Do-It-Yourself Story

It was a challenge...the shelf unit consists of two plastic end brackets and a long metal shelf. I possessed one original end cap while the metal shelf was inadvertently discarded years ago along with the other broken end bracket. For a few years some white duct tape was pressed into service as a "temporary" bottom shelf. Anyway, I searched for the necessary parts online and found and ordered a new end cap on AppliancePartsPros.com and a new metal shelf from another online vendor. The new end bracket arrived quickly, but the other parts source's customer representative contacted me and said that the metal shelf was no longer available. Great...two shelf brackets and no shelf! Had to think about this one...I was not about to give up. This past week my wife and I were gathering up our recycling, and she found the bottom metal access covers I removed and discarded from a dishwasher that we replaced about a month ago....I pulled the old dishwasher myself to save the installers some time and junked the covers in the recycling bin. The lightbulb went off...would it be possible to upcycle this metal? One of these covers was a little longer and the perfect width to replace the old shelf provided--it just needed to be modified for its new job...and it was the correct color! I used my workbench, a towel for protection, and a rubber-headed body shop hammer and shaped the old dishwasher metal cover into the proper shelf shape; I then cut it to the proper length with aviation snips and sanded the cut edges. Next, since the shelf did not have the proper punched out holes to pop into the shelf brackets I took a quick trip to Lowe's and purchased nylon screws, acorn nuts and hex nuts (10-24 thread and 0.5 inch long), went back home, drilled holes in the metal and then into the edges of the plastic end brackets, and attached the brackets to the repurposed metal shelf with the nylon hardware. After cleaning up as much duct tape residue from the original shelf bracket and the 'fridge door I successfully popped the "new" shelf into the door. Voila....we now have a sturdy shelf again! Never give up!