Roller Shutter Door repair

[Bill]

My son's latest problem is that his house came with a large roller shutter garage door which has been bodge-repaired in the past but which needs further work. The roller is oct(or more)agonal that has a full-length fitting consisting of a rod on to which have been threaded hanger clips that expose themselves another short piece of separate rod that the hanging straps for the shutter clip onto. This all forms a sort of hinged T-piece that clips onto the top of the shutter and when the roller rolls the straps bend and the shutter rolls up over them. After a lot of bending, the straps break.

Because the whole assembly is up near the roof of the big double garage, access is very limited and nothing can be threaded on or off the ends.

Spares are unobtainable, but he has found some longer straps that can be cut down and clipped round the exposed rod with the whole thing in situ. The problem then is how to weld or glue the clips together so they can't come off the exposed rod. They are sort of P-clips.

He has found some clips that will hold temporarily, but the original clips were obviously spot-welded to make them secure. Neither he or I can weld, and this is all above head, badly lit and in a real pain of a place. He has been asking me about small nuts and bolts, and I have been suggesting epoxy, but I don't think either are very good. Each existing assembly is finished off with a sort of filament-loaded parcel type sticky tape, which we think we have identified.

Is anyone here expert on these doors, or does anyone have a creative solution?

As Google has demolished Picasa, the following is my first attempt at a replacement to put pictures up. Hopefully it will work and make the question a bit clearer (doubtful!)

[harry]

Probably best to start again with a new door. Folding panel doors are cheaper but not as secure. Easier to DIY as they are not as heavy and come in parts.

I have a "Garador". You can get insulated ones too, almost totally draught proof.

[Harry Bloomfield]

Bill was thinking very hard :

I suspect some small nuts and bolts, or even pop rivets might do the job, in clamping the loose end of the P to the rest. My guess is that those metal P's will have to flex a lot, every time the door is opened and closed, in which case they will eventually snap.

A better idea might be something like seat belt material, if the door's weight can be relied upon to not need to be pushed down by the strap.

Mine uses 4x series of rigid nylon, curved, hinged straps, 5x sections to each, rather like a course flat chain which fits closely to the roller. I managed to damage 1 of the 4, so now it works fine with just

3 straps.

As the door is closed, at fully closed, the nylon sections go over centre, so as to lock the door down in the closed position.

[newshound]

I was going to suggest pop rivets, recognising their limitations. But you can get steel ones, which are much stronger than the default alloy ones. You need a proper lazy tongs to set them

That's an idea I like. Plenty of sizes on eBay.

[Bill]

Many thanks for this. I have passed the suggestions on. Said son has been out of the country, so I will look at it with him when he is back home.

The door is heavy, but I'm not sure how freely it moves. As well as the electric motor it has a handle to wind it up and down and I've once had to raise it manually. Never again.