Salon door smoothie

The sliding door on the starboard side of the salon is one of the really neat features of the Commander 42 aft cabin. Unfortunately, the slider mechanism consists of two pieces of aluminum track without anything between them. Rain brings grit into the track and no amount of grease keeps them sliding smoothly.

I found a product called Slick Strip that resolves the problem. Slick Strip is an adhesive backed ultra high molecular weight polyethylene tape that's available online in different thicknesses. I used the thinnest-- 1/32".

I first removed the door and slider assembly, then cut strips of Slick Strip to fit on either side of the door slider.

For the next step, I cleaned the door slider track extremely well, removed the blue backing and installed the Slick Strip.

Finally, I trimmed the Slick Strip off along the red line so it didn't protrude and then installed the door. I can now open the door with only two fingers...that's pretty slick!