We were camping in our 2008 17' FD on the fringes of Hurricane Michael ... after having to evacuate our original state park site that was only 30 miles from where the eye hit. The outer bands of wind were hitting us on the East Coast of Florida. When I got up in the morning, I did not realize how strong the winds had picked up there. When I opened the front door, a strong gust of wind (probably 30 mph or more) pulled the door out of my hand and slammed it against the belly band.
I had a large rubber crutch tip cut to fit around the aluminum belly band in place, but that was not enough with the wind that strong. When I looked at the door, it had a crack about 2 inches long with part of it pushed in a tiny bit behind the level of the rest of the door.
So now I am looking to repair the crack so that rain water will not get in between the two fiberglass layers that make up the outside and inside of the door.
My question is whether anyone has good ideas about how to best repair the crack. My plan is to pull out the depressed area and glue it level using good epoxy glue. However that will not look very good cosmetically, so I will glue a piece of flat fiberglass stock over the cracked area at the same time.
After searching on the internet, I did find that I could buy a sample size of Filon RV fiberglass siding in Polar White and it looks very similar to the siding that the door is constructed out of. The sample is only about 3" x 5", but that is big enough to cover the damaged area. It costs $5, but it is better than having to buy a larger piece for $22 (the minimum size order other than the sample). It is available from Affordable RVing of Milwaukee, and I found it through Ebay.
The siding looks to be the same thickness as the door panel is. It will be somewhat stronger there after the two layers, but I am wondering if anyone has any suggestions as to some sort of further reinforcement or bumper that I should add over the new piece of fiberglass siding.
It occurs to me that I could reinforce the area (that would hit the belly band) with a layer of fiberglass cloth between the door and the new fiberglass panel patch, but that might be more difficult to make not look so obvious. Any ideas would be appreciated.