Building Consoles

[Lund]

I currently have an aluminum boat with one console. I just purchased a walk through windshield and I plan on building two new consoles. I am planning on building them out of plywood and adding carpet to match the boat.

I have a couple of questions, what do you recommend I treat the wood with prior to carpeting, or should I cover them in fibreglass?

Thanks. Also any plans out there for consoles? I have been googling and havent found a thing.

 

[erikgreen]

Re: Building Consoles

Cover them in fiberglass if you want strength and waterproofing. You can also use less thick plywood if you like, the glass adds most of the strength.

Cover them with epoxy if you want waterproofing with no glass, and then paint over it.

Myself, I'd build it out of 3/8" ply, exterior grade, cover it with glass, fair it, and paint it.

You can find plans here and there on the 'net, including some examples here on the board. Basically it's a fancy box for the most part.. just figure out the size and the profile you want, and it's pretty easy to come up with a pattern.

My new boat plans came with a pattern for a console, but it's copyrighted. I'd share if I could.

Erik

 

[redfury]

Re: Building Consoles

Easy enough to do with cardboard as a template.

If you want to get fancy and make something with compound curves, or just curves at all, you can do what they do to make custom subwoofer boxes.

Build a wooden "skeleton" and then stretch fleece over it and then fiberglass and fair it. Paint it however you'd like after you cut out all the gauge holes, etc and install!

You can do some searches for Custom Sub boxes and find pictures on how they do somethings. A kid on another forum I go to made a real nice custom box for behind the seats of his Chevy Colorado...it was really slick when he was finished with it.

 

[fishing addict]

Re: Building Consoles

I'm a boat rebuild rookie, too. I see a lot of people talking about applying epoxy to the wood. Can someone tell me what kind of epoxy you're using? Is there a specific brand or type?

Thanks for helping me out-I'm trying to gather as much info as I can before I get in deep doing something wrong.