Hi Guys,
I got a 2006 GW 258 Journey last summer, great boat. Had it shipped up from Florida, it had a typical for Florida gunwale to gunwale Bimini. Too cold, too wet, for New Jersey where I have the boat now. Also impeded access to the bow.
I had local canvas guys look at the boat. Their prices were high. One guy wanted $3,400 for a helm enclosure. Yeah, OK.
I found out about Great Lakes Boat Top. They had great prices. Some confusion there, they had my boat listed as a 258 Voyager. Since I knew there wasn't a difference, I ordered it.
Came quickly. The downside to this is you have to install the snaps and mounting hardware yourself.
That's not bad as it turns out. The windshield track is there, you just put the snaps in, space them out. That locates the snaps for the canvas.
My process was to install the Bimini first. The enclosed directions locate where the socket for the bimini tubing should be located on the fiberglass sides of the helm. I was very careful with the measurements for that. With the help of my teenagers I then removed the old top and put on the new.
With the new top in place, I zipped in the clear vinyl and laid it down on the snaps in the windshield track. Made minor adjustments to the straps to get it to lay exactly right.
I then used a soft pencil to make a mark on the canvas where it laid up against the windshield snap. Next step was to use the supplied snaps and the snap tool to install the snap on the canvas at that pencil mark.
Couple of recommendations. Get a good snap tool. The one sold at West Marine is junk in my opinion. I got the one Great Lakes sells. This is a vise grip style with a punch and die set on the jaws. Works well and is adjustable for the thickness of the canvas. There are other tools but I think you need a good one to do this job right.
With the front and sides done, I tackled the aft curtain. Here you need to drill fiberglass to install the base snaps by screwing them in.
The canvas generally has reinforced points that show you where the canvas snap should go. After I installed that I could eyeball where on the fiberglass the base snap needed to be. I put down blue painter's tape in that area. I then installed the base snap into it's fitting on the canvas. That allowed me to make a mark on the blue tape where I needed to drill. The blue tape also helps prevent chipping of the gel coat when you drill the hole. I used the highest quality twist drill bits I could find, Irwin in my area. I needed 9/64ths for my hardware. I put 5200 sealant on the screw threads to seal the hole.
I left the canvas up for a couple of days and then tweaked the straps a bit. I still have a few more snaps to install, mostly where I need a close quarters drill to fit the area.
I'm happy with the results, was $1,000 less than a local shop. That's mainly because Great Lakes had the pattern. I will still use the local guys for other needs, but having the factory OEM top worked best for me.
I have some pictures here.
-rb
I got a 2006 GW 258 Journey last summer, great boat. Had it shipped up from Florida, it had a typical for Florida gunwale to gunwale Bimini. Too cold, too wet, for New Jersey where I have the boat now. Also impeded access to the bow.
I had local canvas guys look at the boat. Their prices were high. One guy wanted $3,400 for a helm enclosure. Yeah, OK.
I found out about Great Lakes Boat Top. They had great prices. Some confusion there, they had my boat listed as a 258 Voyager. Since I knew there wasn't a difference, I ordered it.
Came quickly. The downside to this is you have to install the snaps and mounting hardware yourself.
That's not bad as it turns out. The windshield track is there, you just put the snaps in, space them out. That locates the snaps for the canvas.
My process was to install the Bimini first. The enclosed directions locate where the socket for the bimini tubing should be located on the fiberglass sides of the helm. I was very careful with the measurements for that. With the help of my teenagers I then removed the old top and put on the new.
With the new top in place, I zipped in the clear vinyl and laid it down on the snaps in the windshield track. Made minor adjustments to the straps to get it to lay exactly right.
I then used a soft pencil to make a mark on the canvas where it laid up against the windshield snap. Next step was to use the supplied snaps and the snap tool to install the snap on the canvas at that pencil mark.
Couple of recommendations. Get a good snap tool. The one sold at West Marine is junk in my opinion. I got the one Great Lakes sells. This is a vise grip style with a punch and die set on the jaws. Works well and is adjustable for the thickness of the canvas. There are other tools but I think you need a good one to do this job right.
With the front and sides done, I tackled the aft curtain. Here you need to drill fiberglass to install the base snaps by screwing them in.
The canvas generally has reinforced points that show you where the canvas snap should go. After I installed that I could eyeball where on the fiberglass the base snap needed to be. I put down blue painter's tape in that area. I then installed the base snap into it's fitting on the canvas. That allowed me to make a mark on the blue tape where I needed to drill. The blue tape also helps prevent chipping of the gel coat when you drill the hole. I used the highest quality twist drill bits I could find, Irwin in my area. I needed 9/64ths for my hardware. I put 5200 sealant on the screw threads to seal the hole.
I left the canvas up for a couple of days and then tweaked the straps a bit. I still have a few more snaps to install, mostly where I need a close quarters drill to fit the area.
I'm happy with the results, was $1,000 less than a local shop. That's mainly because Great Lakes had the pattern. I will still use the local guys for other needs, but having the factory OEM top worked best for me.
I have some pictures here.
-rb
