I race karts and am setting up a new trailer. It's a Pace American Summit series. I've always mounted the standard issue "cabinet" on the inside of the side door. You know the ones that have 3 shelves to hold spray cans, oil, etc.?

Well.....it turns out Pace used a different style door (read cheap) for a while. It feels like its some foam sandwiched between balsa wood. So there are no "stringers" to mount my shelves to.

Question:

What would be the best way to mount this thing?

 

You can try those butterfly fasteners..
I used the wire 3 shelf assemblies on the back door of a pace but the load is pretty light... Couple of aerosol cans socket set and some paper towels...
OG

 

Are you referring to the rivets like what PitPal sells?

I got some Pace mounting hardware that they use to mount the doorlatch hinges. I'm thinking my only option is drill through the outside and mount with the Pace hardware.

 

I was talking about the butterfly type fasteners that you push through a drilled hole while it is attached to the bolt and they flip out so that you can tighten them up... It may not work depending on how thick the door is and the weight of the shelf once you have it loaded....
I used those 3 level wire shelves like what you find at Lowes or HD and fastened them using the hardware that came with them... I just added more fasteners to make sure it stays on there but I only have about 10 lbs of weight on mine.
The fasteners are plastic clips that use 2 #10 screws that attach to the door... I have about 12 holding it on. 5 years and only had to replace 3 or 4 clips because I hit them with something by accident.

 

How about using construction adhesive to attach a piece of 1/4" plywood to the existing door face?
A few smallish screws and a few clamps should hold it tight until the glue sets up.

 

Similar to what Shovelhead mentioned, you can mount a 1/4 or even 1/2" piece of good one side plywood to the entire perimeter of the door. This way you will at least "catch" the outside framework of the door itself.

A little construction adhesive and your good to go.

On some trailers, I have seen where you can actually split the door open very easily and mount your plywood or "stringers" inside for a factory look.

Jeff

 

That's a good suggestion.

I was going to mount two metal "bars" horizontally from one side of the door frame to the other.

The problem is that the metal part sits up against the rubber door seal so I don't think it will be possible to mount anything this way.