Suicide door? I get it now.

[Woodywhite]

I always thought that the orientation of the door was just begging for trouble. I was right. My son and I went to Burning Man and took the Twinkie (1960, 18') on it's maiden voyage for us. All went well, but on the return home my son needed something out of the trailer and didn't latch the door well. I noticed it about five miles later. At least the door was still attached, but it tore the aluminum holding the lower hinge and the door is now no longer the same curve as the trailer. The doorknob will latch but it's base got pulled into the body of the door. It still latches but will need some serious work. Now I really understand the term "suicide door".

I guess the up-side of the deal is that the door was a bit flatter than it was supposed to be when I bought the Airstream. I planned on getting it re-curved anyway, so now I'm motivated to do it sooner rather than later.

This type of body work is beyond my skill set, so my question is this. Does anyone have a bodywork person in my area that they can recommend to work on an Airstream? I live in La Honda, south of San Francisco and north of San Jose. Palo Alto/Redwood City is closest, but I could easily get out to the coast (Santa Cruz, Half Moon Bay)

Also, does anyone have experience in the strength of welding the aluminum as a repair component instead of replacing a panel? It seems that a weld should hold, but you would have to live with a visual line. I've got scars myself so I can't hold that against the trailer. We'll call it personality.

Thanks,
Bob