Bourton Wardrobe Door 'veneer' problem.

Our 2016/7 Bourton wardrobe door 'veneer' had started peeling inside the door - all along the opening edge and a large proportion of the top of the panel inside the door. Worse still, it was peeling on the curved outside edge of the door for several inches above and below the handle. I had tried to ignore this for a long time but my wife wanted it fixed. Sadly I couldn't find anything on this forum about similar problems so decided to tackle it myself.

The worst part was removing the screws from the piano hinge along the door edge, where someone had used an oversized Philips screwdriver rather than the correct size of Pozidrive that it needed. As a result half a dozen of the screw heads had been butchered beyond use and these took a long time to remove. Since my wife was holding the door in place, that wasn't amusing. It is easy to recognise the difference between Philips and Pozidrive screws and screwdrivers, and I hope the builders at Auto-sleepers take note and use the correct tool for the job in future.

I decided to use 'No More Nails' (NMN) to re-stick the veneer as it is a really strong adhesive - and I had some lying about in the garage! There seemed to be little or no adhesive on the inside face of the door so peeling back the plastic 'veneer' to apply the NMN was not a problem. I didn't worry about applying too much, just made sure the necessary area was well covered. I used simple pressure to stick it in place and strips of masking tape across the edge every few inches, then placed a load of food cans out of the cupboard all the way along to hold it stuck in place. Left it 24 hours before removing the masking tape and another day before removing the weights and it looked ok. I had removed excess NMN after sticking down the 'veneer' as per instructions.

The curved outside edge was a much worse proposition because it seemed to have twisted a lot as it uncurled and I wasn't sure there was enough 'veneer' there to cover to the inside edge. Only the curved part of the outside edge had come unstuck (I will try to make some pics available if anyone wants to see them). I applied sufficient NMN to actually fill the gap between 'veneer' and door and then applied masking tape, pulled as tightly as possible, in many strips along the whole length that had been glued. I didn't worry about excessive NMN, just used enough tape to pull the curled edge in to close the gap as much as possible.

After 24 hours I removed the masking tape (you don't leave it too long as the sticky is very difficult to remove from a plastic surface without dissolving both). Left it another 24 hours and then carefully removed all of the excess NMN with a narrow but very sharp scraper. A quick wipe over with a slightly damp cloth and it all looked OK. There were two small areas that hadn't closed properly, so I repeated the process on those and it looks good. There is a very narrow glue line visible along some parts of the door but I will run some mid brown shoe polish over that and polish with a rag until it is hidden - should do the job.

Then all that was needed was to find some screws with small enough heads to replace the butchered ones, then get my wife to hold there door in place while I screwed it back onto the piano hinge. Job done! Even my wife said it looks OK!

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I use evo stick contact adhesive on the last van and an old iron that I have for various glue jobs like this, warming the veneer seamed to make the job a little easier than when I did it cold , glad you got sorted and no more ear ache

I’ve been looking at our overhead locker doors, they are light oak for the top two thirds and have a lower glossy darker veneer separate with a chrome strip. The darker veneer appears to be peeling away from the chrome strip which means it protrudes and easily caught with your nails when grasping the handle. At some point I fear a piece of the dark veneer will chip when caught, making the problem more visually disappointing.
Has any one tackled anything similar? I thought about trying to get some wider chrome strip (self adhesive) to cover up the problem but the peeling of the veneer has made this difficult as there is no longer a flat surface to stick anything to.
Open to any words of wisdom.

If you put 'veneer' into the search box , top right, you get previous threads on this veneer problem that several of us have had and fixed.

Paulmold wrote:If you put 'veneer' into the search box , top right, you get previous threads on this veneer problem that several of us have had and fixed.

Thanks I’ve had a quick read, before I get stuck in, can anyone confirm the warm iron will actually soften the veneer and flatten t? The veneer seems very fragile in its current state so wouldn’t want to risk fracturing it I am sure replacement doors would not be an option based on expected “predictable” cost!

Much the same problem on my 2014 Broadway.  I used Gorilla wood gle applied with a thin paint brush and then used flat lengths of thin boards clamped around the veneer.  Shaded off excess glue at the edge after 24 hours drying time although the Gorilla pack says only 30 minutes is required.  It does seem from other posts that the glue used by Autosleeper is not always reliable long term.

I don't think it's AS fault, as they buy the doors in from an outside supplier.

However I have reported the problem to the Sales Director, hoping he will take it up with the supplier.

We live in hope.

Richard

I’m touching a very large piece of wood Richard but I’ve not experienced this common problem or heard of recent vans suffering it either.
Maybe something changed around 2017 (ish?).

Dbvwt wrote:I’m touching a very large piece of wood Richard but I’ve not experienced this common problem or heard of recent vans suffering it either.
Maybe something changed around 2017 (ish?).

I think you are right about newer vans. In my case, I bought new overhead doors, with a goodwill discount from AS about 3 years ago and they are fine. Only recently had peeling on original toilet door.
Richard