Spar Maintenance

dave · Post by **dave** » Sun Jun 17, 2007 9:06 pm

Tigerlilly, no problem. I'm an old cat sailor from way back when and Murrays has always been a good place to look for hard to find stuff. Even doing a google search for monel pop rivets didn't do me much good, but Murrays always has had and hopefully always will have them.

Just my two cents worth on the 5200. In LONG experience rerigging old mast fittings I have found plane old silicone rubber to not only hold better on aluminum but it's also a better insulator on dissimilar metals. Getting things to really stick to aluminum THE SECOND TIME around can be very tricky. Nothing sticks to old silicone, including new silicone. A good amount of razorblade scraping and sanding and then cleaning with MEK will go a long way toward achieving a non contaminted surface, but that's still no guarantee that you will have a "bond". The fasteners are doing the work anyway, so I when in doubt, I would go with clear silicone rubber.

DaveR · Post by **DaveR** » Tue Jun 19, 2007 4:39 pm

Thanks - the 'boom plate" and rivets were pulling out of the mast. I used 5/16 bolts. Needed to drill a hole for 5/16 since the rivet holes were elongated some. All's well.
DaveR

dave · Post by **dave** » Tue Jun 19, 2007 5:14 pm

If you REALLY use the vang enough, under enough load, what you say is the way to go. Even 1/4" rivets will wear and loosen over time.

Dave