in star washer. Because of clearances the bolt must not protrude beyond the nut when tightened.

(What this repair did, was to hold the door skin to the back of the hinge). The bolts have not broken, but have worked loose over a 5 year time frame, so I just re-tightened them recently.

The bolts go just below the 3" black flange (on my Patriot) so the button head is almost touching the black flange.

If anyone wants to try this, let me know and I will e-mail a photo of what it looks like. It is really not that noticeable.

Larry

[Max M. Hoffman]

My '97 Marquis just did the same thing, again, after reweld and reglue a couple of years agol.  If possible would you email the pic's of your repair?
Thank you, MaX