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damaged in/flr ski storage locker door 03 sunsetter


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hello I am new to crew. I purchased my dream boat the fall of 17  a beautiful 03 sunsetter lxi! :biggrin:did not get out much on the water last year because my boat was in and out of the shop from the begining of June and all of july when they finally diagnosed the problem as the ecm after replacing the wiring harness and a few other items.:cry: I have my fingers crossed for the up coming season!!!.:thumbup: So I removed the ski locker access panel door this fall to repair over the winter months. After removing the carpet I found the original material 3/8 thick to be a metalic type honeycomb sandwiched between two alluminum Panels. I do not know where to find this material and not sure if I want to use the same material since it did not stand the test of time as my boat only has 240 hrs. I've researched other material and have found a product called coosa bluewater 20 @ 20lbs/pcf  or  the 26 @ 26lbs/pcf  both in the 3/8 thickness I need  as my panel measures 3/8 x 9 1/4 x 41 1/8 . they say you can easily glue carpet to it however does not hold screws as well as wood for reattaching my hinge plate?  looking for confirmation on the coosa product or other sugestions for replacement.  BTW they only sell it in 4x8 sheets for $240 - $280 a sheet luckily my cousin also needs to repair his panel as well. Be worth it if its what I need. 

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Not sure if yours is the same as my '98 sunsetter, but my flooring project from last year had one short post about replacing the hatch with HDPE.  

 

 

I didn't document the hinge part, but due to thickness of the panels, I had to change the hinge out to get the correct "levels" between the surrounding floor and the locker lid.  I didn't have any issues w/ screwing the hinge in....just be aware that pilot holes are required, just slightly smaller than the diameter of the screw.  If you do not do this, you will find that the HDPE "expands" around the screw hole and becomes uneven.

 

Good luck!

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thanks for the suggestions. what is hpde ( is it the same as king starboard or starlite) and would not want to use if not glue friendly. and as far as the pvc lumber planned down to 3/8 I know it would not hold up. I've built a lot of composite decks and 3/8 is way to thin to be used as a floor substrate panel so I'm back to the idea of using coosa board or teak but coosa is 30% lighter and teak at 3/8 might crack? I will report back which way I go and how it works out.

DonT I saw your floor project and wow that looks awesome and my ski locker is almost identical to yours what thickness of the hpde did you use? how is it holding up? 

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I had a similar issue and decided to replace the entire door with a new door assembly from Boat Outfitters.  It uses 3/4" starboard and came pre-textured.

 

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High Density Poly Ethylene HDPE = King Starboard industry name. You can get the glue to stick, but IME it is easy to pull the carpet off of HDPE. There may be a better glue than what Malibu uses, but I don’t know what’s it is. The issue is even with a 3/4 thick sheet of HDPE you can still get a spring board effect in a span that dimension.

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10 hours ago, mw2112 said:

thanks for the suggestions. what is hpde ( is it the same as king starboard or starlite) and would not want to use if not glue friendly. and as far as the pvc lumber planned down to 3/8 I know it would not hold up. I've built a lot of composite decks and 3/8 is way to thin to be used as a floor substrate panel so I'm back to the idea of using coosa board or teak but coosa is 30% lighter and teak at 3/8 might crack? I will report back which way I go and how it works out.

DonT I saw your floor project and wow that looks awesome and my ski locker is almost identical to yours what thickness of the hpde did you use? how is it holding up? 

I used 3/4 HDPE -  it's holding up just fine.  Keep in mind that we don't have a great deal of traffic going to the bow.  To @wdr comment - I haven't noticed a springboard effect, but next time I'm in the boat I'll check. 

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6 hours ago, wdr said:

The issue is even with a 3/4 thick sheet of HDPE you can still get a spring board effect in a span that dimension.

Wait, how big is this door?  Mine is about 3 feet long, but only 12 or so inches wide.  With such a narrow width there is definitely no flex or springboard action in this door hatch aside from the flex from the rubber seal that it comes with, and that can be adjusted down with the latch.  It's way stronger than the OEM door, especially the frame.

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I have previously dealt with the HDPE supported on just 2 opposing ends. I forgot that most lockers have that perimeter lip that door sits in/on so there is quite a bit more support than on just 2 ends.

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so If I go with  3/4 I think I will need to change out the trim ring it sits on and hinge plate does anyone know where I can order these otherwise my panel will be 3/8 above the current floor height?

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@mw2112 - I need to correct my previous post - I used 1/2" HDPE for my locker, as the seadeck eva flooring made up the difference to the full thickness.  The thinner material is what required a new hinge.  

checkout this post from Wake Garage - it gave me the approach/process I followed.

https://www.wakegarage.com/projects-archive/flooring-upgrade-projects/new-ultralon-floor-for-2003-vlx-r97/

 

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thanks for all the info it's great to have advice from ones who have been down the road before me!  Never thought about the carpet difference, if wrapping in carpet my piece of board should be 1/4 in less than the new trim ring to compensate for the carpet yes?   Trying hard to keep my sunsetter looking factory   

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Yes - if you are wrapping in carpet you'll need additional space between the board and the trim ring to wrap.  When I went to EVA flooring, I needed a bigger board so I could close up the gap...otherwise it would have been pretty unsightly.

 

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