[77newell]

It's been a hot day in Largo, FL, the perfect day for zen and the art of motorhome maintenance. I just spent a couple hours clearing the 2-sided tape from the top of my entry door. I found the best way to remove the tape was to use the blade of the utility knife to peel the tape away from the metal by pushing into the tape and then twisting the knife so its leading edge pulls away from the metal. I tried slicing the tape off and that didn't work nearly as well. I'll try to post pictures from my next attempt that will be at ground level, I just couldn't convince my wife to join me on the ladder so she could take pictures of what I was doing.

Once I cleared the tape it became obvious why the tape didn't hold. There was spray-in insulation, from the factory I presume, that had expanded enough to push the outside skin at least 1/4" away from the metal frame. My hands were incapable of pulling the joint together until I cut the insulation back several inches down into the door. Now I can squeeze the joint together by hand and I'm confident that the new tape I'm temporarily putting in will hold for my journey home. This is good news. The bad news is that I'll probably have to pull the skin off once I get home so that I can trim the foam back to where it works best before I completely repair the joining of edges.

Hopefully it is clear what is going on, if you have questions please feel free to ask.