Blessed with a beautiful weekend. Temps in the mid 70s and sunny up until Sunday afternoon. Was in work-mode from 8am till 8pm Saturday so the pics are lacking but made sure to snap a few.
Sat morning started out finding the final location for my console in the boat and marking it. I'm moving it forward another 2" from where I had it, making the final resting place 4" in front of where it was factory. Last week I took it to S-S Marine (Top fabricator) and he marked the location of where he is going to install the feet of the top. So using these locations as guides and the location of the top, the plates could be marked, cut, and test fit.
The plates are 3/8" aluminum not stainless. S-S Marine recommended aluminum vs stainless due to cost ($19 for 16" x 35" aluminum scrap, $150 for 12" x 24" stainless plate) and that stainless was unnecessary. Bimetallic corrosion would not be an issue as they coat all their stainless fasteners in sealant before installation. The plates are roughly 8" wide x 35" long, and run along the length and about 2" under the console. The console or leaning post will not be screwed to the deck, but rather screwed to 3/4" tall fiberglassed marine ply strips that will be epoxied to the deck, the only place were the deck will be drilled is the plates for the top, the plywood has solid glass on the bottom its coated in epoxy on both sides and edges, and solid glass on top, only place for water to get to it is screw holes, no holes in the deck = no water in the deck = no rot. The t-top feet are a little smaller than 3" x 5" which will leave about 3" of plate in front and 3" in back (roughly were I mspainted in the red lines). Went with 2 long plates vs 4 shorter to make locating them easier and to spread the load of the top over more area. The holes in the plate were there when I bought it as scrap and have been filled with thickened epoxy. I think its gonna work out great.
After everything was test fit, I cut some 2"x4"s and mocked them up in order to spread the weight after they were glued down.
After thickened epoxy was smoothed all over the floor, and all over the bottoms of the plywood coring. Coring was put down, and then weighted down (anything heavy in sight). Any area that was still sticking up due to high spots in the floor was screwed down.
The next morning I unloaded all the weight and took out the screws. Everything stayed in place and was glued down very well. A square was then used to check for high spots in the plywood by resting it on each lip and sliding it along the coring. High spots were marked and then using the grinder with a 60 sanding pad they were taken out so that the skins could go back on nice and even. The top layer of skins that we cut out were then cleaned up, sanded lightly, and test fit. A little more grinding was required till everything fit well. Everything was then shop-vac'd a few times. Lots of thickened epoxy was mixed and then all the cracks along the seams of the plywood and the few screw holes from the day before were filled. Thickened epoxy was then smoothed all over the plywood and the back of the fiberglass skins and then the skins were weighted down in place.
The seem all along turned out pretty nice and even.
All the seams will be ground out a little bit, filled with thicken epoxy and then 2" 1708 tape will be placed all along groove. Can only buy rolls at my local supply but at $29 for an 8# roll of tape it was cheaper than shipping what I needed, have about 60 yards extra
Raining all day today so before we closed up Sunday night I put the tarp over her to ride out the storm.
Also noticed from the dates on the pictures that today is the 1 monthiversary of this project!!!
