[quote=sierracat][quote]Use a small block of closed cell foam,(something smooth...I stole a bit off the wifes yoga mat),[/quote]
I told my wife this, and she gave me a dirty look. ;-) I don't think I'll have to remove the car. I just duct taped it on to the track before I removed the track.
So the big news/update is: I took a deep breath and a fresh beer, and went to work drilling out all the old rivets to remove the fittings from the old beams. I was expecting to go slow, use lots of cutting oil, and probably wreck a few drill bits on the many stainless steel or Monel rivets. BUT, the first rivet drilled like butter… what the??? And I quickly realized EVERY SINGLE RIVET on the old beams were aluminum. Unbelievable. No wonder every fitting was loose and wobbly. But no matter, someone else's crappy work meant I was drilling out each rivet in 4 or 5 seconds. I am just hoping that the rivets on all the mast fittings are not aluminum too - this would be a disaster waiting to happen. Aluminum just isn't appropriate for high stress fittings on a boat. I shall investigate and replace them all if necessary.
Not only that, but I found things like the traveller cleat rotator plate was riveted with looooooong aluminum :-O rivets that didn't make it all the way through the casting so they could pull/mushroom properly. Essentially just a little friction from a very soft metal in the sidewalls of the hole. Oh dear. I can't believe half their fittings didn't rip off the boat.
The old beams are now stripped, and the new beam tube is cut to length and ready for assembly. I'm experimenting on a piece of beam tube off cut with x-fine grit wet/dry sandpaper. Since I'm not gutting anodizing done, the new beam tubing is quite shiny, and I want to dull it down a bit so it doesn't look odd, or show up scuffs and scratches too easily.
Questions: Should I through-bolt the traveller cleat on to the casting, rather than try to rivet? (It really looks to thick to rivet, as the previous owner must have found out).
Also, do I have any options attaching my old traveller track to my new beam, besides drilling a bunch of huge holes to fit a socket through to nuts on each screw?
[img]http://www.thebeachcats.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=112323&g2_serialNumber=3[/img]
What the hell were they thinking?!
[img]http://www.thebeachcats.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=112320&g2_serialNumber=3[/img]
Swiss cheese!
[img]http://www.thebeachcats.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=112321&g2_serialNumber=3[/img]
Like butter 8-)
[img]http://www.thebeachcats.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=112324&g2_serialNumber=3[/img]<!-- editby --><em>Edited by sierracat on Nov 29, 2014 - 11:50 PM.</em><!-- end editby --> [/quote]
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