2006 340 Leaking bow rails - How...

[ernie2]

2006 340 Leaking bow rails - How do I re-bed these?

I found water in my boat in 2 places - 1) the counter top and the cabinet between the counter and the top galley shelf and 2) on the v-berth at the front of the boat.  I've spent a considerable amount of time unscrewing speakers, lights, switches, skylights, etc to look for leaks with a friend running a hose on the outside.  At this point, I think I have the leak narrowed down to the bow rails on the deck where the sun-pad sits between and connects to.  Now I'm trying to come up with a plan of attack to re-bed the rail and am looking for some advice some someone who's done this before or knows how to do it.  

Let's start with the rail itself - Does anyone know if it's 2 or 4 bolts through the hull holding down each rail?  I'm able to access the first bolt aft through the skylight and speaker, I measured the distance from the first mounting post to the next and then tried to find the next bolt but didn't see it.  Wondering if it's posts 1 and 4 just being attached to the deck with 2&3 as spacers to keep the rails away from the deck?

How do I access the bow / forward nuts on the inside?  Does the headliner have to come down? If I pull out the molding around the front deck hatch, will there be a gap for me to reach the bolts?

I've been reading other forums and this sounds like a fairly common problem with the 340s.  

Thanks in advance for the responses

[ernie2]

Wanted to add some pictures if my description above doesn't help. Here are the deck rails that I want to rebed.

[ernie2]

I'm guessing this confirms at least one source of leaks. See the drip sitting on the bottom of the screw. This is the underside of the deck rail, starboard, aft (e.g. closest to the driver's seat)

[ernie2]

and here's a picture of the interior and headliner

[ernie2]

Finally, I've been doing a ton of searching on the forums... I'm pretty sure the headliner needs to come down to re-bed those rails. So now just looking for any advice on how to tackle.

Questions

- Can I recover any of the vinyl and/or if it all needs to be replaced. Anyone know where to source matching vinyl?
- How do I inspect for core rot at the through-hole? Is this even an issue with the 2006 models?
- If I end up taking down the liner, what else should I do while I have it down and everything is exposed?

I'll keep you guys posted on what I find and how I resolve.

[wingless]

Very complete information provided, well done.

My recollection is that those corner boxes are screwed in-place onto blocks, using screws hidden by the fabric tucked over.

Feel through the padded fabric for the screw heads, or peel back to expose.

The headliner board is also retained by hidden screws.

The adhesive securing the padding has probably failed. It is also likely that the padding has failed.

It may be possible to salvage the fabric. If the padding has failed it might be possible to scrape off the bad and replace w/ new.

[ernie2]

Update - I've spoken to a bunch of people trying to figure out my best options and the consensus was to try to save the headliner and only remove it as a last resort. I'm luck to live in San Diego so we really don't get all that much rain. From the areas I've been able to access, with the exception of the moulding around the front hatch, the headliner seems to be in good shape, and is still sticking to the deck.

I went on a mission to find the underside of the deck rail bolts. After doing some measuring, I found that 3 of the bolts are under the mid-ship section of the boat which have a false ceiling. I can access the first 2 aft bolts just by removing speakers and lights. the 3 bolt doesn't have easy access so I think my solution is to add a new light to the headliner e.g. drill an access hole to get to the bolts and replace it with a light over the sink that matches the other interior lights.

The other 5 bolts are under the headliner directly attached to the deck. With some careful measuring and feeling around on the liner, I figured out that the retaining bolts are countersunk into the bottom side of the deck and then filled with caulk to make it smooth. I cut a small hole in the vinyl to access the bolts and then pulled out the existing calk with needle nose pliers.

At this point I've gained access to 7 out of the 8 bolts holding down the deck rails. Of the 7, 5 had moisture in them. I'm confident I've found at least one source of my leaks and know the deck rails need to be rebed.

Now the questions are

1) How do I dry this through holes out? I want to make sure all the moisture is out before I rebed everything. Thinking I'll just run a space heater in the cabin with a dehumidifier running. Trying to figure out how to cover the holes though so if it's rains, I don't get more water. maybe some type of tape?

2) Worried about core damage and rot. Trying to figure out how I inspect for this and make sure I address before closing this up.

3) Should I rebed the rest of the deck hardware. I'm assuming the deck hardware was all assembled at the same time and with the same products... if one component failed, I'm guessing the bow rails / stanchions, cleats, and windlass aren't far behind.

Posting mainly in hopes of helping someone else out with the same problem... could also use some advice from anyone that's gone through this journey before... first time for me!

[ernie2]

Couple of pictures to help explain (and sorry for all the posts, from what I can tell from the site, I can only do one at a time.

He's a pic of the port side. Through the skylight hole, you can access the first bolt of the deck rail. The second bolt is behind a support piece in the false ceiling so I'm going to add a light to the right of the sink, right by the dvd player. That will give me access to the second bolt. On the starboard side, the second bolt is in the headliner attached to the deck.

[ernie2]

Second bolt hole on the starboard side

[ernie2]

forward look at the holes for the bolts in the headliner

[ernie2]

me pulling out the caulk with pilers. My wife likes this show called Dr. Pimple popper.. kind of reminded me of that.

[ernie2]

Finally, I was on my buddy's 260 around the same year and they have these covers on the bottom of the stanchions. I'm planning to do something similar but hopefully not as thick. Just need to figure out how I get them to stay on the understand of the deck. I guess i can screw them in but hoping for something a little cleaner.

[wingless]

The "easy" way to put multiple images into one reply on this forum is to have them hosted on an image forum, like Fliker and post the image URL (s) into a reply. Yes, the forum only permits uploading one image per reply.

The usage of duct tape over the hole will permit sealing an opening from fresh rain water while the interior is drying.

A bent rod in a drill chuck will permit excavation of rotted core.

This could be followed by taping the lower opening and filling the top w/ West System w/ filler, lie their high strength filler, allowing to harden, then drilling for the fastener again.

[220-280]

Ernie, you could make the best of it and use those covers you don’t like to mount battery powered LED lighting in your cabin.