2000 Aquasport Osprey 250 Gas Tank Replacement

[81walkaround]

4 new control cables... might as well replace those while everythings apart.. $150..

[81walkaround]

sorry i havent updated in a while.. i'll post an update and pics tomorrow.

almost done with project.  

i was planning to just drop the piece i had cut out right back in  and closing it up,but i  ended up splitting the the top half from the bottom half and replacing all the balsa core with 3/4" A-A marine plywood.

the last of the fiberglass work is in the garage curing right now..

[81walkaround]

Here's  a shot of the floor support i built.  remember, i cut the hatch out at a 15 degree angle all around, so, the lip also provides some support the whole 3/4" around the cutout.

These are aluminum ladder rungs i just cut to 38"

You can see the bolts holding them up and they're also 5200'd to the floor.

I used the same strip of aluminum ladder rungs to build the braces over the gas tank (they sit about 1/2" above the tank)



the strip that runs under the leaning post  also acts as a backing plate for the leaning post

[81walkaround]

Just when I thought I was ready to drop the hatch back in and start closing it up, i took another good look at the wood core inside the hatch and decided i wasnt happy with it.

so, i split open the hatch cover and chipped out the wood inside

[81walkaround]

I went out and  bought  some marine plywood and cut out a new interior for the gas tank hatch floor.

then i rolled a few layers of resin on both sides (and edges) and layed about 6 layers of glass down on the bottom side (3 layers of chopped glass and 3 layers of mat).

i cut out some mat squares and glassed extra support under the pie plate holes where the top piece screws into the bottom

[81walkaround]

here's a close-up of one of the two gas tank braces.  

[81walkaround]

i reglassed the top piece on to the marine plywood.. and mocked it up..

looks ready for final reassembly.

[pete]

Looks great!Almost done congrats!

[levelhead]

My 99 Osprey 245 TM has a poly tank...when I popped the pie plate behind the council to access some wiring a while back....I saw no/minimal water intrusion in the tank compartment...(I feel very lucky right now)...I did replace all the o-rings on all the Rabud pie plates ....they were getting a little hard.

245 Ospreys had 141 gallon aluminum tanks...225 Ospreys, 102 gallon poly tanks...

And in '99, the 245 had already become the 250...

 
 Bob....My 99 Osprey TM does have a poly tank (it's a 99..I checked my serial #)....and my factory 1999 brochure calls it a 245 Osprey ...was there a model transision that year maybe ?