Bathroom Wall Repair

JohnMD · 07-18-2023, 07:29 AM

Hi all,

I know a few folks on the TM Facebook page have done similar repairs lately, but I am not seeing it here, so I thought I would share this repair.

The bathroom wall (next to sink) that has the hinge mounted to the slide broke during our last trip. When we arrived and began to set up, I realized that three of the four screws holding the plastic slide to to the lower portion of the wall had pulled through the plastic. We were able to very carefully manipulate the door in and out of place during our trip. After getting home, I just completed the following repair. Instead of ordering and waiting for a replacement part (which I read was the same plastic slide mechanism), I decided to recreate this using a metal drawer slide as someone on FB did recently). Attached are a few photos.

(Needed to borrow father-in-law for a second pair of hands and set of brain cells -- definitely needed)

1. Removed upper door portion to keep it from swinging in the way during repair.

2. Pulled the wall section off by ripping the remaining screw through the cracked plastic.

3. Separated existing metal piano hinge from the second half of remaining slide. I needed to drill out existing rivets.

4. Purchased full-extension side mount drawer slide (Everbilt 18") from HD. This slide has three pieces that slide out, but it is too wide (top to bottom when mounted), so I only used the interior portion, as shown in the picture, which matched the size of the original plastic slide.

5. Attached piano hinge to matching portion of new slide with rivets and backing plates. I had to shave the backs of the rivets down some with my Dremel multi-tool (with metal carbide blade) for the hinge to close enough.

6. Attached complete hinge/slide assembly to bottom of upper wall and set in place to check alignment of hinge/slide assembly against mounting block that is on the bottom wall and to mark new holes for new slide.

7. Removed hinge/slide assembly and attached to the bottom portion of the wall and tested the slide to make sure it slides with the rivets inside -- perfect!

8. Removed the hinge/slide portion of assembly and mounted to the upper wall (which was placed on the front bed of our QB for the project.) Attached outer portion of slide to mounting block on bottom portion of wall.

9. Slid the wall back into place with helper holding door from above while I sat on the floor to guide the slide together.

It seems to work perfectly. Everything seems to move and line up just as before. Perhaps this may help someone else who needs to make this repair.

Take care,

John

Dodge trucker · 07-25-2023, 11:42 AM

I just had to glue and screw what becomes a small shelf next to the sink on the part of the wall that folds down in mine as I can't believe they thought 6 wimpy staples would be enough to hold it to that wall. It came apart on me the first time we camped in it.
I remember thinking about how flimsy that plastic hinge is ...

Shane826 · 07-25-2023, 03:18 PM

Isn’t your TM like 25 years old? Kinda hard to fault something for failing after that long…

Wavery · 07-25-2023, 04:37 PM

The other thing to remember is that you want the easiest, least expensive part to be the 1st to fail. You don't want the hinge to be stronger than the wall that it's attached to because, then the wall is vulnerable to failure.

Now, the only fail-safe is the human that is sliding and folding the wall....

Dodge trucker · 07-25-2023, 07:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shane826

Isn’t your TM like 25 years old? Kinda hard to fault something for failing after that long…

Yeah but it looked like this wasn't the first time
That section won't be coming apart again now though.