Panel replacement with Starboard?

[bhemi]

I have a 1992 Marlin. In the helm area outboard of the seats is the area where there are the drink holders and open storage areas. The vertical panels below these are made of the melamine covered plywood material that Grady seemed to use everywhere back then. On my boat they seem to be very weak and have some cracks (dryrot?).

As winter has set in here in the Pacific Northwest I need a project. Is Starboard an acceptable replacement? I'm going to change my pseudo-teak over to Starboard as well. I looked at the King Starboard website and I think I should should use the regular Starboard for the toe rails and Starboard XL for the side panels.

Is this the right material? If not does anybody still sell that melamine covered plywood?

 

[LI Grady]

I have a '90 Marlin and have noticed the same thing on mine. I would think that starboard would work fine.

Not sure how it would work out cost wise, but in the past on my Pacemaker I've had great results with simple plywood (not even marine grade) coated with West Systems epoxy (normal resin would work and be cheaper) and then covered it with Mica (simple contact cement).

I'm in the Northeast and this has held up great in areas fully exposed to the elements 9 months out of the year.

 

[Hookup1]

Panel replacement

The starboard is a excelent choice for exterior situations. UV stable. The material works almost like wood - cutting, routing and sanding. Get a table saw and router (for the edges) and your on your way.

King is the right vendor. I used the "seafoam" color (off white/biege) for an interior project but it may not be the right color match for the gel cote. Taco repackages the King product - West or Boaters World have black, white and seafoam - otherwise your have to find a local distributor.

Here's the interior cabinet door I did....

Good luck!!!

 

[Leebert]

I did the exact same thing on my 94 Marlin this past Spring. It turned out great. I even went as far as replacing some of the other rotten laminated wood with starboard. If you didn't know it was starboard you wouldn't notice it at all. The white color matched almost perfectly.

On a side note, I also replaced the wood where the carpeted drink holders are as they were really rotten. I replaced them with plywood like they were originally but I completely glassed them over to seal them and then added new carpet.

On yet another side note, I decided to refinish the exterior wood and not replace with starboard. I prefer the wood look for trim. I had to belt sand the fake wood off then palm sand and refinished with a one step Minwax polyurethane gloss stain. I could not be happier with the results. This winter I'm going to do the same to the helm switch panel.

LB

 

[Gary M]

When deciding on a panel to flush-mount the electronics, we went with a textured, black plastic that we bought and had cut at a custom plastics shop. It came out great! Something like that would also look very sharp for what you'd like to do.......

 

[BobP]

The Grady plywood and formica covered is very good and strong. Older vintages used wood gran formica, newer models were off white.

Never meant to be exposed to water though on the open end grain.

If there are concerns, heat up the end grain with a hair dryer and let the resin soak in, then no more concerns.

 

[TBone]

I replaced mine with Starboard, the bottoms of the original plywood wicked water up and rotted the bottom inch or so.

Love the Starboard!!!!!!!! and never have to worry about replacing it again!

I replace all the duratrim with mahogany and used teak oil to treat it.

I bought 2x4 stock mahogany and just ripped the pieces out...easy and looks great.

 

[Grouper Duper]

I replaced everything you mentioned with StarBoard years ago and haven't touched any of it since. The ony issue I've had was I didn't drill "oval" holes for the screws. This was mentioned by StarBoard to leave room for expansion/contraction. My longer pieces do "bow up" a bit when we get into the hot Florida summer. I just ignore it.