Flybridge deck question.

[oscarvan]

Later boats had aluminum backing plates where the stations are up there. Yours may have them too. I'm not sure when they started doing that.

I wonder if a stud finder would tell me......

[oscarvan]

Last year I recored the entire deck. What started as just a few spots turned into a much bigger project. I ended up fiberglassing the flybridge down and got rid of all the screws. I can tell you it’s no easy task. Good luck.

I was thinking I'd leave the screws in, and cover the flange with mat, which would even the bumps out, or where I punch a hole where the screw heads are. Still have to experiment with that.

[jmooney]

I think the screws and especially the washers would be slowly corroding under the mat , better to remove them , fill the holes with thickened expoxy , and lay the mat . Also ,if you ground the gelcoat off both on the fly bridge structure and the cabin top , this would give you about 1/8 inch to have 3 or 4 layers of light weight mat . This would be easier to fair the surface.

[Cricket]

If you're going to leave the screws in you need to remove them, countersink the hole and replace with a flat
head screw. If they're loose either go bigger or fill the hole and re-drill.

Instead of using aluminum as a backing plate think about using g10 fiberglass instead. No corrosion, and glues great to everything else.

[SKYCHENEY]

Tab the bridge down on the inside. Remove the screws and fill the holes and repaint that lip.

The aluminum backers in the deck will show up with a moisture meter. They pick up metal very well.

[oscarvan]

Tab the bridge down on the inside. Remove the screws and fill the holes and repaint that lip.

The aluminum backers in the deck will show up with a moisture meter. They pick up metal very well.

Interesting thought. How many tabs? Some areas are not easy to get to....

[SKYCHENEY]

I would probably tab it every few feet. I guess it depends on how big you make them. You probably don't need any since the OEM 5200 would probably hold it without the screws anyway.

[edward]

Will you have to remove the fly bridge ?

[Cricket]

I would probably tab it every few feet. I guess it depends on how big you make them. You probably don't need any since the OEM 5200 would probably hold it without the screws anyway.

We tabbed all of ours on both sides.
Tabbed the inside first all the way around and then cut off the flange and tabbed the outside, then pulled a radius with thickened epoxy.

Have always wanted to make everything under the gunnels and backside of coming nice and smooth.
Spent 2 days of grinding and cutting out bad balsa with the Fein tool.
Haven't used non epoxy resin for quite sometime and had sort of forgot how bad the smell is. But since we're in a rush we made some vinylester putty to fill in and also glue up g10 up under the gunnel, then pulled filets in all the corners, even got them sanded and ready for primer in 1 day.
Going to roll on some primer and paint this weekend to finish, yep no spraying for this project.

[oscarvan]

Will you have to remove the fly bridge ?

Not planning on that!