Sliding Door Repair

[larry robison]

Would like some help on how to remove/repair the sliding doors above the settees on an 86 C34.  Have been unable to retreive the info from the Nov 2003 or 2004 tech notes.  Tks LARRY

[Ken Juul]

The sliding panels are removed by lifting them up far enough for the bottom edge to clear the lower groove then once the lower edge is clear lowering to remove from top groove.  Over the years as heavy objects are put on the shelves above, the top rail may sag not allowing enough clearance.  Pressure pushing the top rail up may need to be applied to get enough clearance.  The port side rail on mine is sagging so much I had to add a middle support between the sliding doors to allow the doors to operate freely.

[RV61]

The interlude had the broken sliders at the on one slider on each side. When the sliders were closed there was enough overlap that all I did was turned them around and drilled  holes and remounted the handle on the other end. Now when they are closed you cannot see break in the glass.
I am sure its only a matter of time until I break them again again.
Has any one out there replaced with wood sliders??
The fix in tech notes as I remember is use a couple pieces of teak wood
with the plexiglass sandwiched between.  These piece were around three inches wide and the  hiegth of the slider allowing enough clearence for the slider to fit in the grooves.

[Ron Bukowski]

When my smoked plexiglass sliders broke, I replaced them with Formica sliders. Formica makes a countertop laminate that matches the off-white color of the salon table top and the counter tops. I bought a 4X8 sheet at Loews and cut in half across the 4 foot dimension. I then glued the two halves together, back to back, with contact cement and used the old sliders as patterns to cut out new sliders. The thickness of two pieces of Formica is exactly the same thickness as the plexiglass. The one sheet is enough to replace the four doors over the settees and the two smaller doors above the nav station. The white brightens up the interior significantly.

[Steve S.]

I had trouble removing mine also.  But, I was planning on replacing them so I fell back on to the old adage "you can fix anything with a hammer"

I replaced mine with with wood.  I bought some birch-faced wainscoting with the beadboard design at home depot.  It matches the paneling behind the galley storage area.  Using the old plexiglass pieces to determine height and length I cut four equal sized panels with the bead running horizontally.   I actually reduced the height about 1/4 inch for easier installation.  I was able to match the bead-line somewhat.

The wainscotting is too thick (about 1/4 inch).  Using a router, I took out about half the thickness of the panels along the top and bottom of the backside of the panels.  You only have to go in an inch or so.   So now the panels were about 1/8 inch thick where they need to go into the slots.      

Screw the old handles in, teak oil them, and install.  I also did the panels above the galley.  Since wainscotting is like plywood (3 layers) it resists warping.  I've had them in 4 years and they still look like new.

Now if I wasn't such a Luddite, I would have a digital camera.  When I get one, I will post a photo.

[Ron Hill]

Larry : As Ken mentioned - they should just lift up and slide the bottom out.  You may have to lift up on the upper track.
Some of us have covered our "plastic" sliders with the same ash battening that's on the wall above the doors.  The ash make it lighter below than the darker Plexiglas or teak sliders.  
There's an article that I put in the Mainsheet tech notes about that project.  

[Mike Vaccaro]

We used 1/8" thick teak ply to make new doors.  With wooden handles, they go well with the rest of the interior.  On the starboard side, the boards simply lifted out of the track.  On the port side, it was necessary to lift the upper shelf a bit to get the doors out.  I used a small hydraulic jack for this purpose (don't overdo the lifting if you use this trick--the jack could easily exert enough force to break the upper shelf or the molding!).  To allow the new doors to slide freely, I made a small teak spacer for the port side that supports the middle of the upper shelf (keeps it from sagging).  Used the small jack to lift the center of the shelf, inserted the spacer and lowered the jack.  

It take longer to describe than to do!

Cheers,

Mike

[Ken Juul]

An additional note,   I used a scrap of wood I had in the workshop, think it was the remains of a pine 1x4 as a temp support fully intending to replace it with teak.  The overlap of the sliding doors hides the support, it's been 2 years now, until this thread came up I had totally forgotten about it.  The wieght of the upper shelf holds the support in place so fastening the support is not required.  Think my teak support is now in the "if it's not broke don't fix it" catagory and will save the expensive wood for a visible project.