

| Subject: | Re: Restoring Westy cabinet edge pieces |
| From: | Frank Condelli |
| Date: | Mon, 16 Jul 2012 04:53:32 -0400 |
Yes, all well and good EXCEPT if you did not remove those pieces and GLUE them back they will resort back to their nasty habit of shrinking and curling up. BTDT ! On 2012-07-15, at 12:00 AM, Automatic digest processor wrote: > I spent some time today "restoring" the hardened and shrunk plastic cabinet > edge trim on my '85 project. This van had lived a long time in the sun and > heat of eastern Oregon, and all of the plastic trim was hard and had pulled > back from the ends as well as from the round inside corners of the cabinet > frames. > > > > I used a heat gun to soften and stretch all of these pieces, and I did not > have to remove any. For the thick (no longer available) edge trim I peeled > back a foot or two and used the heat gun to soften and stretch it back to > length while one end was still attached. For the cabinet corners I first > softened them with the heat gun, then pulled a bit more out past the corner > and softened and stretched it enough to form them back to the original > curve. > > > > You could certainly remove the trim and soak it in boiling water briefly for > the same result, but to remove the cabinet opening trim you have to unscrew > the hinges and latches, which makes the job a PITA. > > > > A couple of these corners had shrunk so badly the doors couldn't be shut. > > > > It worked really well and was easy to do! These trim pieces are a > thermoplastic after all! Cheers, Frank Condelli Almonte, Ontario, Canada '87 VW Westy, '00 Kawasaki 250 Sherpa, "98 Ducati 750 Monster & Lionel Trains (Collection for sale) Frank Condelli & Associates - Vanagon/Vanagon Westfalia Service in the Ottawa Valley Vanagon Stainless Steel Exhaust Systems BusFusion a VW Camper camping event, Almonte, ON, June 07 ~ 10, 2012
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