The battle of the wore out sliding glass door

We Won! Thank You Lord and all involved

glass doors can drive you nuts especially if you have an old one

Is your's getting dilapidated from high use?

this might save you from going down the wrong rabbit trails looking for a fix.

so drop a question or maybe bookmark for later

i just want to help



DDH

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somethings to add about finding parts and doing the job

It is easy to get started. this is a two normal people thing. lift the door up and out at the bottom. the videos i saw, the door was put on saw horses. i found it best to leave it on it's side edge. leaned up with the top end in a doorway or up against a solid object. most doors you have to unscrew both ends of the the bottom edge to get out the roller housing. take out the frame screws out on one roller corner. flip it over, one person on each end and do the other corner. this keeps both frame sides in place while you work on it. also the fame facing will upright in case you have to do a bit of drilling on the frame to get to the wheel height adjusting screw. no big deal, will cover that later..at this point it is time to retrieve the rollers from a supply store.

On hardware supply stores, our good fascist level economy has left few niches for mom and pop hardware stores. apparently another pop and mom have odd/old stamp equipment, and make all of the oddball hardware stuff. maybe they build the parts for Pella ect. idk i just know that on about the second door laydown and two set of wheels from the local big boxes that were neares match.. that 'aaallmost' fit, but would quite work. then giving up for a while. lol after all the floortrack was worn down too.6 seven hundred for a new one? just wont use the sumbitch. someone mentioned the D and W hardware store in Pensacola. WaLLA! found the parts. maybe a google search for extruded aluminum frame parts will work where you are. a question to ask if the have tandem set rollers that look like miniature main landing gear wheel trucks. (i'm serious..they had those) i can help you stab around and find a store if needed. the one in pensacola had lots of off traffic parts. pella might have these parts for all i know. i would be leary of trying to order something if it is an old door. my case anyway. no brand names on mine to search

my door is about 40 years old. pretty weighty slab of glass. i have known it over 20 years. it never was quite right. someone, in it's teenage years, had replaced the rollers with ones that were not quite correct.. the ones they put worked, did the job, but wore out pretty quick. it threw me off for a while, looking for the right rollers.. must be 30+ roller designs out there. lowes, home depot, ace ect carry the parts for only the later stuff.

parts for older doors can be a challenge. different wheel designs for the different extruded aluminum frame types. box stores don't cover them all. idk probably old doors will fall in just one or two types. you need to carry the bottom frame piece with you and take pictures of the place it came out of.

i am in lower baldwin county al. the go to place for parts in this part of panhandle country it turns out, was a little hardware store in pensacola. D and W hardware. if you have old sliding doors this is the go to place for wheels and steel track cap strips. might be another place over on the east side now that I think about it. you might have to dig around to find a source in the nearest larger size town. they are out there though.

ps you might run into a spot where you have to drill out the frame to get to the wheel/door height adjusting screws.

not uncommon i understand no big deal if you have a drill. alu is soft. there are youtube videos about that also

Last Edited by Deplorableduckhunter on 09/10/2022 12:09 PM