Its in!
 

Ok, finally getting around to reporting back on this. Its in and looks and works great, but it was a bit of work.

I measured everything I thought would be questionable fit wise, but of course, two things came up to make it interesting. :eek:

First, the ladder fits in the same place just fine, in fact, when telescoped in, it actually fits a little better. Until you try and close the lid. And no, its not the molded steps that cause you issues, its the dimension of the pipe. Its a good deal bigger around that the old one at the brackets, so the lid wouldn't quite close. I was able to grind a bit out of the lid, and a bit out of the platform at the mounting brackets until the lid closed, and then went back and "painted" over that with Marine-Tex and all is fine there.

One thing that also has changed is the size of the actual mounting brackets. The old ones were about a 1/2" longer, so for everything to line up, the holes for the bolts had to be about a 1/2" closed to the edge. And of course its thicker there, but also hollow. All in all I would suspect the glass is about the same thickness, but there was a 1/2" gap in the middle. I was already nervous moving so close to the edge, but the gap really bothered me. I mean I'm sure its fine, since that's where they are being mounted now, but I also didn't know if they are re-enforcing that area now. Anyhow, nervous nelly that I am, I took a big syringe that you use for injecting spices into turkeys, and drilled out the end and used that to pump Marine-Tex into the holes I drilled. I taped up the bottom, and repeatedly pushed stuff in until I saw it reach the adjacent hole. I then moved to that one and did the same. I figure I have about six inches of the linear gap filled at each bracket. (I also used the same method to fill the holes for the old brackets)

A couple of days later I drilled out the mounting holes again and used the old brackets as a back mounting plate and voila! A new ladder! Its MUCH easier to use than the old two step, and a heck of a lot easier on your feet. :D

Sounds like a job well done!:cool-smiley-011: