The Big Job!!!

When we came back to Texas in September, we noticed that the rubber seal on the kitchen slide did not make a good seal when the slide was all the way out. After closer inspection we realized that the metal clip inside the gasket had rusted through and nothing was holding the rubber seal in place. We ordered the replacement seal and then it got cold, so we had to wait for good weather to tackle this job.

These are a picture of the metal clip and what the rubber gasket looks like.

It is a little bit difficult to take a picture close up while holding the material, but I think you can see the V-shaped metal clip on the inside, which gets clipped to the rig in order to create a seal between the rig and the slide. I don't have anymore pictures of us doing this job, since I was busy doing this job!!

Well, last Monday was that day and we figured it would take us about four hours total to get this done. How hard can it be to take the old seal off, clean the area and clip the new seal on?? Well, let me tell you. A huge THANK YOU goes out to Larry Moore for helping us and hanging in there all the way. I really would have not blamed him if he would have bailed after the first hour. Taking off the old seal went pretty fast, except that it apparently had been attached to the rig with an adhesive strip and the rubber and glue in that area did not come off. This was a big bummer, since we are talking 40 feet of about 1/4 inch width rubber and glue stuck to the rig all the way around the opening for the slide.

I went to Home Depot to get some Goop Off and Larry, Doug and I started to get the stuff of the rig at 11 am. By 3 pm Larry had to leave and we still had about 3 feet left to do. We managed to get all the stuff off, wiped the whole opening inside and outside down with Windex and Doug started to attach the new seal. The plan was to start in the middle of the slide and then two people could attach the seal working their way to the outside. Well, plans are a nice thing, however, that does not mean they work. There was not enough of a gap between the slide and the rig to insert the rubber gasket and push it into place. So Doug started on a corner, but that meant that only one person could to the job. It was already getting dark and we decided to call it quits for the night after he had the top half way done.

Larry and Doug finished installing the rubber seal the next day and I used plenty of caulking at all possible point where water could enter the seal, since we don't want the metal rusting again. I sure hope that we don't have to do this again, but at least we got one of the big jobs done. The other one is working on the hydraulic system for the slides, since it is not functioning correctly. That will definitely be a job for the boys and I will stay out of it.