Fixing the Window Rattle in the Sliding Door

Ralph Hill, a member of the Revel Facebook group, has developed a fix for the rattling window in the sliding door. He wrote up all the details, and I'm posting it here with his kind permission.

For me, the noise in the sliding door is mostly rattling. I found three issues:

1. The body panel the window is mounted in is not stiff enough—the window tends to flop in and out.
2. The grey interior trim piece slaps agains the metal of the door at the edges. Mostly at the front, bottom and back. The top is not much of a problem, probably because the structure for the door is closer to the window at the top.
3. The grey interior trim piece slaps against the frame for the window interior screen, mostly at the top.

The window is mounted to the skin of the door, not the frame. There are two stiffeners supporting this part of the skin that must be removed to install the window. After the window is installed the mass to be supported is increased because the window is heavier than the piece of skin that is cut out. At the same time, stiffeners are removed making the panel less stiff. This is made worse by the grey interior trim. It is attached only to the window and not to the door directly. Thus, even more mass is supported by the skin.

To stiffen the mounting of the window, I made four brackets, one for each corner of the window. These brackets connect the window to the the structure of the door. They are made from some scraps of softwood that I had. Each piece is approximately 1” x 3/4” x 7 1/2”. (This size is not necessarily the best—it is what I had lying around). I cut a thin groove in the end of the brackets with a hack saw. The structural metal of the door fits into the groove. The brackets are shaped to clear the grey plastic trim and are attached to the wooden frame around the window with screws and silicone adhesive. The brackets do not touch the skin.

There are flat metal corner brackets that attach to the wooden frame around the window. These did not have every screw hole populated. I added a screw in every hole I felt I could safely add a screw. I pre-drilled the wood because it is brittle and I did not want to risk cracking it. I hope that by adding more screws I made things l little stiffer and stronger.

To stop the gray plastic trim from slapping the metal I decided that it had to be screwed to the frame of the door. I could not find a way to do this across the top, but I could on the three other edges. I glued small pieces of 1/4” plywood to the metal frame with epoxy gel. Then I transferred the locations of the wood to the gray plastic trim using reference marks on tape attached to the door. I pre-drilled the grey plastic trim. Then I mounted the grey plastic trim and used #6 x 3/8” pan head screws to screw through the grey plastic trim and into the plywood pieces. I predrilled the plywood to reduce the risk of splitting it.

Screwing the grey plastic trim in this way does two things:

1. It makes it impossible for the trim to slap against the metal.
2. It attaches the trim to the frame of the door helping it stiffen the window. Thus, the trim is part of the solution instead of being part of the problem.

Across the top, where I could not screw the grey plastic trim to anything, I placed a strip of 3/16” thick grey foam weather stripping against the structural metal. The grey plastic trim might be able to slap against this foam, but that will not make much noise. (This weather stripping can be seen in both the second and third photo).

I added 3/8” grey foam weather stripping to the back of the grey plastic trim across the top and bottom of the window opening, and 3/16” thick grey foam weather stripping on the sides. This is to try to press the trim out against the frame for the window covering. This was not quite enough, on the top I had to add a small piece of 3/16” on top of the 3/8” in the middle. Finally, I put a small piece of anti-rattle felt on the grey plastic trim piece where it touches the top middle of the frame for the window covering. 

Overall, the structure is much stiffer. When you slam the door closed the window does not flop around. It hardly moves. I have to do a serious test on some crappy gravel roads. Once that test is passed, I will add some insulation (probably Thinsulate) between the grey plastic trim and the door skin.