Tambour tantrums

Sanders · 06-08-2007, 08:32 AM

Hello fellow Airstreamers,
I need some suggestions regarding my 74 Excella 500 Airstream. I have just finished repairing all the tambour roll-up cabinets in the front of the trailer, the overhead cabinets in the bedroom, as well as the cabinets underneath the beds. I took all of them out, cleaned them, sanded them, then applied contact cement to a duck canvas backing cloth.
I need to repair the tambour in the galley under the sink as well as the gas stove. But for the life of me I cannot find a way to get them out. Does anyone know how to take these cabinets apart so that there might be some wiggle room to get the tambour pieces out, and then back in? I am afraid to go further for fear I will damage the galley altogether.
Has anyone ever tried joining the pieces back together with cloth backing and spray adhesive while the pieces were still in place? Is that a viable option? I can't seem to find a reasonable way to loosen up the cabinets and wonder now if maybe I should try to join the pieces together while they are in place.
Any suggestions or ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance for any help you can give.
Sincerely yours,
Sanders

overlander63 · 06-08-2007, 08:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sanders

I need to repair the tambour in the galley under the sink as well as the gas stove. But for the life of me I cannot find a way to get them out. Does anyone know how to take these cabinets apart so that there might be some wiggle room to get the tambour pieces out, and then back in? I am afraid to go further for fear I will damage the galley altogether.
Has anyone ever tried joining the pieces back together with cloth backing and spray adhesive while the pieces were still in place? Is that a viable option? I can't seem to find a reasonable way to loosen up the cabinets and wonder now if maybe I should try to join the pieces together while they are in place.

This is the rpair method I am planning. Sand down the back of the tambour, apply some contact cement to the cloth and back of the tambor, and install it while it is still in the tracks. Just don't make the cloth full-length, as it will bind int he tracks. Leave about 3/4" top and bottom so it will roll in and out.

jdalrymple · 06-08-2007, 10:38 AM

A neat repair for a completey hopeless tambor under the sink is to laminate the tambor material to two 1/4 or 3/8 plywood sheets and make bypassing doors using standard cabinet hardware. I did this to my trailer, as the tambor was so large and this cabinet is used so often it was difficult to keep working smoothly. This keeps the tambor look intact as well.

**Chuck** · 06-08-2007, 11:00 AM

what do you mean by "bypass doors"??

I'd like to do that myself at some point.

But anyway...the original poster's question has not been answered: How do you remove the galley tambor???

jdalrymple · 06-08-2007, 11:36 AM

Typo, should have said bypassing doors. Two doors that cover 1/2 of the total cabinet opening each on parallel tracks that pass, depending on the respective door's position, either in front of or behind the other to open. In other words, 1/2 the total cabinet opening is blocked by both doors, while the other half of the cabinet opening is clear.
"Sanders" did not specify how damaged his door was, so I was merely suggesting an alternative for a basket case door.

**Chuck** · 06-08-2007, 11:52 AM

Ok...got it. I kind of have a similar arrangement, except that the sliding doors put in by a PO are made of something other than the original tambor...so it looks crappy, imo.
but the door that fits under the stove is still in place...but coming apart. I'd like to get it out, but can't figure out how, just like sanders.

So I'm imagining his large under-galley door as being like my small under-stove door. mostly there...just deteriorating/delaminating a bit...in need of a "sprucing-up"...but not trash. how do you get it out without further damaging it, or the cabinet itself??

Sanders · 06-08-2007, 01:26 PM

I don't think the bypassing doors are the way I want to go at this point, though it is a good solution. The tambour is all there and still looks beautiful but continues to come apart. Since I am repairing all the others in the trailer I was hoping to do these under the sink as well. Naturally I saved them for last, naively thinking that since they were such large sheets of tambour, they would be easiest to complete. But I can't seem to find a way to get them out. The more I try, the more the pieces keep breaking. Klutz that I am, I know that if I keep fooling with the cabinet, I will break something. But there must be some way to get the cabinets loosened so that they wiggle enough to get the tambour out and then back in. By the way, I used the method of repair I found on this site, given by Silvertwinkie. If I am doing this right, this is the site for viewing those directions; http://www.silvertwinkie.com
I don't know if the person who photographed those step x step instructions is still on this site, but the directions were easy to follow and the photographs show each step. Since the repair has just been completed, it may be too early to speculate, but I believe from the way they seem to feel and look, this method may be a good one.
Anyway, at this point it looks like I may have to use spray adhesive and glue them while they are in place. If anyone out there has an idea how to loosen these cabinets, let me know.
Sincerely,
Sanders