Compartment doors

With the camper's main structure complete and rear door functional, the next step was to install windows, then cut and build the compartment doors.  These doors provide access to storage and mechanical systems.  

It was my original plan to build these doors.  After buying the required materials for their construction, I discovered that custom compartment doors were readily available and only a phone call away!  Since I'd already made my purchase, I decided to go ahead and make them myself.  Let me tell you, it would have been much easier to just buy the pre-hung doors and install them, but the quality of those doors would have been typical lightweight aluminum RV junk.  (Or at least that's what I told myself as I spent a couple weeks in the shop cutting, trimming, painting, sealing, hinging etc...)

My first step was to cut the rough openings for the doors.  I used a router and 3/8" flush-trim bit to accomplish this.  In one step, I cut the rough opening and created the actual door panel too.  The door panel was already the correct size, with no further cutting required.  Once the rough openings were cut, I welded in a steel flange around the opening to hold a rubber bulb-type weatherstrip gasket.  I then trimmed the openings with aluminum angle, fastening it with stainless steel machine screws and tri-polymer construction sealant.  

Here's the left side ready to be disassembled, seams sealed with SEM epoxy seam sealer, and painted with PPG epoxy primer and Concept top coat ...

The material removed from the rough openings was trimmed with aluminum angle, and the doors were then hung with aluminum leaf/stainless pin continuous hinge.  They are held closed by keyed stainless steel camlocks... 

In left-side and right-side photos below, you can click on each compartment door to see what's inside.  You will be taken to a bookmark on a WebPage regarding the applicable mechanical system.