One of my shower door guides came out when some work was done in the shower and when the door was put back the guide fell out. Since I don't want to take the door out, I can't see where it goes. Unfortunately, I have gone everywhere I can think of on-line to find a picture of the bottom of the door with no success. If you could show me a picture, I'm sure I can replace it.
Thank you.
Linda
12 Replies
That "removable trim piece" on my door also captures the rubber seal along the bottom. This should be 'interesting'. Will report how it turns out......
Did this 18 Jun 20. Do one corner at a time...disturb rubber seal & channel as little as possible. Screw that holds the door bottom corner together will probably be seized up nicely, Phillips head probably going to try to strip. If so, use chunk of sharp-cornered wood and hammer to drive the old guide away from door edge towards center of door bottom...couple of sharp raps with a hammer on the wood will drift/strip the guide along the hidden screw threads that hold it in place. Slide old guide towards door center. Now entire 1 3/8 screw is accessible. Lube w/ penetrating oil (P B Blaster), which still probably won't do it. In that case, seat small cold chisel or wide blade screwdriver in recess between screw and inner channel and rap soundly with hammer a few times. Repeat in other gap. Idea is to shock the seized screw/channel to allow lube in. Try with screwdriver again (better, a properly sized Phillips bit in a small ratchet that you can really lean on). Screw should back out, or repeat the "shocking". Drift the end of bottom outer door channel down enough to just clear the guide and slide out/replace the part. Press door bottom back in place, line guide up flush with door edge and start the screw. Careful, it's easy to miss the inner channel hole entrance...screw may be slightly cocked at the start. Hold the guide flush as screw is run in and traps it. Repeat for other guide. 2nd one is way easier! Replace 'em all...probably all quite brittle by this point in their life.
These shower door guides snap into the bottom track. You can snap them back out of their groove be exerting light pressure with a screwdriver blade or putty knife. Before removing the upper part of the door from the wheel track. They will easily snap back into place so take care to block them from doing that while you remove the door from the upper track.
I laid my doors on a sawhorse while I removed the phillips screws. My screws came out pretty easily but yours may not. The thing to know about these screws is they have a dual function. The primary purpose is to hold the frame together but the secondary purpose is to hold the slides in place by friction so it's important to try to save these screws. The slides can easily be driven off the screws and toward the center of the door with light taps from a large screwdriver blade and hammer. This will expose the length of the Phillips screw so you can spray it with WD-40. Let it penetrate for a while and try to remove the screw. Repeat as necessary.
Once BOTH screws have been removed the bottom frame member can be driven away from the side frame member. I used a very large screwdriver blade and a rubber hammer. Very little force needs to be used. Apply pressure to the metal and try to avoid the black rubber seal. Do one side at a time. The bottom frame member only needs to be separated from the side frame member a small amount - just enough to pull the old guide out. Now slip the new guide into place and tap the bottom frame member back into place but DO NOT replace the screw yet. Now repeat the slide removal procedure on the other side. Once both slides have been replaced move them as far to the sides of the door as they will go. Hold them in place and replace the screws. By holding them in place while installing the screws the screws will bind the slides into place.
Once the slides have been replaced hang the outside shower door on the track. The slides may just pop into the track by themselves. If they don't just reach down and apply light pressure with a finger. That should do it. Now hang the inside door, make sure the bottom guides pop into place and you're done.
My parent's told me their shower doors have been just hanging since 2001 when my aunt fell into them. They were sure they would need to totally replace the whole unit. 4 little parts, a bunch of WD-40, a good pair of vice grips,the advice above and they are good as new!
I found that after WD-40 if you use a variable speed drill and a well fitted phillips head, you can start at low speed and let it impact the screw. Increase it one speed and impact until you get movement. If the bit starts to strip/pop out then back down a speed and impact from there. No issues backing out 4 stubborn screws.
I just wanted to say that the suggestions from the person from Concord NC was spot on! I followed their instructions and it made replacing these guides much easier than I expected. Thanks for taking to time to explain it so well to make it easy!
So needed to replace my guides on the bottom of the shower door, and set my Phillips screw driver on the screw head, gave it a slight turn, and snap, the screw broke right off. Had to drill out the screw to get it to loosen up on the guide, then widened the channel where the screw goes into to get the stub of the screw out. What a mess! Same thing on the other side too!