How to remove Battery compartment side Bay Door

[Mike Shumack]

I discovered the door skin is loose at the top of my "swing up" Battery compartment bay door.
How does this door come off? Do I just need to remove the struts and swing it up high enough to unhook from the hinge edge? Or is it more complicated than that?

I think if I can remove the door, I can squeeze some metal-bond epoxy in the gap and clamp it. It looks like the cause of the problem is poor body shop work. i had this panel (skin) replaced/repaired and it looks like they cut the welds off at the top to remove the skin and did not reweld. It's been 2 years since the work - so I doubt they will fix it for free.

[David T. Richelderfer]

On our 2004 Marquis Sapphire, there are two "keepers" that stop the door from falling out of the hinge when the door is fully raised.  The keepers are about 1 1/4 inch long, are made of a small, rectangular, hard piece of black plastic, and are held in place by a single, very small Phillips screw.  With the struts detached from the door and the door raised to about 45 degrees from straight up, the "keepers" can be removed and the door will fall out of its hinge by raising the door almost vertically.  You might be able to remove the screws and the keepers with the struts remaining in their fixed positions, I am not sure.  I believe these keepers are placed such that the raised door cannot fall out of the hinge.  Thus, with the keepers removed, the door should be easily removed by raising the door to a near-vertical position.  To access the screws holding the keepers in place, you need to look straight up from below to the hinge area.

[Mike Shumack]

Thanks. I see two plastic pieces with a little screw. One is of those retainers is shown the closeup photo of the hinge (last photo).

I'm going to call body shop tomorrow and see if they will stand behind their work. If not, I think I can repair this myself fairly easily.

[Mike Shumack]

Just to update.
The compartment door came off - using the method as instructed above.
I cleaned the joint between the frame and outer skin where it is separating.
I was able to pry the panels apart slightly and insert some wedges (spread just enough to get some panel bonding epoxy in the gap).
Then I clamped it together and removed the squeeze out (it's important to be sure no epoxy is left in the groove/hinge).
I'll reassemble this in about 6 or 8 hours. Hopefully I wont ever have to deal with this again.

[Roy Boles]

      I have had this happen to several of my bay doors. My remedy has been to pull the panels together with some type of clamp, taking care not to damage the paint. Drill through both and pop rivet the two together. I think that it has been done to five of my bay doors. And have pop riveted doors for other Beavers. So far no failure on my coach. Just get some matching paint to touch up the rivet heads.