[C320-list] Trojan battery installation

[Troy Dunn]

Jack

LOL.  I know what you mean.  I get a kick out of looking at other folks
project pics and having those moments of 'wait a second, what the heck is
that thing...my boat doesn’t look like that at all.'   I probably should
have taken way more pictures of the tear out.  Based on how Catalina
constructed those shelves on Hull #514 and assuming that they used a
similar layup process for most of the hulls that were post shallow bilge
but pre Mark II, there is no chance that the shelves will be identical in
any of those boats.  Close yes, but not identical.  The shelves on Hull 514
were simple plywood that was tabbed in to the inboard lining that forms the
base of the settee with a couple layers of what looked like woven roving
and then simply epoxied or glued in place on the hull side with some pink
stuff that reminds me of bondo.    Then the plywood was painted with white
bilge paint.  I would say that the level that the shelf was placed could
have changed plus or minus an inch or so and it would have only made a
difference in how thick the battery hold down block was to hold down the 4D
case sized battery.

A big problem with those shelves was the screws that held the battery tray
in place penetrated the plywood shelf so over time any battery spills would
work into the plywood at the screw holes.  My aft shelf was in bad shape
and bending at the aft end where there is no end support, under the weight
of the battery.  I'd bet that many of the shelves on many of the 320s are
probably compromised to some degree.  Both of my trays were in terrible
shape with many cracks around the screws and deteriorating in some areas.
The forward shelf was in surprisingly pretty good shape.  I suspect the PO
either overfilled or had some other issue with the aft battery.

The new shelves are 1/2” MDO covered in 2 layers of fiberglass layed up
with epoxy resin (epoxy is acid resistant...polyester resin is not).
These are tabbed in on three sides with biaxial fiberglass 'tape' that I
made by cutting up bi axial fiberglass cloth into 3” and 5” widths.  They
are supported underneath by small rails that were epoxied in place.   I
also made a mold for shallow battery trays and made an initial prototype
tray using epoxy resin and woven cloth.   I can't decide If I should follow
through on that approach or bite the bullet and buy 2 of the $70
polyethylene battery boxes and cut them down...still noodling that one.
I'll have more images posted up in the gallery at some point...

Cheers

T