Repair damaged panel

Not proud of it, but this is the 2nd time I left the driveway with my driver side panel open and slammed it on a tree. :cry:

The first time I paid for a new panel and had the panel replaced when they put on the new hinges. This time I’d rather try to fix it as best as possible…

I’d love some advice, but am thinking I need to drill out the rivets and remove the two metal angles, bend it back straight or a little concave and then install two new metal angles with new rivets…

Anyone have experience or advice? I’d rather not spend a ton on getting a new panel shipped.



Three things…

  1. Happy Thanksgiving.
  2. The panel can be removed without drilling. Consult YouTube. The hinge slides apart.
  3. At least you know the new hinge is strong AF.

Good luck. I’m sure others will chime in.

Peace.

Here it is.

Hey @Jcrodes, I had to do some repairs to my first camper that was damaged during shipping. The panels are actually quite easy to straighten out. So as others have mentioned, remove the panel. Once you do that, get a good solid flat surface, then get some lumber such as a 2x4 and some clamps. Clamp down the edge of the door to make it flat, then grab some smaller lumber and put it underneath the wrinkles. After that, go to town with a dead blow hammer.

That’s what worked for me with similar damage and managed to get things pretty straight. Check out my build thread for some pictures of what I did. Reach out if you have any other questions.

Cheers

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