Miss Delmarva

[seabob4]

Something interesting today.  All through this long process of deciding speakers and how to install and all that crap, I had been giving Scott measurements from the starboard side...closest to the shop, easy to hop on board, that kind of deal.  So I get the starboard side complete today, now it's time to start on port.  Hold the speaker up to the mounting location and...WTF?  Something DEFINITELY doesn't look right here.  So take some measurements.  The dimension that was controlling us was the distance from the liner to the inside of the vertical face of the gunnel, since we knew the speakers would drop down further than the gunnel.

Well, Scott, it's a goddam good thing I WAS using the starboard side!  Distance from the liner to the gunnel, starboard side?  BARELY 6 1/4".  Same distance, port side?  7"!!!  That's like a frickin mile!  You'll also notice a portion of the "knee" on the port side that isn't visable on starboard.  Normally, this type of "skewing" between the liner, the hull, and the deck would basically have gone un-noticed, and, in fact, while in the boat, none of this can be seen...not even the speakers.  But when one is working all afternoon in those exact areas...well, let's just say I was a bit taken aback...

If I had been using the port side to give him dimensions, well, we'd have been...you know what...

[gran398]

I am very pleased with everything Bob. Looking forward to seeing how the speaker mounts went in. Glad you avoided drilling the knees.

Weird about the difference side to side. I guess when something is forty years old there will be some craziness like that to deal with. All I can think of is an air void between the coring and the hull side...

Anyhow...SWEET job. Switch panel and trim panel will be to your place in the morn Fedex.

THANKS!

[seabob4]

Pete sent me a little MIBS "care package" a few weeks ago, in it was a sample kit of "Super-bond" epoxy.  I've used this stuff before, it's not a quick set, but has a long pot life, and once it kicks off (does take a while at 1:1), it doesn't let go.  All of Scott's lights are epoxied up with that stuff.  Excellent product, although, as you could see by the tape, fixturing is necessary if one is working on a vertical flat or on an underside...

Well done Pete, thank you!  So part of you is in Miss D as well as a few others!  

[pete]

Very cool!I knew you would put it to good use

Here is a link to the epoxy.   https://www.fgci.com/bp_viewproduct.asp ... tem=135367

[seabob4]

I am very pleased with everything Bob. Looking forward to seeing how the speaker mounts went in. Glad you avoided drilling the knees.

Weird about the difference side to side. I guess when something is forty years old there will be some craziness like that to deal with. All I can think of is an air void between the coring and the hull side...

Anyhow...SWEET job. Switch panel and trim panel will be to your place in the morn Fedex.

THANKS!

What I did Scott was cut (3) pieces of starboard, 6" X 1", 1/2" starboard, per side.  The bottom piece screws through the hull-to-deck joint.  Then the middle piece screws to the bottom, the top to the middle.  Then drilled new mounting holes in the speaker brackets, the brackets in turn screw into the 3 pieces using using 1 1/4" #10s to secure.  Damn solid and won't ever be going anywhere, yet still relatively easy to take apart, should you want.

Sounds easy enough, but to get all this to work, given the location, everything on your back...well, it took awhile...

[gran398]

They went in exactly as I was hoping. Great piece of engineering

Pete, thanks for the Care Package

[Group W Bench]

Something interesting today.  All through this long process of deciding speakers and how to install and all that crap, I had been giving Scott measurements from the starboard side...closest to the shop, easy to hop on board, that kind of deal.  So I get the starboard side complete today, now it's time to start on port.  Hold the speaker up to the mounting location and...WTF?  Something DEFINITELY doesn't look right here.  So take some measurements.  The dimension that was controlling us was the distance from the liner to the inside of the vertical face of the gunnel, since we knew the speakers would drop down further than the gunnel.

