Baggage Door Popped Open

[zehutiman]

Yep, my baggage door on my 1980 M20J Missile popped open during climb out.  No doubt it was due to me not closing it properly, but I’m wondering if anybody else has had that happen and what they did repair-wise.  Mine still closes surprisingly easily, but there’s an unmistakable crease in the door, near the hinges. 

[N201MKTurbo]

Did the prop rod pull apart?

[kortopates]

The only real repair is a new door. The new door skins are made a bit oversized to be trimmed to fit your plane.
You can look at used salvage doors but the odds of one fitting your plane well isn’t good.

I trust the hold open arm had to break off to allow the crease to form.


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[Hank]

20 minutes ago, kortopates said:

I trust the hold open arm had to break off to allow the crease to form.

Mine popped open flying with my CFII several years ago; going slow, 105 mph, the crease is a little less, but the hold open arm is just fine. When closed, it's open about an inch, but hold it down and it latches just fine. Makes it obvious when it's not latched.

I'd like a new hold open arm for the door . . . It got stiff and bent a couple of times, now I just hit it with Tri Flow whenever I think about it.

[zehutiman]

4 hours ago, N201MKTurbo said:

Did the prop rod pull apart?

I don’t think so

[zehutiman]

3 hours ago, kortopates said:

I trust the hold open arm had to break off to allow the crease to form.

That’s a good point.  It held together…somehow.  I was surprised at how much drag the open door was creating.  I didn’t know each door was slightly different size!

[Hank]

25 minutes ago, zehutiman said:

I didn’t know each door was slightly different size!

The joys of hand assembly and trim to fit processes!

[exM20K]

Talk to @Pmaxwell or Don Maxwell.  He has probably done many dozens of these, including on a friend’s Ovation last year.  It may not be a big deal to fix.

-dan

[zehutiman]

13 hours ago, exM20K said:

Talk to @Pmaxwell or Don Maxwell.  He has probably done many dozens of these, including on a friend’s Ovation last year.  It may not be a big deal to fix.

-dan

Do you mean that he fixed the existing (damaged) door?

[N201MKTurbo]

It would be fairly easy to fix the door. It is a flat piece of sheetmetal riveted to a pressed inner piece. I would drill out all the rivets and separate the two pieces, straighten out the pressed piece, use the outer skin as a pattern to cut out a new skin, then rivet them back together. I could probably do the whole thing in 6-8 hours. 
 

Then you have to paint it.

You would probably need a new seal. 

[pirate]

If it’s above your ability or your local mechanics ability you could also visit your local EAA chapter, this would be easy for them since most have built aircraft and have a good amount of metal experience. Many are retired and some are A&P’s / IA’s. 

[exM20K]

3 hours ago, zehutiman said:

Do you mean that he fixed the existing (damaged) door?

yes

[M20F-1968]

On 5/18/2025 at 11:40 AM, kortopates said:

The only real repair is a new door. The new door skins are made a bit oversized to be trimmed to fit your plane.
You can look at used salvage doors but the odds of one fitting your plane well isn’t good.

I trust the hold open arm had to break off to allow the crease to form.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I had the opposite experience.  When I did my rebuild, I took the baggage door off a 1998 Ovation.  The pulled the hinge pin and mounted a new 1/2 of the airframe side of the hinge to the airframe and left the door completely alone, even the door seal.  It remains this way today.  The door seals well and fits the opening well too.  My experience is one of one, but it would seem that a used door would likely fit.  The door swap also gave me the new latch mechanism with the inside opening handle as well.

The passenger door was more complicated as I reskinned my original door and put in the Ovation hardware - but that was a different project.

John Breda 

[Schllc]

The repair is pretty straightforward. The tedious part is trimming the outer skin to fit perfectly. Someone familiar with sheet metal and riveting could certainly do it in a day with the right tools and expertise. 
a weekend warrior could do it as well, but without the right stuff it’ll take a while. 
it is not a major repair. Painting was the biggest pia of the whole repair.