Cracked Plastic Sheet Under Rear Slide

[W.E.BGood]

My '11 Outback 250RS, the rear slideout with the bed in it, the exterior under the slide is covered by a maybe 3/32 inch thick hard (brittle), fairly rigid black plastic sheet that now has several splits/cracks running through it in lightning bolt-like patterns. I can't just pull it out and replace it as it's screwed/glued into the slideout box assembly at the rear.

My repair idea is to sand-rough the plastic for about one inch on either side of the cracks, clean the area with a petroleum product (eg. paint thinner), and use a putty knife to trowel and squish JB Weld into the cracks and a thin, smoothed overlay alongside them.

I'm looking for any and all recommendations, and especially from any others who've had the same problem.

Thank you all in advance. Regards, BGood

[Festus2]

The black plastic that you refer to is called coroplast and can be obtained in 4x8 sheets at most building suppliers - Home Depot for example. It is commonly used as signs and comes in a variety of colours.
Rather than go to all that work trying to repair the cracks, it might be a lot easier to buy a new sheet. The old, cracked material can be taken down by removing the self-taping screws and where it is glued, it can be pried off. There might be a bit of a mess to clean up after you have removed that section that is glued.

If you can remove the cracked coroplast and replace it with new material, that would by my recommendation.

[W.E.BGood]

I appreciate your time and suggestion Fetsus. Unfortunately the plastic sheet I'm dealing with is not corrugated like the stuff at HD, or the trailer underbelly sheathing. It's a very hard, thin solid sheet, almost like a thick formica counter material, but obviously not as strong. It has to be hard as the slide bottom rests on three broad nylon-faced rollers.

Unless I get any other ideas here or from over on outbackers.com, I'm going to do my repair at least as a temporary fix as we're leaving in 2 1/2 weeks for a one month, 5,000 mile odyssey to California to see the new granddaughter. "bouncey:

http://www.keystoneforums.com/attachments/photobucket/img_136032_0_950ac1c9e1d79acb2c69c470fb4602a6.jpg

[hankaye]

W.E.BGood, Howdy;

Sounds like you have a plan ... just be sure to
'Stop-Drill' the ends of each crack, otherwise
they will continue to migrate. Use a small drill bit,
roughly 2X's the width of the crack.
Please let us know how it works out for you.

hankaye

[W.E.BGood]

Thanks Hankeye, I've never heard of that concept before, but it makes sense. I just got done gluing the "outside" exposed portions of the cracks before I read your post, but I plan to apply your idea to the interior ends of the cracks once this stuff dries and I can put the slide in to get at the other end.

I've also got some stainless #8, 1/2" long truss-head screws that are going in the inner areas to support the plastic sheet. Going to drill oversized holes to allow the plastic to flex/expand slightly like vinyl siding. Wish me luck.

[W.E.BGood]

Here's the finished repairs...a 3" wide overlay of JB Weld covering the cracks with a dusting of talcum powder after it cured to keep the rollers from any sticking to it. So far it's held for 6 evolutions of the slide being deployed.

Four more days 'til we leave for a 5,000 mile round-trip odyssey to northern California to see the new granddaughter "bouncey: .

http://www.keystoneforums.com/attachments/photobucket/img_137959_0_bbf2f52b18d2fb8a850fc129f150c7e6.jpg

http://www.keystoneforums.com/attachments/photobucket/img_137959_1_b599beda0a239c76dca65b0227f0eec2.jpg