Replacing Seacocks and thru hulls
I had no intentions on replacing these this time around, but our neighbor at the yard suggested we do. They are mostly original Wilson Crittenden which is pretty amazing! Most of them are seized in the open position though by now. The previous owner had replaced 2 and we went ahead and replaced two more (bronze ball type). We will replace the final 2 the next time we haul out.
I ground the old thru hulls down carefully which made it easy to push the seacocks out. Careful you don’t melt the fiberglass or grind into the fiberglass (like I did)! Ah, more repair work.
I understand G10 is the best material to use as a backing plate (none previously), but not even West Marine sells it locally! I couldn’t even find a fiberglass panel locally. What the heck! So I decided to epoxy over some marine plywood I already had. Not too difficult to make unless you have to later make alterations due to alignment mistakes or foundation obstacles.
I drilled 3 holes and ended up using SS screws with a plastic washer to separate it from the bronze. Bronze screws are incredibly expensive. Q
First install attempt was a disaster as I have a tendency to over-do things. I slopped on way too much 3M 4200 on the thru hull threads making it impossible to screw on as it dried pretty quickly. Not mention I cut the thru hull too long anyway. Crazy me had to remove everything, including the 4200 and start a new. The second attempt went well. We also bedded the wooden backing plates to the hull with 4200. A little more piece of mind has just been just been purchased.
Btw, it’s really quite easy to use a metal bar of the proper size or even a piece of wood to tighten the thru hulls with if you don’t want to spend the extra for the special tool. We used a metal flat bar we already had and it worked like a charm.
Until next time….