Stupid Electronics Installation

[DwayneJ]

The company that installed my electronics really screwed up with mounting hardware to my boat...

The spot light installed on the roof of the boat was incorrectly sealed and leaked from the first day. Corrosion set in so I pulled the light off, had the roof repaired and repainted.

So checking out my antenna mount and I found the same same issue as the roof... a little water got between the antenna mount and the hull and now I can see the paint start to bubble from corrosion. Boat comes out of the water next week to repair/repaint.

The only good news is its so easy to weld up screw holes and paint over.

Emails and calls to the company in question are not returned. Turkeys!

Make sure the companies you deal with have experience with Al hulls.

Dwayne.

[Chaps]

Is your boat factory painted or was it done by a shop you hired?

[DwayneJ]

My boat was factory painted but using PPG 2K formula with tints and I have a sample to reproduce so almost as easy as color matching a vehicle repair.

Dwayne

[Lucky Louie]

That is why I like to do all rigging myself on a new boat. Even on used ones I re-wire them to MY way of doing things. All wire work is done with soldier and shrink tubing. Any ring connector or the like connections get penatrox on them before being connected/tightened. (Penatrox is a connection aid that prevents corrosion at the connection)

[warthog5]

That's not the problem.....

The problem is dissimilar metals. Stainless screws in contact with your alum.

plastic washes, rubber washers, the use of Tef Gel. What ever it takes to isolate the 2 metals when mounting equipment.

http://www.tefgel.com/contain.php?param=tefgel_infor

[DwayneJ]

That's not the problem.....

The problem is dissimilar metals. Stainless screws in contact with your alum.

plastic washes, rubber washers, the use of Tef Gel. What ever it takes to isolate the 2 metals when mounting equipment.

http://www.tefgel.com/contain.php?param=tefgel_infor

I totally agree with you. I supplied two containers of TefGel but the installer did not bother to use it. Specifically, the two issues in question were installed in such a way as to cause seawater to sit between the joints...

When I took the golight off the roof, there was seawater sealed between the base of the golight and the roof.

When I took the antenna mount off, it was wet between the antenna mount and the hull. The standard rubber gasket with the antenna mount was not enough to seal water away from the screws/mount/hull of the boat.

I had other issues with the installer including -

A pile of shavings left in the cabin in various places where they did not vacuum up after cuts and drill holes - I went through and cleaned up after him.

A long drawn out argument over 120V power - and the final solution was incorrectly wired but easily remedied by me.

The specific installer "talked the talk" but photographic evidence clearly said otherwise. There is absolutely no question I would wire up the same size boat myself or sub contract for an ABYC installer to do work under my supevision.

Dwayne