Sundance Door Cracks

The entrance door on our 2011 Sundance began to crack on the interior side of the door. It started cracking about 3 years after we bought it in 2011. We have an extended warranty but repairing the door wasn’t covered and a new door costs $650+ if I remember correctly. So today with a little help from the wife I removed the door and reskinned the interior side. I bought the aluminum material yesterday, A single sheet of the embossed aluminum was $160 and a single sheet wasn’t large enough to cover the door. The sheet was an odd size, not 4’ X 8, sorry I don’t remember. But they also sold remnants and had some that were 24” X 36” for $7.50 apiece. So I bought 4 pieces, one was a spare in case I messed up. This metal supply place is about 30 miles from my home. So the extra piece was cheap insurance. I installed the new skin on top of the cracked plastic.
This morning I took the door off at about 8am. I worked the whole day on it only stopping to go to Lowe’s for paint, and to eat lunch while watching the last 40 laps of the Cup race. My beautiful wife helped me reinstall the door around 5pm.
Just wanted to share in case there are others that come across this problem and don’t wish to pay for a complete door assembly.
Our Sundance is parked in out driveway and the door side is in the desert sun from about noon on. The door has a styrofoam core with a plastic interior skin. I guess the plastic skin and styrofoam core expand at different rates and the plastic is cracked by the greater expanding Styrofoam.
I am going to add some strips across the seams where the 3 pieces meet. Other than that I’m done and the wife is happy.

augie

Our Sundance has the same problem. I will be fixing it before we go out again. Yours turned out really nice. Thanks for posting.


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Looks good! How did you fasten them to the door?

olcoon said:

Looks good! How did you fasten them to the door?

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The new skin is tucked under the edge caps that frame the door. I cut the new pieces about a 1/4 inch bigger than what is exposed, and slid it under the edge caps. It's a tight fit. I used a putty knife first to open a little gap and compress the core a little. After all three of the new skins were in it place I lifted the exposed edges up and used a little contact cement to ensure they lay flat. Only thing left to do is add some thin strips to cover those exposed edges to give it a finished look. It looked ok before I painted it, but after painting those edges where the 3 pieces meet is more visible.
Hope this helps.
augie


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