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Old 05-28-2006, 10:49 PM   #1
Zeppelinium
Rivet Master

 
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Profile:  1970 18' Caravel
1977 23' Safari
1975 31' Sovereign
Palmer Lake , Colorado
Posts: 2,386

Repairing fridge door

So, I pick up a Sovereign that has been sitting in somebody's front yard for 25 years. The 10 years before that it was obviously used heavily. One of the first things I noticed was that I couldn't close the freezer door.

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I thought it was just a warping of the plastic (it had sat in the sun in Big Pine, CA all that time) shape/lining of the inside surface of the door. So I took a heat gun to it and a flat piece of wood to press it back to shape.

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No luck. On closer inspection, the whole door was expanded in the top to bottom direction. Damn. How to fix? Ah ha! Take it apart, cut out a elongated eye shape in the foam inside the door (along the top and bottom--easy to do with a hand-held hacksaw blade), use clamps to form the door back to something near it's original dimensions, heat the plastic liner (top and bottom, one at a time) with the heat gun, force the surface flat with a piece of wood and let it cool, then fill the now narrowed "eyes" with foam (keep the clamps on for several days--this foam will expand for a long time). Trim the foam off and replace the outer trim and, wow, you've got a door that fits and has retained it's insulating qualitities! In the right photo, you can't really see the slit on the top, but there is a new, foam-filled slit along the top and bottom edges.

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So, now the GREAT news. Once I could close the door, I checked out the fridge. No workie. Went up to Cherokee RV Salvage and they said "just blow all the cobwebs out", so I got air out to the Sovereign and blew out everything around the burner (and other areas). Son of a gun, works like a charm on propane!! Once I figured out that it wasn't plugged in, it worked like a charm on 110V, too. I am not worthy...
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