Sliding garage door - replacement bottom guide track with plastic

[Niscars]

My Father in Law has a double sliding garage door which the door hangs on a large track above the door and the bottom of the door is guided around the corner by pins which run in a metal U channel set into the concrete floor.
The bottom channel is very badly rusted and the pins get stuck in it making the door impossible to use.
He needs a new bottom U channel which he is going to get a metal fabricator to make for him.

I have been thinking about using tough plastic runners set into the concrete instead of going to the expense of metal fabrication. There is no weight on these things, as they only have to guide the bottom pegs.
Has anyone any experience of this please?

 

[Dave54]

I don't know about using plastic. It might work, but if it gives problems, it's a lot of work to replace it I'd have thought.

There is Ellard door gear channel here
http://www.parkinsgroup.co.uk/prod/2526/ellard-200-series/ellard-12-bottom-channel-3-0m

Or of course you can get folded steel channel in various sizes

http://www.austenknapman.co.uk/mild-steel/mild-steel-pressed-steel-channel

and either get it galv'd or probably find it already galvanised if you have a search online.

No connection to either supplier on my part.

 

[JohnD]

this channel is set in the floor? So you drive cars over it, and trample it with your hobnailed boots?

Plastic may not be ideal.

I'm moving to Stainless for outdoor metalwork. I'm in a coastal area so there are fabricators who do a lot of it, I don't know if there will be some near you.

 

[Burnerman]

One of the tricks with these is to keep the rollers on the end of the bottom pegs well greased, and don't let the door droop and dig into the floor track.
It will be a skilled fabricator who can curve channel smoothly!
John

 

[Dave54]

Teach me to read properly, I hadn't realised it was curved.
As John says, fabricating a curve like that would be a hell of a job I'd have thought.
I'll bet that either the door gear makers do a standard bend, or that they will know of someone who can roll a bend like that.

 

[Niscars]

Thanks for your replies. Yes, it is the curve that is going to cause the issue which is why I thought about DIYing it with some form of tough plastic. It is currently flush with the concrete floor so I don't think crushing will be an issue.
My thoughts were to fix some sort of pins to the outer edges of the two sides of the 'channel' and then set them into the concrete which will hold the curves in place. Maybe difficult to get it right!
He's got the money, maybe I should just let him pay the fabricator!!

 

[Burnerman]

I've known these door channels last 40 years and more.......are you absolutely sure its worn out? Give it a good scrape to see.
I think it would be a hell of a job to a) roll the new profile to match the old one (It would have to be hot rolled, I think)
b) get the old one out!
I do think plastic would end in tears.
John

 

[Dave54]

I don't know about hot rolled John. I've seen a quite simple hand worked machine that would cold "flat bend" about 1" + X 0.25 all it did was clamp the one end and then "roll" the bend around. Maybe a channel is cold rollable with the right supporting rollers. It'd have to be "deep drawing" steel though I'd have thought.
I'd agree with you other comment. There was a door of that type on a garage I used to store some stuff in the mid 80s. Door had been there since the mid 20s. You could see it was all original. I cleared the slots out at the bottom and greased the top gear.

 

[Burnerman]

Just scratching the remaining brain cell here, but I do recall trying to drill one of these tracks years ago.....it was so hard on the outer skin it struck me that it had been either cast and chilled or hot rolled. Mind you I was only a kid at the time!
Ive got a feeling the track had a flange buried in the concrete but not sure on that one either.
I guess this could be cold rolled but the curve is sure to neck to some degree.....maybe it needs to be formed from a wider channel than would be expected.
John

 

[Dave54]

You've set me off thinking now. I think that the bottom track on that one may have been cast. It's 30 years ago though, and a one off. I do remember that it was Ellard though, I thought the top rollers looked like they might be the same size, although a less modern casting, as the Ellard ones we used for carrying flat form cable to moving machinery.

If you think about it, however the channel is made, the top "hanger" section has to be formed to the same curve. I wonder if the curve is standard.