sunpad repair

[mysweetone]

I am in the process of replacing the wood beneath my sunpad on my 89 Wellcraft Eclipse 21.5 XL. The bottomside of the plywood (engine compartment side) has this mesh cloth over it. I would rather not reuse it as it is stained and just plain looks terrible. Is this something that needs to be put back into place or can I just paint the underside of the plywood?



Also. I was thinking of painting othe inside of a sheet of Plexiglass and and then screwing that into the pad as it would give a nice smooth gloss finish to the inside of the engine compartment. Would the heat generated from the engine lead to warping? If not how thick of a plexi would you recommend?

 

[tpenfield]

Re: sunpad repair

Heat resistance and sound deadening would be good to have. . . So that would not be plexiglass.there are some engine room materials available, but they tend to be pricey. I think the cloth was a cheaper approach to sound dampening.

 

[Georgesalmon]

Re: sunpad repair

the cloth mesh was there for cosmetics only. so the underside of the lid would look nice.

 

[mysweetone]

Re: sunpad repair

Thanks fo ryour input inguys. Somehow I dont think that mesh cloth did a whole heck of a lot (if any) at helping to keep the decibels down. Does anyone have any suggestons on what I could cover the underside withh? I dont just want to paint the plywood black as when you open the hatch youll see the grain form the wood still... that would look cheesy...

 

[Georgesalmon]

Re: sunpad repair

exactly why the mesh was there. prime, sand, paint

 

[britisher]

Re: sunpad repair

I too have the full width engine cover/sunpad on my SR180 BR and I had mine recovered. The guy who did it used a Black cloth material ( called Black undercover or Scrim - helps with breathability) for the underside and then finished of with the hidem vinyl welt trim to cover the folded over top vinyl. Veada sell all that stuff. That said, I plan on using some soundproofing of sorts on the panels within the compartment. Car sound proofing materials can be mighty expensive, but I recall seeing some stuff in Lowe's where the AC/Furnace stuff is. They were self-adhesive panels with the top side in an aluminum type material with a sound proofing/insulation material sandwich. They didn't appear to be as expensive as car sound proofing. Just a suggestion.

 

[mysweetone]

Re: sunpad repair

I too have the full width engine cover/sunpad on my SR180 BR and I had mine recovered. The guy who did it used a Black cloth material ( called Black undercover or Scrim - helps with breathability) for the underside and then finished of with the hidem vinyl welt trim to cover the folded over top vinyl. Veada sell all that stuff. That said, I plan on using some soundproofing of sorts on the panels within the compartment. Car sound proofing materials can be mighty expensive, but I recall seeing some stuff in Lowe's where the AC/Furnace stuff is. They were self-adhesive panels with the top side in an aluminum type material with a sound proofing/insulation material sandwich. They didn't appear to be as expensive as car sound proofing. Just a suggestion.

Thanks for the information Britisher. I will check out Lowes in a little while and see what I can come up with.