382 Fastech Hull / deck joint repair
 

Hi guys,
Doing some winter updates on my 1998 382 & noticed the hull/ deck joint has the dreaded issue that was covered in detail in "Phantom Chaos's" thread from awhile back.

For those of you who have performed this repair, was the deck really though bolted every 18" like I've seen mentioned in the other thread? I just removed 19' of rub rail from the Port side center & only pulled out sheet metal screws (nearly 1/2 of them broken.)
I'm thinking about improving this by through bolting & possibly going to a 5/16 screw.

Thanks,
Don

All the 2000 and newer have 1/4-20 bolts and screws and pilot screws for joint assembly. We have not seen any older boats with the failure. The factory would have this info though.. Its possible the bolts are sheared off, were there loose heads under the rubrail strip? The screws only hold the rubrail and add very little strength to the joint. When the joint lets go the bolts that dont shear wallow a large hole in the deck lip, more stuff ta fix. Do you have a Plastic late style rubrail with a ss insert?

I just got off the phone with Formula. It appears I'm looking at the rub rail screws that are snapped off. There is a foam rubber strip attached that should be hiding the through bolts. I will have to take a closer look tonight when I get home.
(It appears to be the new style rubrail w/ stainless insert.)

Thanks,
Don

So you have just removed the SS strip and not the whole rubrail? Can you move the rubrail up & down? The bolts will alternate with screws holding the rubrail on

No, I removed the stainles strip first (these screws were fine) then the plastic rub rail ( this had lots of snapped screws & was loose up & down.) All that I saw left was a foam rubber strip that was glued on. I'm assuming if I peel the foam rubber off there's through bolt heads underneath?
We'll see tonight.

I dont remember foam on any of the boats we have done. Hmm?

My boat had the foam underneath the rubrail backing strip as well. It peeled right off, but I had to clean the residue off with GooGone. I found no broken screws within five feet of the bow, or behind the windscreen. Once I get the old Plexus dug out and the joint glued back together, I'm going to replace any of the broken 1/4" bolts (and add a few more) by dropping the light valence panels in the cabin.

I'm a bit of a do-it-yourselfer, so this is not a huge project for me. I saw no indications of this issue until the last year.

You two guys are almost neighbors

C Spray's boat & mine actually are neighbors in rack storage during boating season :)

I got all of the rub rail off & the foam backing tonight, there were through bolts hiding behind the foam. But the center 9' to 10' of the boat had none. They may have snapped off but there was no trace of them from the outside. Maybe a previous owner had the rail off before?

The extra screws sounds like a good idea Chuck. I'm gonna pull some of the interior out next to see what kind of access there is back there.
Any way, The repair doesn't appear to be too complicated except for dealing with all of the broken screws.

I plan to go up one size on the self-tapping screws. If the old ones were #10's, I'll put it back together with #12's to make sure they get a good bite. I'll have to drill and countersink new holes where the old screws have broken off. Still - the primary source of strength will be in the Plexus bond.

KW - When do you think you'll be ready for the Plexus and the mixing gun? Formula will sell us the Plexus at a great price and loan us the gun. I'm shooting to get all my grinding and prep work done over the weekend. I may as well pass the gun on to you after I'm done with it.

CS, I should have it ready within a week as long as we don't get jammed up at work.
I spoke to Scott at Formula also about the Plexus & mixing gun loaner, so that would probably work out great instead of shipping the gun back & forth to Fomula.
I'll give you a call over the weekend,
Don

KW- the screws tap into a 2"x2" 1/8" aluminum backing plate. You can see these plates when you get the cabin speaker valances down. Also have Formula check the date codes on the Plex before they ship. It will save you a return and reship.

Why...........are they using out of date material?

They use the product in bulk drums for production. The hand gun tubes sit on the shelf for repairs and go out of date.

Got it....thanks! :D

Just an update to those that were following this:
Finished up the repair back in February, was quite a bit more of a job than I anticipated. The joint was loose for pretty much the entire boat except the front & rear maybe 2 or 3 feet, but this popped loose while I was spreading the joint to grind out the old material. Once loose & all the screws were out, the rear of the deck ( around the engine bay ) dropped approx. 1/2" which required hoisting the rear of the deck up by the cleats with a forklift to line everything up for re-assembly. But everything is good & tight now! Hope to be back on the water in a week or so.

Also replaced the headliner over the winter & rebuilt/ updated motors last fall. Trying to get all the major stuff out of the way.