The non-moving black plastic portion of our sliding door bowed out slightly causing a gap that made the brush ineffective. The bugs could just fly right through. Tried bending it the other way, but it's some kind of flimsy warped plastic. I happened to have some 0.080" acrylic lying around so I cut out a piece that's the same size and it fit like a glove. The black plastic was held in by caulking, but 10 gauge wire insulation fit tightly in the channel, so I just put a small piece on the top and bottom to hold it in place:
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Bonus feature: it lets even more light in.
[quote source="/post/1716/thread" timestamp="1403905500" author="@tinkeringtechie"]The non-moving black plastic portion of our sliding door bowed out slightly causing a gap that made the brush ineffective. The bugs could just fly right through. Tried bending it the other way, but it's some kind of flimsy warped plastic. I happened to have some 0.080" acrylic lying around so I cut out a piece that's the same size and it fit like a glove. The black plastic was held in by caulking, but 10 gauge wire insulation fit tightly in the channel, so I just put a small piece on the top and bottom to hold it in place:
Bonus feature: it lets even more light in.[/quote][font face="arial" size="3"]The beauty of this forum. You solved a problem I didn't even know I had - but I do. Best I can measure the channel width is 0.100" Do you think 0.094[/font][font face="arial" size="3"]" (3/32) would fit? Maybe with a touch of a sanding block? It would be a bit stiffer.
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I'm just waiting for the day TT announces that he built a trailer entirely out of spare parts he ordered from LivinLite, except for the tires which he made himself out of duck tape.
[quote source="/post/1718/thread" timestamp="1403915753" author="@charliem"][quote source="/post/1716/thread" timestamp="1403905500" author="@tinkeringtechie"]The non-moving black plastic portion of our sliding door bowed out slightly causing a gap that made the brush ineffective. The bugs could just fly right through. Tried bending it the other way, but it's some kind of flimsy warped plastic. I happened to have some 0.080" acrylic lying around so I cut out a piece that's the same size and it fit like a glove. The black plastic was held in by caulking, but 10 gauge wire insulation fit tightly in the channel, so I just put a small piece on the top and bottom to hold it in place:
Bonus feature: it lets even more light in.[/quote][font face="arial" size="3"]The beauty of this forum. You solved a problem I didn't even know I had - but I do. Best I can measure the channel width is 0.100" Do you think 0.094[/font][font face="arial" size="3"]" (3/32) would fit? Maybe with a touch of a sanding block? It would be a bit stiffer.
[/font][/quote]What material is it? The black plastic was actually thinner than the acrylic that I replaced it with which is probably why they had to use the caulk. The acrylic sheet slides pretty easily, but it doesn't have very much play. You could always try it and see what happens. The channel is aluminum (of course), so it might flex to allow a thicker material. If it doesn't fit, the 0.080" acrylic can be found at pretty much any hardware store (I think I got mine at Lowe's).
[quote source="/post/1720/thread" timestamp="1403922239" author="@pinstriper"]I'm just waiting for the day TT announces that he built a trailer entirely out of spare parts he ordered from LivinLite, except for the tires which he made himself out of duck tape.
[/quote]Maybe someday :D Big projects like that I put on my blog:
[a href="http://www.tinkeringtechie.com/"]http://www.tinkeringtechie.com/[/a]
The details of the RV monitor project will be posted there, but of course I'll post some pictures and summary here as well.
[quote source="/post/1721/thread" timestamp="1403923749" author="@tinkeringtechie"][quote source="/post/1718/thread" timestamp="1403915753" author="@charliem"][font face="arial" size="3"]
[/font][/quote]What material is it? The black plastic was actually thinner than the acrylic that I replaced it with which is probably why they had to use the caulk. The acrylic sheet slides pretty easily, but it doesn't have very much play. You could always try it and see what happens. The channel is aluminum (of course), so it might flex to allow a thicker material. If it doesn't fit, the 0.080" acrylic can be found at pretty much any hardware store (I think I got mine at Lowe's).[/quote][font face="arial" size="3"]The material would be acrylic Plexiglas, Lucite, etc. Some places have 0.080", some have 3/32". Depends on what I can find. Either way I think a touch of a sanding block[/font][font face="arial" size="3"] with fine sandpaper could taper the edges to fit.[/font][font face="arial" size="3"]The black stuff in there now is about 0.060" and feels like polyurethane. Softer. [/font][font face="arial" size="3"]Thanks for alerting me to the problem. When I brought it up my wife said "Oh yeah. I thought you knew about that" Duh.
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[font size="3"][font face="arial"]TT,
I replaced the fixed portion and it worked out great. I used 0.080" acrylic from Lowes. The original cut was a bit big so I trimmed it with a radial arm saw. Can be done with multiple very shallow cuts. [/font][/font][font size="3"][font face="arial"]The 0.080" fits nice and snug so no caulking was necessary. [/font][/font][font size="3"][font face="arial"]I originally sprayed it with Dull Coat, used by hobby modellers, because I was concerned about seeing scratches, but my spraying technique was deficient so I ended up spraying it black. Great fix....Thanks.
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It's a bummer to find something like this on such an expensive trailer. I thought my issue with the bowed sheet of plastic was an anomaly, but apparently not.