I GOT IT.......take a piece of aluminum 1/4 in thick,duplicate the rear of the deck area......were your support is needed,cut the deck and the aluminun to the cut required,5200 and bolt the aluminum to the rear side of the supported area and the strength will remain

can you post a picture with the litting headers that are in question this might help?

looks like three posts hit at the same time

Luke-and for the last 3 months I've been calling him Jay! Whoops!:o

I thought of the angle bracket idea last night. Even thought of using some screws evenly placed across the lip. Some polished 1/4" button heads would look kinda trick. The kicker is that there are two 1/2" plywood blocks that are glassed in under the deck hinges. A piece of 3/4" angle would end up hanging BELOW my cut! Argh!

I'm currently thinking that if I took a piece of 1/2" plywood and glassed it in around the cut (on the back side) that I wouldn't loose too much strength. The cut will still look like **** thought. That's something that I'd really, really like to avoid. Any suggestions as to improving the appearance of the cut? That lip is hiding my shift quadrant and handfull of cables so I don't want to take too much off.

what if you made a square cutout and boxxed it back to the transom giving enough clearance for the fittings required would take a little fab work but i don't think it would be too hard...kinda hard to describe...

Does the fitting interfere with the fiberglass or does the hose connecting the two fittings??? If it is just the hose why not just go down and under and then back up. Or just drill a hole the size of the hose and install the hose after the header is installed.

Tinker-the bung for the fitting is dead center under the fiberglass. Proably the worst possible location for it.

Rag-I'll see if I can borrow a digital camera tonight.

Nasty-you are absolutly correct. This should have been avoided. My measurements clearly locate the lip. When I prefitted the headers, I drew the lip right onto the header. Lightning knew where the lip was and still screwed up. If I chose to cut the boat, I think that there should be some coresponding price reduction from Lighting. I'm thinking $2-300. Am I off my rocker?

I don't think you are off your'e rocker at all......it was a custom fabbed piece !! if it was off the shelf, well so be it...but when you have something made to fit.....IT SHOULD FIT without cuttin gup the boat...if there was an issue as far as placement of that outlet you should have known it before the job was finished....

Unfreak!
Addiction has the solution. Instead of aluminum, though, go with 1/4" thick stainless steel. Aluminum is usually found in a T-6 temper, and unless the cutout has a rounded fillet at the top of the cut for the water hose, then it can (and might) crack under a good load. With stainless, you don't have to worry about a fillet or radius. Good strength, and corrosion resistant.

Find you a piece of 1/4" thk 3" x 12" 300-series stainless steel. Make your cutout in the glass and gget everything fitting up nicely. Remove the header or tailpipe, and put the stainless up behind the glass and position it as high as you can without it being held away from the glass by the internal radius at the top of the support. Mark the cutout with a pencil. Take it to somebody who can cut it out for you (machine shop - stainless is hard on carpenter grade blades). Have them cut outside the lines a bit. Also have them add eight 1/8" holes evenly spaced thru it (for the pop rivets - if the glass is less than 1/2" thick, otherwise the rivets wont be long enough). Then have them rough up the mating surface on their belt sander (for the 5200 to stick good to).

Go home and use acetone to prep the steel and the glass for the adhesive. Apply the 5200. Use a clamp to hold it in place and then drill the 1/8" holes back thru the plate and thru the glass (use a $8.99 right angle attachment for your drill from www.harborfreight.com). Use Stainless pop rivets and fasten that booger up.

If you don't want to use pop rivets, that is okay, but you will need to get several clamps and a 2x4 and clamp the plate tight so the 5200 is only a thin layer smashed between the glass and plate. 5200 is mean stuff and will hold by itself nicely.

Do not change the headers, or you will end up with a big air pocket at the top of the elbow. This could result in a big thermal differential (hotspot) that may cause discoloration (blueing) or maybe even cracks in neighboring welds over time. May not cause any problems, but then again....

I hate it when $h!t like that happens. Especially when your so close. I feel your pain...