353 step repair in engine bay
 

When I purchased my 353 I noticed that the step in the front of the engine bay was pulled away from the bulkhead. Got a chance to look at it today. There is zero evidence of any rot. I have attached some pictures to show what I am dealing with. What I am thinking is make a wedge to get everything back into alignment then maybe some L brackets on the sides an through bolt everything. Any other ideas?

piks didnt work

trying to visualize wat your doing.... I had a good bit of space infront of my motor, so I laminated 2 pieces of 3/4 together, glassed them then mounted it low between the stringer in front of the motor using big alum L from a skater motor mount. I mounted 2 batteries on the shelf/step and its holding up great.

Could not post from my phone for some reason. They should be showing up now?

The last two pictures show what needs to be made to fill the gap. At its widest point it is 1 1/16" and at the front were it is smaller it is 5/16". It is 8" from the front of that support block to the back.

Is it well bonded/attached on the bottom against the bulkhead? It looks like to much stress/weight caused the shelf to pull away and bracket to roll down under weight? If thats the case though, it should be loose at the bottom also.

The bulkhead looks like it is in place and even when I put my full weight on the bracket it does not move much at all. I can not see any place that anything has moves or dropped or anything. It is kind of a mystery at this point. Everything is solid all the wood is solid and no sign of rot or anything like that. I know something must have moved or this has been like this since it was built? The shims seem to be the best solution and I will put some angle brackets on there and it should be much stronger then new. Originally they just ran two #12 screws down into the bracket. I will through bolt from one bracket on one side to the other bracket on the other and create a sandwich between the two pieces of L bracket.

Ok so I got the step redone. The old one looked horrible. The rubber had shrunk and as you can see was all discolored. I had some aluminum laying around so i cut it up to fit. I router'd out the step a little bit and put the hinge under the aluminum, I think it looks much cleaner. Now after having some time to look at the issue I can see what happened. The problem is that the bulkhead was not properly attached. It looks like they are relying on the spray foam behind the bulk head to keep the bulkhead in place. The foam compressed with the weight that was on the step and the bottom of it pushed forward. It looks like some one tried to do a quick nasty repair. If you look at some of my original pictures you can see newer looking foam coming out some of the bulkhead holes. This is going to be a total pain to get so I can move it back into position. Kind of a bummer the way that they put this together. I am planning this weekend to try and pull the bulkhead back into position some how. I have no idea how. Then I will have to figure out a better way to hold it in place, then fill the back side up again with expanding foam. Wish me luck!
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Oh ya the adhesive that was used to hold the rubber onto the step was some of the nastiest stuff ever! It was easy to pull the rubber up but was super sticky and still kind of a liquid so getting it off took a bunch of cleaner (goof Off).

Send photos when finished...thinking I'll redo mine as well since its in my garage since we removed the motors last June.

Chris