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Project Log:  Friday, October 7, 2011

Now that the backing blocks for the through hulls were in place, I could complete the installation.  Briefly, I sanded the epoxy fillets around the blocks, and used a drum sander to clean up the holes just a bit.

From outside the boat, I taped the through hull fittings in place, then went inside and threaded on one of the flange adapters so I could drill the holes for the through bolts.  With each base properly aligned, I drilled the holes from the inside, inserting a bolt into each hole one drilled to ensure alignment through the process.


Outside, I milled countersinks so the flat head fasteners would be flush or slightly recessed with the hull.  Then, I cleaned up and prepared all areas.  I pre-assembled the ball valves onto the flange bases before installation.

I installed the through hulls and fittings with 3M 4200 polyurethane sealant. Outside, I began with the mushroom fittings, which I heavily coated with the sealant and inserted into the hull.  4200 is stiff enough to hold the fittings, but I installed a strip of tape to be sure they wouldn't fall out while I was working inside.


Inside, I applied additional sealant around the protruding stem, around the bolt holes, and generally around the perimeter of the flange fitting.  I threaded on the fittings, then aligned the bolt holes and inserted, from inside, three place-holder bolts to keep the flange in place while I tightened the mushroom from outside, for which I used a special tool.

    

    


Then, I gooped up the bronze through bolts and inserted them from outside, before heading back into the boat to install nuts and washers and tighten things up. 


Afterwards, I cleaned up the excess sealant inside and out.  Later, I came back and cut off the excess bolt length inside (no picture of this at this time, sorry).

    

    

    

Total Time Today:  1.25 hours

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