LM32 Pilothouse Door removal

[Brian & Glenda]

The sliding doors between the cockpit and the pilothouse of my 1983 LM32 need refinishing.  It appears that these doors cannot be completely refinished in place. 

Has anyone ever removed these doors?  How was this accomplished?

Brian.

[nauticalnick]

Hi,
On my LM30 and l don't see why the 32 would be any different there is a full width fibreglass panel above the doors held in place by 3/4 screws once this is removed l would imagine it should give you access to the door attachments.

Good luck,

Nick

[Brian & Glenda]

Thanks Nick ... I've had that off piece for a while now ... nothing useful is accessible after that panel is removed, although you can see the side of the track that the doors hang from once that panel is removed. (And I can see three screws that are supposed to be holding the track to the fiberglass above lying on the top of one of the doors, but those screws are stuck up there until I can get the doors off too!)

I'll be taking the wooden trim at the top of the pilothouse doorway off tomorrow, to see what I can see from there. I'm sure that as I disassemble things I'll be able to figure it out. I was simply reaching out to see if others knew the strategy for removal, or had other innovative strategies, such that I could avoid any mistakes that others may have made.

[nauticalnick]

This may sound a little odd but as the doors hang from the track have you tried lifting one ( gently ) to see if it lifts out of the track ?

Nick

[Brian & Glenda]

Thanks Nick ... the doors and their hangers, are attached to the cable that draws the second door open and closed, when the first door is opened and closed. Hence the doors need to be removed from the cable so they can be slid independently into the open space between the lazarettes, before they can be lifted off their track. That cable runs inside the track. I haven't yet removed the wood trim overhead to see if/how the doors can be removed from the cable clamps/hangers. I'll keep you posted.

[bojenjoe]

Hello together,

hello Brain and Glenda here is Josef from Germany writing and asking ;-)
My wife and I are on a sailing trip in the Baltic Sea, we have the same
problem like you two years ago. We must remove our sliding doors of the
pilot house because we must replace the chafed cabel. I think we must remove
the doors. We removed the fiberglas cover in front of the sliding mechanism
and see a rail were two pairs of rolls per door rolling in the rail.
But we have no idea how we can the rolls bring out of the rail to remove the doors.
Do you have experience now?

Happy sailing form the Baltic Sea
Josef

[chrismunson]

I refinished the doors on my lm-32 by removing all of the track and then resetting the doors. At the same time I replaced the wheel trucks that the doors hang on as they had fallen apart. The part number is 016-1037 and you find it at boatoutfitters.com here is the URL

www.boatoutfitters.com/hardware/sliding-door-hardware/sliding-door-trucks

[Brian & Glenda]

Sadly, I haven't found the time to refinish my doors yet, but I have come to the same conclusion as Chris, that the rack above the doors must be removed, so the doors can be lowered below the retaining strip at the bottom, then removed.

Good info on the replacement rollers Chris, I just might order same before I do the refinishing job.

Brian.

[bojenjoe]

Hello Chris, hello Brain,

thank you very much for this helpful hint.
I also think that is the best way to remove
the track at the top of the doors to solve the doors
and have access to the cable to replace it with a new.

Thank you for your
very fast help.
Happy sailing Josef