Flat Broke
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Oct 17, 2007
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- 985
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So in the process of taking care of a few odds and ends on the new boat, I turned my attention to a pet peeve of mine with regard to interior construction. The side pannels are screwed into the interior of the gunnel, with stainless screws and covered with the little white buttons. It's not the aesthetics that get me so much as the fact that the idea of lagging screws into fiberglass just never ends well over the long haul.
So I've been kicking around the idea of revising the mounting locations with either helicoils, threaded inserts, or through bolting aluminum plate to the inside of the gunnel with a drilled and tapped hole the pannel will bolt to. The later idea would undoubtedly be strongest, but with 8-10 screws per pannel, that's a lot of aluminum plate tucked up under the gunnel, and the inside of the gunnel would look like swiss cheese with all the through bolt holes for the mounting plates. For this reason I'm leaning towards the inserts or helicoils. In either instance I'll drill and tap the gunnel for the insert/helicoil, and then use a machine screw (thinkin 10-24) to secure the pannel to the helicoil/insert.
What do the pros do when the absolutely have to screw/bolt a side pannel to a deck in an area where they can't get behind the pannel to through bolt?
I want to order my materials from McMaster tomorrow so I'll have em for the weekend, so any insight is appreciated.
As an asside, Dave, how bout an interior section? or expand the audio section to include interior stuff, since the two tend to co-mingle quite a bit.
Thanks,
Chris
So I've been kicking around the idea of revising the mounting locations with either helicoils, threaded inserts, or through bolting aluminum plate to the inside of the gunnel with a drilled and tapped hole the pannel will bolt to. The later idea would undoubtedly be strongest, but with 8-10 screws per pannel, that's a lot of aluminum plate tucked up under the gunnel, and the inside of the gunnel would look like swiss cheese with all the through bolt holes for the mounting plates. For this reason I'm leaning towards the inserts or helicoils. In either instance I'll drill and tap the gunnel for the insert/helicoil, and then use a machine screw (thinkin 10-24) to secure the pannel to the helicoil/insert.
What do the pros do when the absolutely have to screw/bolt a side pannel to a deck in an area where they can't get behind the pannel to through bolt?
I want to order my materials from McMaster tomorrow so I'll have em for the weekend, so any insight is appreciated.
As an asside, Dave, how bout an interior section? or expand the audio section to include interior stuff, since the two tend to co-mingle quite a bit.
Thanks,
Chris