Well, Scott, it's a goddam good thing I WAS using the starboard side!  Distance from the liner to the gunnel, starboard side?  BARELY 6 1/4".  Same distance, port side?  7"!!!  That's like a frickin mile!  You'll also notice a portion of the "knee" on the port side that isn't visable on starboard.  Normally, this type of "skewing" between the liner, the hull, and the deck would basically have gone un-noticed, and, in fact, while in the boat, none of this can be seen...not even the speakers.  But when one is working all afternoon in those exact areas...well, let's just say I was a bit taken aback...

If I had been using the port side to give him dimensions, well, we'd have been...you know what...

That's not that significant when you consider how poorly fitting the ring decks were from the factory. The shoebox lid style ring decks on these boats is really pretty uneven all the way down the ring deck. The trim line on the top of the hull (think inside of shoebox lid) is often very irregular as if it were trimmed by an angry rabid beaver in a hurry to get to the next beaver dam on the assembly line. Basically, the ring decks are pretty poorly fitting from the get go, so it is not surprising to have these discrepancies. It is not at all unusual for the port side to and starboard side to have these differences on the ring deck gunnels, and near impossible to remedy. I assure you that the differences in gunnel gap were far greater with the original wobbly, thin factory liner than with Scott's rebuild sans liner.

[seabob4]

I guess it is kind of amazing that "discrepencies" such as what I observed today were, shall we say, the norm many years ago.  But then, I have to think of the actual cost back then to the consumer, the way the boats were used, the care they were given...I'm sure Coburn and Sargent never realized what would eventually happen to their creations 40 years later.

As I said, had I not been so heavily involved in those areas today, I, nor anyone else, would have noticed, and, if we did, really wouldn't have cared as the discrepencies wouldn't, and won't, have any bearing on the form, fit, and function of the boat.  I am sure the designers never envisioned someone mounting a pair of box speakers in the location Scott chose.  But, that decision bared those discrepencies...

You guys know I do a ton of LED lighting installs.  Many on boats from the 90s, some earlier, even some later.  When these boats were designed, LED cockpit lighting didn't even exist, so obviously, no thought was ever put into any design in regards to an owner maybe wanting to add them on later.  It can be a real challenge to incorporate that type of lighting into these older boats in a, as best as I can do, seamless manner.  In today's boat building world, LED cockpit lighting is even offered as an option from the factory, so the option has to be factored into the design from the get go.  Same thing with electronics.  I get customers who really want the 12" screens, some even the 15s, but where the hell are you going to put them?  When their boat was built, this stuff didn't exist, so obviously, no thought was ever considered in regards to them.

Anyway, looking forward to tomorrow...  

[Georgie]

Great stuff guys!

Any of us who do builds of sorts have undoubtedly done this exact thing more than once...countless times myself.  I must be a hard learner.    Why do we find it so easy to forget the ingrained "measure twice, cut once" mantra at the most inopportune and inconvenient times or situations?  Very glad you had the fortune of measuring the "tight" side SB!!  Good work.  I unfortunately am governed by Murphy's law and would've undoubtedly been saddled with the need to re-design and or re-drill to accommodate the "surprise".  Would love to see a photo or diagram of the starboard mounting plates (but not if it means you need to get upside down on your back again!)  

For what it's worth, this thread (in its triple digit pages of glory   ) is an amazingly comprehensive record and will be immensely helpful for those of us with similar ambitions in the future.  Can't thank you guys enough.  

[gran398]

Thank you Georgie

Thank you for joining us last year, and for the nice words.

This thread...for all of its shortcomings, verbiage, de-rails, re-rails, train wrecks, etc...really does have high points, as exhibited above.

When you think about it....it is pretty much a compendium of how life goes. Elation...disappointment. Excitement...worry. Challenge...solution. Frustration...resolution.

Then throw in human emotion. Anger. Sadness. Fear. Melancholy. Guilt. Pride. Joy. Love. Satisfaction. Friendship.

Building this boat has been one of the most memorable experiences of an otherwise pretty normal, structured, and relatively boring life. It has given something to shoot for, light at the end of the tunnel, an expression of accomplishment and individuality. "Elusive but attainable. A perpetual series of occasions for hope."

