Skinning - Suggestions for Fasteners

smorourke

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Hi everyone. I am in the process of skinning the underside of my 2014 21'SLX. I have 0.063" 5052 aluminum for the material and was wondering if a 410 stainless self drilling screw (#12 - 1-1/2" length) would suffice or if I need to get 316 stainless (or something else). Any suggestions are appreciated. The boat is used in salt water. Thanks!
 
You'll be fine with the aluminum skin, but the hardware size is way too big. Use smaller screws and more of them. Stainless hex-head tek screws are a good call, but you only need something in the range of #6 or #8 x 5/8". I used 1/8" (#5) x 1/2" spaced 9" apart and that has worked fine on a freshwater boat for the last nine years. For a saltwater boat I would probably decrease the spacing between screws to 6". Even though tek screws are self-drilling, I found it much easier to pre-drill each hole. Using two drills, one with a drill bit and the other with socket bit for the hex screws, the job went pretty fast.

I thought about using rivets, but was really glad I didn't a couple of years later when I needed to run cable for a new fish finder. It was really easy to unscrew one edge of a panel and let it hang down while I ran the new transducer cable. It only took about 10 minutes. It would have been a pain in the butt to have to drill out a bunch of rivets and install new ones
 
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Hello Smorourke, can you share how much you think it will cost for your project and the source for your aluminum purchase (internet or local supplier?) I am thinking of doing the same.

Anybody else have an opinion if it would be worth doing for a two log 22 GSR boat with Sea Legs, 115 HP?

Thanks.
 
I skinned a couple of boats with used aluminum sheets bought from a local recycler. You might have to call several before you find one that sells sheets. I tried the SS self drilling screws and had a problem with them twisting off. Ended up drilling pilot holes first and then the self drilling screws. As mentioned about, use two drills and it will go fast.
 
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