Hey Lake Huron,
Thanks for the post, tips and link on where to get the side flapper.
The front side kitchen slide flapper was ripped on my trailer. Had been holding it together with Gorilla Tap
See attached pictures blow.
Your post showed me how I could replace it myself and save hundreds of $ by not having a dealership do it.
Here's the process I used (
made some minor adjustments from what you did).
> Before removing the old flapper, I put the new one up and marked where the cut outs should be for the swintek slide rails.
> Then I removed the slide stop screw at the top.
Note: I also put some painter's tape over the slide button inside to make sure no one (i.e., me) moved the slide while I was working on it.
> To remove the old flapper, I used an old hair dryer to soften the 2-face tape and used a plastic scraper I got from
Harbor Freight. I Used the narrow one from what's shown in the link.
This method got a lot of the 2-face tape off with the flapper.
A heat gun probably would have worked better, but you gotta use what you have
> Once the old flapper was off, I spayed the remining sticky residue with Goo Gone and scrapped that off with the scrapper.
One time through this process and I was able to remove all the residue.
> With all the residue removed, I then wiped down the side with denatured alcohol to ensure a clean area for applying the new flapper.
> I used the old flapper to mark where the hole for the slide stop screw should be on the new flapper and drilled a hole into he new flapper for the screw.
This also gave time to allow the denatured alcohol to flash off - typically it'll flash off in ~5min.
> When attaching the new flapper, I worked from the top down.
1st inserted the stop screw through the hole of the new flapper.
Removed 2-face tape paper to just below the screw.
Lined up the stop screw and got the screw threads started.
Then lined up the flapper around the screw and pushed to adhere the 2-face tape.
Then tightened the stop screw.
Aliened and attached the flapper the rest of the way down, working in about 1 foot sections at a time.
> Final step was to apply some rubber slide seal lubricant to the new flapper.
Overall it took me about 2 hours to do.
I've added some picture attachments below showing the results of various steps of the process.
I couldn't intermix them with the text because they're not up on a server accessibly via the internet.
Sorry for the pictures being sideways. Couldn't figure out how to get them aligned properly.
Again, thanks Lake Huron for all the help and hope this post helps others.