Replacement Door Shelf Brackets for Sub Zero Refrigerator

Having had broken and missing shelves in our older model Sub Zero since we moved into the house 22 years ago, one of my main goals when I bought an X1 Carbon was to engineer and print replacements for these shelves, since the replacement parts for this 1980-vintage Sub Zero were long gone and would have been absolutely stupid expensive if they were even still available. The existing shelves were cheap plastic and ugly metal that were all broken in some form and looked really cheesy and bad. The fridge needed a total of three - two in the refrigerator section that were broken and one in the freezer that was missing, and they are all interchangeable so the same design would work for all of them.

My thought on replacements were to duplicate the keyslot design on the originals to engage the existing rails in the door, but to widen and double the amount of teeth (from 2 per end cap to 4 per end cap), add much more thickness to the base plates and replace the hideous front panels with some .080" 6061 T6 aluminum sheet. The bottom of the shelf would be 1/8" white ABS plastic sheet.

The front aluminum panel is 28" x 3 3/4" and is captured in the slots in the caps at each end. I used 150 grit sandpaper to give it a brushed finish, then clear-coated it with automotive clear. On the rear of the front aluminum panel, I cut and mounted a 3/4" aluminum "L" bracket to hold the front span of the ABS shelf and attached it to the rear of the aluminum panel with VHB tape, which also helps keep it straight and strong. The rear of the shelf is held up with a couple generic “L” brackets I printed, but you could use almost any “L” type bracket available anywhere. These are held to the door with VHB tape as well.

The new design is MUCH stronger than the original and gives the refrigerator a much more modern look.