Worn sliding hatch

[jimyoung]

After 20 years of mostly weekend gunkholing south Florida and the Keys I am in the process of doing a complete re-furb and upgrade on my 27' Miss B. Haven.  After removing (among many other items) the structure that covers the sliding hatch so I could properly repaint the boat I have noticed that the sliding area of the hatch has worn down almost to the glass fibers. Has anyone else with an older boat seen this problem and if so how was it delt with?

I am thinking of adding a thin delrin "wear strip" before re-installing the cover structure and would be open to comments suggestions or criticisms on this idea from the forum.

Thanks in advance for any inputs or opinions.

Jim

[Craig Weis]

I think that a thin strip of UHMW plastic would work well when glued on to the top/bottom of the flange of the sliding hatch.

UHMW=
Ultra High Molecular Weight. Very dense, wears for ever, used for 'sliders' in food conveyors.

JY... consider this hair brained thought.

Why not just sand clean and re-epoxy the lips of the hatch. You could just 'paint' the epoxy on right on/over the lips of the sliding hatch till built up enough...Hummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm?
Are the wood 'tracks' that capture the hatch lips still good? Maybe they ought to be epoxy coated too. I use a dry slide lube on everything that moves on my boat.

skip.

[jimyoung]

Skip,

Thanks for the reply, I am going to go fabricate the "Slide" parts this weekend and sandwitch them in between the hatch cover and slide.  I am still researching the material.  UHMW is a good suggestion but comes in several compounds (Polyethylene, Polystyrene, Acetal as well as others) and I hope to find one that I can cut thin but will not warp or crack with the heat, sun-light (UV) and salt spray conditions of south Florida. Don't want to do all this work and then have the hatch bind up on me in two months.

Any Materials experts out there?

Jim

[Tim Gardner]

Jim,

Go with dark (UV resistance)colored (black is best) uhmw Polyethylene or Urethane.  Either will work.  Glue sticks to neither of them very well - that's why they wear so well. Google Cadillac Plastics.

If you glue them, make the slides very short 2-1/2 inches max.  Both materials have a high coefficient of expansion.  (that will break the glue bond)  Resolve yourself to re gluing several times.

If you fasten with hardware, the same provision about length applies - Just elongate the holes in the material, including the counter sink, and fasten.  They'll last forever.

Tim Gardner
'85 CP-19II "S'go S'go"

[jimyoung]

Tim,

Thanks for the input.... I hadn't thought about attaching the wear piece to the sliding hatch before but it would allow me to use only short strips fore and aft rather than a full length piece attached to the cabin top for the hatch to slide on.

I plan to make a prototype set-up from some StarBoard that I have laying around this weekend.  I'm not sure of it's composition but I think it is an ABS (only because one side is textured like a sheet of ABS generally comes) or a Polyprope of some kind.

If it works then I'll look into the Polyethylene that you suggested, Thanks again.

Jim