2003 SANTE battery compartment enlarging

[tstoll]

Where did you purchase all the cloth and resin?

[2004196]

Ccore-rider,

I still commend you on your workmanship, very impressive!

[core-rider]

Where did you purchase all the cloth and resin?

fiberglasssite.com

They are really helpful answering all my questions and have everything yuo could need to do a rpoject llike this. Shipping is quick too from Ohio to Alabama is only about 3-4 days from time of order. They also have a great online guide that can be printed out to answer any questions you may have.

Ccore-rider,

I still commend you on your workmanship, very impressive!

Thanks man, this is definately a big project! Was hoping to be done by now, but have too many irons in the fire.

[core-rider]

Got the final few layers of fiberglass done. Just waiting on the resin to cure so I can cut to holes for the water drain back into the bilge, paint the compartments black, then I can put the carpet back in place and start putting this whole mess back together. Last layers of 18 oz. woven roving...





Final layer of 10 oz. cloth to finish things up nice and give a somewhat smooth finish.

[core-rider]

Ready to start putting thing back together now! Got the drain holes drilled, resined and painted both boxes.

[core-rider]

Some actual visible progress made tonight! Got the carpet laid back down, trimmed to fit the new openings, and re-installed the floor over the fuel tank. Also spent some time running my 1/0 gauge power cables to may new amp rack from the batteries on the port side and mounted the new Perko selector switch on the starboard side. No pics of that just yet... I will post stereo mods in the near future.

[core-rider]

Got the "house batteries" in place and wired tonight, mounted the Perko switch, all I just need to buy a third battery and the power side of the system will be done.



2 - Group 24 batteries wired in parallel. Once these go bad I will replace them with Group 27's.




Used some scrap pieces of HDPE from my amp rack to attach the 1/0 gauge cables running from bow to stern...



Here are some pics of my amp rack which is the whole reason I took on this little project. I used HDPE (Starboard) for the rack. It holds a WS Syn4 for the tower speakers, Kicker IX1000.1 for the subs, and Kicker 500.4 for the in-boat speakers. I have the taped up right now for protection until I'm done working.




Template for the amp rack...


HDPE sheet before and after cutting. The circle in the middle marks a hole that I have not cut yet of the thru-hull fitting the glove box drain has to go through.



Pre-wired as much as I could before installation. Some people like to hide all the wiring, but I like the looks as long as it is neat. I wish I could have done a better job of the power cables crossing over one another, but it couldn't be avoided. The smaller black box above the Syn4 is for an auxiliary power source. It has 6 separate fused circuits. I'm using it for the remote turn-on relay for the amps. It will eventually power LEDs of whatever I need in the future.

[vanislwake]

That's some serious power! Very nice work, can I ask how you secured the amp rack to the hull? My boat has a piece approximately 12"x12" already secured to the hull where one amp was but now I have 3 amps.

[GAGS]

Great job CR! You should be commended on your workmanship and attention to detail, well done.

[core-rider]

That's some serious power! Very nice work, can I ask how you secured the amp rack to the hull? My boat has a piece approximately 12"x12" already secured to the hull where one amp was but now I have 3 amps.

I previously installed a second board to the hull with Liquid Nails a few years ago to add a second amp. I used it and the factory amp board as backers and just screwed the new board to it.

[Texan1554]

Looks great man, nice work.

[Cam003]

I am just wondering how many layers of glass you laid down. i may be doing this same mod in the near future, do to a very similar stereo setup.

[RogueOne]

Beautiful craftsmanship!

[core-rider]

I am just wondering how many layers of glass you laid down. i may be doing this same mod in the near future, do to a very similar stereo setup.

I started with a 1/8" piece of HDPE just to make sure I had some thickness on the bottom of the compartments and have a nice flat surface to start with. I put down 2 layers of a 10 oz. fiberglass cloth first, then a layer of 18 oz woven roving. I went back after that and added some 18 oz woven roving to each corner to help build them up a bit more. 2 more layers of 18 oz. woven roving in each compartment, then one more layer on 10 oz. fiberglas cloth for a nice smooth finish. Each of the woven roving layers I went eavy on the resin build up to make sure those layers wee good and saturated. In all the base is probably 1/4" thick and the sides are probably 1/8" thick. Everything feels really strong and solid. I know it's probably not as thick as the factory boxes were, but they had some serious build up going on.

[core-rider]

Got everything powered up Wednesday night and didn't see smoke so I guess I wired everything up correctly. Did a little pre-tuning in the garage but couldn't really crank it up without bothering neighbors. Been cleaning interior since then getting ready to take the boat out tomorrow and really get the gains set and do a little rust shaking wake set. Will post up some pics later today of finished project with seat bse in place. Everything fit great, almost like I had measured and planned it out or something! :-D