Bulkheads and Control Equipment

Today I started putting the bulkhead back together. On the starboard side I added some extra backing support to hold the oil tank which is pretty heavy. To mount it, as well as the hydraulic control valves, I'm using captive nuts on the back side of the panels so I can thru-bolt the equipment to the panel. The captive nuts are the kind with prongs that dig into the back side of the panel. I figured I'd use the mounting bolts to pull the nut prongs into the wood, but in doing so I experienced the wonders of seizing stainless steel. Boy that stuff is a pain in the rear some times. Now I have a nut and bolt fused together, and of course I brought my sawsall home just yesterday figuring I was done with it. It never fails. Tomorrow I'll haul the saw back to the boat and cut off the bolt. Having learned my lesson the hard way, I hammered the rest of the nuts into place and bedded them with some 4200.

The first picture is hard to see (I think my hat blocked the flash), but it shows the back side of the starboard panel with the extra supports and nuts on place.

With the starboard side on hold, I moved over to the port side. That panel needed to be trimmed and have the backing nuts added, and I had to re-mount the water lines which live behind the panel and had been moved to make room for the glass work. With the panels back in on the port side, I mounted the control valve, and re-attached the bilge pump line. The pictures show the finished port side. The wires hanging out are for the battery charger which I won't remount until later so it doesn't block access.