Entry door alignment

[FatBuoy]

Hey all- so I embarked on a mission this weekend of removing the entry door, and door frame, as it was leaking water from the top where the frame meets the cutout. It's a side entry, but I believe everything is pretty much the same as a rear entry.

Someone had tried to put a bandaid on it with silicone. Twas a mess. So, I removed the door, then all of the screws under the screw cover. That's when I realized there were also rivets that needed to be drilled out along the sides of the door frame. Go look at yours. You will see them. The project deepened and deepened as they typically do.

I got the frame off and cleaned everything up. Then on went the fresh butyl tape around the frame to prep for reinstallation. All went well. Even getting all new rivets in.

Fast forward to today. I put the door back on and it's out of alignment, as in it hits the striker plate and has to be forced shut. I did quite a bit of web searching, as I assumed this would be a fairly common concept- aligning entrance doors. The only thing I could find was up and down adjustment by shimming the hinges. I also read where you could potentially bend the hinges a bit if something happened to the door, the thought being that perhaps I tweaked them during R&R.

No dice. They are flat against the frame, so no room for movement.

So, there's that, and there's also a gap at the top to where the rubber door strip doesn't press up against the frame. That's definitely going to leak.

My questions- is there any way to adjust these doors? On the gap at the top, I'm thinking I may have to try to bend it in a bit up there, but how?

On the lateral adjustment that needs to shift the whole door to to the right, I have no clue. I was very careful with the frame, so that didn't get bent.

Has anyone adjusted these things with an level of success?

[JabberBox]

Maybe the rubber body mounts on the frame are worn out causing the fiberglass camper shell to twist?
Did you try moving the truck to another spot on the driveway to see if the door alignment changed?

The door fits the frame, so if the frame is square once installed the door should shut properly.
I would have to conclude that the door frame is tweaked from structural twisting over years of use.
Can you check if the frame is square when its mounted in place and then shim the frame somehow to twist it
back into proper position?

Use a square to measure the angle in each corner of the door frame to make sure its actually installed square.

[chin_k]

This is going to be a messy thing to fix. Another thing is that you may try is to undo the rivets, and put the door on the frame, align it, and *then* put the rivets back.

As JabberBox said, the fiberglass shell maybe twisted and when you take the frame out, it does not go back like the way it should when the stress is released. Since door is on the side, I was thinking that it is not going to happen, but from the way you described, it sounds like it did.

I really think that if the door can close properly onto the frame when it is free standing, and it also work fine when you insert the frame into to side opening, it can be done but with trial and error. The reason it is not working properly is due to the screws and rivets that distort the frame. Once you gain the experience, you can start charging yourself more for the advanced skills and experience that you have

[JabberBox]

Post some pictures of the gap at the top and any other misalignment.

[FatBuoy]

So I went out this morning to take another look. I also put a square on the lower frame corners. Cant do the uppers, as they are arched. But it is off.

The door actually closed better this morning, which I found to be odd. The other thing I noticed, is I can push on the upper, or lower, sections of the door and it flexes in enough to where I believe it would seal.

Here's what I'm thinking- if I could somehow remove the door, support the middle of it on a sawhorse or something and put weight on the top and bottom to tweak it a bit it could potentially help.

The other thing I noticed, is that if I could adjust the striker in a bit, it could take out the play that's in it and potentially help. I don't think there's a way to do that is there? Make the door close tighter? Sure seems like there should be a way.

Outside of that, I'm going to take the other suggestions and park with one wheel on a curb to see if there's a good bit of flex and also look at the rubber body mounts to see if I see anything funky going on there.

Thanks, guys!

[JabberBox]

You can still get a rough idea if the top of the door frame is square by using a string. Instead of trying to butt the square against a rounded radius corner, place your square further down on the door frame, tape a string to one side of the door frame, place the square up against the string and then move the string so it is level with the square on that side, tape it to the other side of the door frame while insuring that it stays level with your square on the opposite side. Now move your square over to the other side and see if the string is level with your square.

You can also bend the door hinges slightly to adjust the door using a block of wood and a hammer. They are not hard to bend and you can find videos on youtube on how to do it. Just search adjusting RV door hinges. There is a striker bolt thingy that extend from the door frame, i think you need a hex head or torx bit to loosen it, but once loosend i think it can be adjusted to make the door shut tighter.

Regardless how you make your final adjustments the door frame must be at least somewhat square when it is installed.

[FatBuoy]

You can also bend the door hinges slightly to adjust the door using a block of wood and a hammer. They are not hard to bend and you can find videos on youtube on how to do it. Just search adjusting RV door hinges. There is a striker bolt thingy that extend from the door frame, i think you need a hex head or torx bit to loosen it, but once loosend i think it can be adjusted to make the door shut tighter.

Thank you, Sir. I did find that striker adjustment. It moved a little.

On your video reference on bending hinges with a block and hammer- I couldn't find one. And I dug pretty deep. I actually did a pretty exhaustive search prior to posting this. I did see mention of it somewhere, but no real meat to it, so not sure where to actually hit them. If you know of one, I would really appreciate a link!

[JabberBox]

Its common for wind to catch an RV door and blow it open effectively tweaking and or bending the hinges, you can bend them back in place with a block of wood and a hammer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBVILlCe5Gs

[FatBuoy]

Its common for wind to catch an RV door and blow it open effectively tweaking and or bending the hinges, you can bend them back in place with a block of wood and a hammer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBVILlCe5Gs

I'll be damned. That one didn't surface in a search. I didn't realize that you did it like that. I was envisioning it with the door open and hinges exposed. THANK YOU.

Oh, and I probably learned just as much about setting up a tripod...haha!

[JabberBox]

regardless, i wouldnt do anything until you have that frame installed as sqaure as you can get it. Otherwise installing the door into the frame would akin to putting a square peg in a round hole.