Idea for mounting shower valve.

[mlange]

Just thought I'd help out anyone else that was planning a shower install and is trying to figure out how to mount the shower valve.

I was trying to come up with an idea of how to make a mounting plate for a shower valve that would look stock, but still be cheap and easy to make. Since I wanted it to look stock that meant removing the existing glove pocket and somehow mouting it within the hole left by the glove pocket. Thanks to SunriseH2OSkier I had pics of a stock install, so I really just needed to copy the stock plate and hopefully come close to what Malibu does.

I knew I wanted to use a piece of HDPE, so I ordered a piece from eBay and starting walking the aisles of Home Depot looking for things to use when I stumbled on something that looked promising (and cheap). For a few bucks those liners you can buy for the bottom of tool box drawers looked like it would do the trick. So, between the HDPE, some "Con-Tact Brand Ultra Grip Liner" and a piece of aluminum I came up with something that was cheap & easy and looks nice. The nice thing about the grip liner is that my cutouts in the HDPE didn't have to be too exact.

Anyway, here's the result.

front view

back view

Hopefully this will help out someone else in the future.

Mike

Edited April 13, 2007 by mlange

[chadwick02]

looks good! I am confused as to exactly where you put it. Can you take a picture of the install, but at a little wider angle that gives a view of more of the boat?

[mlange]

Sure. I'll take one tonight and post it.

[mlange]

This should make it a little clearer.

Mike

[SunriseH2OSkier]

Hey Mike, did you decide not to move the switch back there, or are you thinking of doing that later?

Also - I changed mine up a little back there since my earlier pics, following edwin's (I think) lead. Instead of routing the hose through that panel next to the valves, I ran it across the back side of that trunk panel to the other glove pocket. I cut a small hole in the glove pocket, and fed the hose into that. It allows me to coil up the shower hose and shove it into the glove pocket when not in use. Very clean approach - no hose laying in the trunk to get covered up by gear.

The upshot is that given you're idea here, I'm going to make a panel just like you did, only instead of the hole for the hose on the one end, I'm going to mount the switch there.

I love this site - it's amazing how much you learn from it!

[mlange]

Jerry,

If I was doing it from scratch I would have bought that valve assembly with the switch built-in to it. But now I'm not sure yet if I'm going to move it back there or not. If all the freakin' snow around here will melt I'm hoping to get a pass or two in on Sunday and see how I like the current set up and go from there.

I really like the idea of moving the hose over to the other glove pocket - I never use them anyway - but my wife is getting sick of me working on the boat the last couple of weeks straight doing this and that, so maybe I'll tackle that project next spring.

One last thing I should mention that you can't see in the picture is that I did paint two sides of that aluminum piece black so that it would be "hidden" when looking at it from the front. Just something else you may want to consider.

Mike

[tmacwake]

That looks great! Very professional.

[malibu boys]

thanks for the help

[uk_exile]

the hose on mine goes through a large rubber grommet. When not in use you just push the hose completely out of sight and clip the nozzle into a holder right beside the grommet. There's a large space between the transom, the back wall of the locker and the fuel tank so the 1.5m or so of tube goes in easily. No hose at all left in the locker :-)