Was it worth it? Yes.

Would I do it again? Maybe......

Aw...HELL YEA :flower:  :bounce:  

[slvrlng]

 Was it worth it? Yes.

Would I do it again? Maybe......

Aw...HELL YEA :flower:  :bounce:  

This is good to hear!  Looking forward to seeing her again next week!

[seabob4]

Well, as Scott promised, the "panels" showed up today.  Now, may I preface this to say a good majority of their "construction" is not Scott's fault. although I do have to place some of the blame on him in regards to the thickness of the "panels".  I'm putting panels in quotes as they are not really panels...more like veneers.  1/16" thick.  Yes, that's correct.  Scott had told me that the material was a bit flimsy...well, there's flimsy and then there is FLIMSY!



It is apparent that Scott's source in Wilmington, although he had said he had done this sort of thing before, just really didn't understand what he was doing in this respect.  Now, since it is getting Contura switches, and we all know Conturas need a tight fit, I knew I had to open the switch holes up a bit (actually did it with a knife, shaving the sides, top and bottom, rather than risk bit chatter).  Opened up the first, test fit the switch, nice and tight, went to remove it to do the rest...BAM, panel cracks.  So, from then on, when the switches went in...DON'T REMOVE THEM!!!

So, once loaded, time to cut the hole in the dash, leaving as much material as I could to give the "panel" as much backing as I could...



The panel with the switches illuminated...



And, yes, I did get it wired...



This is the effect that I want to get for the backlighting...



Now, that looks easy enough, right?  No.  The LED strip is about 1 3/4" behind the panel, with nothing to secure to and to keep it facing the backside of the panel.  So what I am going to do is to get some PVC channel, cut/form it to screw into the underside of the console, then secure the lights to that.  Ain't gonna be easy, but it's what I need to do to get the effect of the backlighting we all want.  As Maggie would say, funzy wunzy...

Another aspect of this panel was the mounting holes that the vendor so kindly drilled...tiny holes a little less than 1/8" away from the edges of the panel.  I have to use these as they are already drilled, but I have to open them up to accept at LEAST #6 screws (pan heads, no way was I going to try to c'sink them for flat heads or oval heads!).  Problem was, as I opened the holes up to accept #6s, kept losing more and more material.  So, you guessed it, one of the holes broke out, and the others are not too far behind.  Grrrrrrrrrrr.......And usually I like to install panels with #8s...


But it is what it is, and it's what we have to work with until Scott can get a new panel...and he DOES need a new panel.  But that will wait until down the road when the boat is back home and he has the time to deal with his vendor and get him to understand just what it is he is making here.  Since the backlighting will not be a part of the panel per se, as long as the replacement panel is to the same dimensions, it will look the same.

It kinda sucks that this sort of thing has to happen.  Especially considering the dollar outlay that Scott has put out so far in regards to this.  But at this stage of the game, there is pretty much no turning back.  So we'll do what we have to do, and then Scott can deal with these issues when Miss D is back at home and sitting pretty on her lift.

So that's how the day went.  Chemo day tomorrow for Maggie, then have another boat coming over around 1:00.  Maybe TOMORROW I get to play with final rigging of the motors...  

[Blue Agave]

That Blows!  Scotty I hope you don't have to pay those Monkies a fourth time.  Might want to consider a different outfit, after all three strikes and you're out.

[gran398]

Sorry its late, stayed up watching the NCAA tourney.

Bob, best to Maggie tomorrow.

Dealing with this fancy-ass switch panel has absolutely sucked. Bad measurements, bad files, bad advice, poor service. It will be replaced when it rots off and falls in the floor. I'm sick of it.

Bob, when you run the lights inside the channel...how about tying the channel into the fiberglass on each end to offer stability to the panel.

Like I said...stick a fork in it, its done.

[icemanbryan]

Scotty, did you look into Viking panels on THT?
I saw a couple of photos, they look good?
Just a thought