Bolt on Coaming........how to reach?

Repete

Repete

Sunfish1909
I now have a new inspection port in and putting the final coat of paint on my coaming. While the paint is drying I am planning my route to reach stainless steel locknuts and a washer to each of the connection holes in the deck for the coaming. The most outer two holes are passed the foam blocking. The next two in are on top of the blocking. I do not want to carve too much foam away. Is there a technique to reach these locations while holding a nut and washer? Should I epoxy the washer to the nut and temporarily tape this group to an open ended cresent wrench to reach the bolts? How can I bore a slot in the foam to just let me get the wrench over the foam? Would a hacksaw blade or key hole saw blade work? I prefer to use the ss machine bolts and lock nuts to the original blind rivets. Thanks ahead of time to any answers out there.
 
Now you know why they use the rivets. IIRC orignally inserts were formed into the deck before assembly on the older bolt on splash rails. The fact that they were costly, time consuming to manufacture/assemble, and if one broke loose a real pain to repair brought on the sealed blind rivet assembly method.
carving up the foam is about the only method as you have to access the inside locations to use screws/bolts and a nut.
 
Doing repairs over the years I've run into just screws on the oldest boats, screws and inserts, and newer boats with rivets. Consensus in past discussions is in strong favor of replacement rivets no matter what the old ones were. Screws w/nuts is the 2nd choice. If the foam is in the way you have to dig out a path. There's a pretty good diagram of how to assemble everything among Sunfish-Sailors repair guides. I've seen your posts there so I know you already have the web address.
 
I'm curious has to why you don't want to use blind pop-rivets. They are easy, quick, and they normally work very well.
 
Hey guys, the weekend weather and temperatures were great to work on my SF. Yes, the more I looked through my inspection port and felt the foam and contemplated cutting some out, I talked myself to stay in the one-design form and go with the blind rivets. There is something about the foam. Each particle working together gives it it's strength. I did not want to comprimise the integrity by removing some near the deck. There is some thing about the saying: "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". I had two "reachable" rivet positions with some pull-out damage. I have sanded and expoxied them closed and later redrilled them for a new rivets now.........done. Thanks for the replies and talking back off the ledge in contemplating cutting some foam to go with lock nuts and washers. This forum saved my fish. Thanks.
 
As a note I found out it's more expensive to buy the rivets at a fish dealer, but in the long run the time it took to find the "correct" rivets it was worth the couple of dollars I paid extra getting what I knew were the right ones from the dealer.
I also learned way to much about how many types/materials there are in blind rivets...LOL
They even make them with split bodies that expand to act like wall fasteners and are used in RV's to mount things into the foam cored roof material. But those will leak like a seive, so don't get any ideas...LOL
 
Here are my new Vangaurd "sealed" coaming rivets. I wish they gave you a few more for goofs. The package has exactly thirteen rivets for the thirteen mounting holes of the coaming. Slow and steady I should be able to seat these properly.
 

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You can get more closed end sealing pop-rivets through McMaster-Carr http://www.mcmaster.com
They go for about $10 per 100
part# 97524A108 dia. 3/16", shank length 0.705"

They have the Blind Rivet Washers you need for the underside too. part# 90183A217
 
Dan.................oh man...........it cost me an additional $5.50 to ship these "golden 13" on top of the $5.25 as well. Oh well.
I will look up the link and keep it in my files for my next coaming-ectemy and reattachment. Thank you very much anyhow.
 
One more coat of Brightside on the coaming and to reattach it is all I have to do to sail. I have a hiking strap to mount, but I will get to that during the season. While I have you online, or any body else, where is a place to purchase the 3M 4200 sealants spoken about on this forum? Is that a typical marina / boat shop shelf item. What are the sizes? I do not want to by a whole caulking tube worth. Are there toothpaste size tubes of this glorious stuff?
 
I see Dow 4200 at nearly all marine dealers. Oddly 4200 is more expensive than 5200. Guess the fast cure variety cost more. The 3oz tube is about $10, 16 oz tube is around $9 at Jamestown Distributors.
 
Repete,

Can you let me know if the pop rivets fit though the original machine screw holes on the deck. I'm an in the midst of fairing and repainting my hull and will need to also paint and reattach my coaming as well.

Thanks,

- Leon
 
Thank you all for the replies. My two local marine dealers have 3 oz. tubes of 4200 for $14.99..........whew, and the large caulk size tube for 26.00. I just need enough to circle my rivet holes and run a line between each hole like a necklace before I seat my coaming.

LQT420: the original holes of my '79 coaming allow a 3/16 rivet to slide in with little or no room. My outer, last holes, look like they where replaced by the previous owner and maybe the rivets spun when they where drilled out. This made those two wholes just a tad larger, but the flair of a fully compressed rivet will still grab and hold well. I know this from getting the interior halves of the rivets as I tipped the hull to chase them out of there. The five holes I can reach I will set a #8 stainless washer over the rivet on the interior to give a little more spread to any and hopefully never any future loads.

Thank you all again.
 
You are welcome. Have fun painting the coaming. I used Interlux Brightside and their 333 Brushing Liquid to clean and thin a little. I used a system of one day upside right and the next day, after 24 hours, flipped to catch the underside. I repeated this for four days for two coats, whew. I thought of hanging the thing but there are too many weird angles to brush. Good Luck.
 
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