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Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Just skidding around

Hopefully I'll never need this, but just in case I ever have to do a belly landing some have installed a skid plate or either aluminum or stainless steel to protect the fiberglass hull from damage. A bit of weight, but cheap insurance.

Instead of building one from scratch, I tried a ScuffBuster Bow Guard XL first. 



It's 22ga stainless steel, and has a layer of glue preattached. After examining it I decided 22ga was just too thin to be useable as a skid plate. 





In addition, the shape of the unit did not lend itself to provide much protection.




Since that did not work, I had to make one myself. A SWAG made me use 16ga SS I picked up from Carlson Steel, and they were kind enough to make the cuts and bends for me.





 


After that I go to learn a new tool, an angle grinder to smooth and round the edges. Too much fun.








While upside down I mounted the drain plug.






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