[Richard]

This is a good opportunity to add a bit of insight to this process. Having been in the Newell bidness for over 10 years, I have had plenty of opportunity to rebond doors and bay doors. The earlier attempts using different adhesives, different clamping strategies, and different surface preparations all eventually started to delam again. Another guru, unnamed, had mixed results also.

The breakthrough in thinking was that we were overclamping the bonds and squeezing out the adhesive. After all, in wood working more clamping is always better. In the early days, I used more and more clamps.

The technique I have used for bay doors that seems to work very well is very similar to what Steve did. Clean up the old bond with 3M adhesive remover, and then scuff the surfaces with a wire wheel or coarse grit disc. I then used small spacers of 3M double sided adhesive tape located around the bond line every three inches or so. The purpose of the spacers is to keep from squeezing out the adhesive. Wet out the adhesive on both surfaces and then assemble. Lightly clamp.

I found an added benefit of using the double sided tape was that once I lined up the two pieces on the assembly marks, they did not move around relative to one another while I fiddled with the clamps.

On the bay doors, I also added a radiused fillet of epoxy at the skin frame juncture all the way around.

My thinking from looking the failed doors, was that the crack or separation always started at the upper corner. The stress is concentrated there when the door is closed. The purpose of the fillet is to distribute the stress.

I have used urethane adhesives, epoxies, and two part acrylics in the past. My favorite, and easiest to use is Jamestown Distributor’s Thixo in the caulk gun cartridge. It’s a two part flexible epoxy that uses a static mixer tip on the end of the cartridge so that you simply squeeze it onto your workpiece. It’s thick enough that it doesn’t run.

Just my .02