Lucite Panel for Shelves in Cabin

[Vic Suben]

 

Surprise is a 1987 Catalina 34 (MK I).  In this boat the shelves above the berths in the main cabin are hidden by sliding Lucite panels.  The panels slide in top and bottom wooden tracks.  Unfortunately, during this past season, one of the sliding panels was broken.  I have been unable to remove the broken panel from the tracks.  I am looking for suggestions on how to remove the broken panel from the tracks.

Thanks,

Vic Suben
Surprise - C34 Hull No. 453

[gwp]

Dig out the teak bungs (plugs to hide screw heads) remove screws and then track. Bottom track much easier to access. If its broken at the extreme end of panel you could cut off bad end and reuse panel as there is overlap between the two panels. Otherwise buy new Plexiglas at Lowe's / homedepo. New bungs can be bought at local marine supplier. Good luck

[Lance Jones]

Vic,
Just yesterday, I installed replacement doors made from 1/8" Teak plywood. I got the idea from Mike Vaccaro, "Spirit," 1988 Hull 563
on the projects page. the title is - Replaced sliding doors. Great project and my Admiral loves it. Not nearly as fragile and looks soooo much better. We will be picking out the handles tomorrow and then this weekend, final finishing. Easy task. Thanks Mike for a great project.

Cheers!

Lance

[MarkT]

The shelf above the panels is held in place with several screws. Loosen the shelf and adjust the clearance so the panels slide and can be removed by lifting up in the slot and pulling the bottom edge free.
Sounds it is very easy to do.

I replaced my panels with mahogany veneer over very thin plywood. Be sure to put the veneer on both front and back to avoid warping.
Then Minwax Red Oak stain will bring the color up to match the teak in the cabin. Bring a drawer home to the workshop so you can compare color until you get enough.  I then completed the project with Minwax Antique Oil. I'm very happy with the results and I don't have to keep applying oil every time I go to the boat. The stuff must be more than just oil. Someone told me it had a kind of polyurethane in it to make the finish more durable.

Mark Tamblyn

[Ron Hill]

I believe that gwp has the right idea. 
However, replace the sliders with Lexan rather than acrylic (which breaks easily) and they'll last your life time.  A thought

[lazybone]

You shoudn't have to dig any bungs out or destroy anything in order to remove the doors.

To remove the plexi doors, lift them straight up into the top track, they should then just move vertically enough clear to the lip of the bottom track so that the panel can be tilted out at the bottom.  If you still don't have enough clearence you can push the top shelf up a bit to gain additional space.
I hope that was what you asked in your original post.

[Ken Juul]

As LazyBones said, it is very common for the shelf to sag, especially if it has a bunch of stuff on it.  Just move the sliders to about mid way, push up on the shelf, then lift the sliders out of the bottom groove first.  Sometimes it helps to have an extra set of hands, but after you get the idea it is easy enough for one person.

[BillG]

A couple of observations, having had to remove my panels and fix them.  First, i found that when the boat was on the hard
the distance seemed to increase a bit between the top and bottom slots, probably due to a lack of compression caused when the boat is in the water.
I took a jack and placed it in the middle of the span and it gave me just enough space to remove the sliders without removing any trim.

[Vic Suben]

Thanks for all your suggestions.

Vic

[Lance Jones]

Vic,
Here are the panels that we installed this past week.

[Fuzzy]

Lance:
They look GREAT.  Beautiful job!!
Larry

[Vic Suben]

Lance,

Your panels look great.  Thanks for the idea.

Vic

[Lance Jones]

Thanks! It's not all that hard. I used the original plastic panels for patterns and then cut them out. The whole project took about 3 hours. We put Teak Oil on. However, I may use the Minwax Mahogany. We'll see how the Teak oil holds after a couple more coats. That part is the Admiral's job. However, they do make the cabin look a lot warmer....

[David Urscheler]

Very nice! You've just prodded me to get this project done.

[Clay Greene]

Agreed that you should be able to pull the panels out if you have a second pair of hands to push up on the upper shelf.  This was a much more difficult project for the smaller panels above the chart table.  We had to use a jack to get the panels out and then to get the replacement doors back in.

We also replaced our black sliding panels with teak plywood.  We just replaced the white sliding doors in the galley this year so all of the doors now are teak plywood.  Overall, I think it is a much improved appearance.