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Mounting Fay and Bowen Deck and Coaming Mounted Receivers for Top Posts You will find six receivers and all the mounting hardware. These are not easy to mount. Be patient. The backs of the receivers are not flat, the coamings are not flat and the covering boards are not flat. You might get lucky, but it is not unusual to fuss about with these pieces for more than a few hours. To locate them on the boat deck, put two eight foot 2x4's across the top of the coaming. Position the top on the 2x4's, over the cockpit. The top width is just about the same width and length as the cockpit opening. Once you have positioned the top where you want it, take some blue masking tape and tape the inside and outside of the coaming under the brass slotted hardware attached to the top. Also tape the covering board where the foot of the receiver will touch it. The areas should be about 6" wide, and there are six of them around the boat. Take the 1/4"-20 machine screws and the #10-1 1/4" woodscrews from the receivers. Just put the screws in a big pile, none are specific to any particular piece. Start by standing up the receiver against the coaming, resting on the covering board, in the area of the middle of the slot of the hardware mounted to the top. Sorry, I should have taken pictures of this, but we never have a top in here long enough to document it. If the receiver does not fit quite right, you can file, sand or grind away some of the material on the back of the receiver to achieve a better fit. It does not have to be perfect, but there should not be any gaps larger than 1/8". Keep in mind that, if you stick a dowel into the socket that the top pole will be inserted into, it does not have to be plumb to the boat centerline. If it is canted outboard a bit this is perfectly OK as the poles are flexible and this will tension the top. The machine screws that attach the receiver to the side of the coaming are installed from the inside of the coaming, through the wood and into the tapped foot of the receiver. The holes for these machine screws are located by positioning the receiver and marking the location of the tapped holes through the tapped holes on to the masking tape area you have created. Make sure that once you start this process, that you keep the receiver at the position where you used it to make from. The holes are all different between receivers, so they are not interchangeable once you mark the hole positions. Sometimes it is useful to install the ¼”-20 machine screws backwards into the receiver with the threaded ends protruding through the feet toward the coaming. It will give you an indication of the angle at which the holes need to be drilled through the coaming. Use a sharp drill, slightly larger than 1/4" for clearance, to drill through the coaming at your marked spots. If you need a little more play in one or two of the holes, you can step up the size of the hole. But not all of them. Once you are satisfied with the holes, you need to countersink the hole on the inside of the coaming to accept the head of the machine screw. I know, it looks weird, but it is how the original components were attached. Try not to drill too deep. Dry fit everything. TAKE YOUR TIME. You should color the inside of the countersunk opening with amber shellac, a few quick coats before permanently installing the screws. The #10-1 ¼” wood screw just gets installed through the foot of the receiver through the covering board and into the sheer clamp. Please use a small pilot drill; you don’t want to crack the oak covering board. Once the machine screws are installed and fit well; mark their length, remove them and cut them. They should be just flush with the outside foot pad when installed. And don’t forget to remove all the tape before permanently installing the receivers. Paint thinner will remove any tape residue. |
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