Fridge door panel repair or replace

The teak veneer door panels on my Nova Cool fridge are looking really bad and have a couple of issues. Both the fridge panel and the freezer panel have big moldy stains on them. Also, because the fridge is right next to the main cabin door it gets wet and takes a bit of a beating (we have a 95lb dog who swims a lot).


I think the stains have some from condensation through the fridge door and from times when the door got really wet when the fridge defrosted. The water gets caught in the channel around the door that holds the panel which saturates the panel edges. Some wetness wicks up onto the panel as well.


Here are the options I'm considering:


1. Pull the panels off, clean them with an acid based teak cleaner, then stain both front and back with a dark oil based stain. I don't think I'll be able to get all of the mold stain off, but maybe the oil stain will cover it. Also, maybe the oil based stain will help keep it from getting saturated in the future?


2. Replace with a plastic panel from Nova Cool. The teak panel was an option with my fridge, they come standard with a black plastic panel. Seems like this would be easier to maintain. Probably pretty spendy for what it is.


3. Custom build some other sort of panel?


Anybody got any advice?


Thanks.

I would go with the black panel as long as your dog likes to swim.

We used Formica when we added new fronts. Lots of color options and moistures not really an issue.

That's a good idea, Larry. Did you just put formica on the existing panel or did you fabricate an entirely new panel?

Greetings,
Mr. D. I would think any plastic shop would have paneling that could be custom cut for an inexpensive replacement. Formica is a great idea as well. ONE advantage of Formica is a teak grain pattern should be one of a plethora of options.

Yea, give the dog a towel and tell him to dry off outside.

If you refinish the teak panel then soak the bottom edge and the part out of sight behind the trim metal with some epoxy resin so any errant water has no place to wick into.

OldDan1943 said:

Yea, give the dog a towel and tell him to dry off outside.

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Lol. Then I've got a wet, fur covered towel hanging around.

I once redid mine with Formica. Then when I was adding Stainless Steel panels behind the diesel stove, I swapped out the fridge panels for Stainless Steel. Never go back.
Just take your measurements to any sheet metal shop and you can get brushed stainless. Tell them you want it to look like your fridge at home. Not expensive.

Same issue with mine (MS 400)... called the distributor last Friday to order the replacement black panels....I tried cleaning the old ones over the years, time for new ones.

A company called cut to size metal will ship custom cut SS with several finish options.
They were good for me

https://www.cut2sizemetals.com

you could just paint the wood panel.

RT Firefly said:

Greetings,
Mr. D. I would think any plastic shop would have paneling that could be custom cut for an inexpensive replacement.

Click to expand...

That's the route I would go..and probably will!

We bought two small sheets of black acrylic. We used a long straight-edge and a utility knife to score the sheets. I improvised a break using the edge of a table and a 2x4. The sheets snap easily. (Ironically I have a small mini-break I made in my shop, but at the time, we were 100 miles away from shop).

I used 1/4", but you can buy 1/8" cheaper and pad the back with a sheet of cardboard.