The Leak

Frank's very good at tracking down and fixing what few leaks we have ever had every time it rains.  The only one that has alluded him, up until now, has been the one in our workroom.  Well, I wouldn't exactly call it a leak,  it was more of a seep which would only make a guest appearance during extremely heavy downpours, and even then you'd only notice it if you ran your fingers along the trim on the doorway.  Tracking it down proved to be a prime example of the snowball effect of boat projects.  Frank began by removing the related bungs to get to the screws, to remove the piece of trim where the leak was visible.  This allowed him to see, ah, there were wires coming through and it was running down them.  On a side note, the only way he was able to see up in the tiny space was using his iPhone on video mode with the flash on.  Because the camera is located so close to the edge of the phone, this allowed him to squeeze it into the tight space and view it on the iPhone screen.  We've used this method several times with other projects, and it's proven to be very effective.  A regular digital camera sometimes isn't quite small enough.

Since it's bad practice to plug a leak from inside, the source of the wires had to be established.  Ok, easy enough, the only electronics in that area, were the instruments in the instrument panel.  Getting to these proved to be more difficult, there is an access panel behind the instrument turtle but it only allowed a small child's hand to fit through....so, apart comes the panel.  Easier said than done, in the end, Frank ended up having to disassemble, rebuild, and re-bed the whole thing, using new screws and messy, black 3M 4200 for added strength and waterproofing.  Not only that, but the job required a plethora of tools-for everything from extracting broken screws, re-drilling pilot holes, caulking, gluing, cutting, etc.  It's amazing how much goes into fixing a "small" problem.  If left unchecked, small problems will inevitably turn into big ones, requiring twice as much effort and money.  Frank's mantra revolves around preventative maintenance...STOP all leaks.  I can proudly say, we're totally leak-free...for now.

These were all the tools used