Since I've been working on fixing the cabin door alignment I've found another issue that may or may not be an issue on other R-25s and R-27s.
I've always been a bit concerned about how much 'shudder' there is when closing the cabin door with a push or a gentle swing to close it... and it would not always close nicely and had to be pulled shut. When it's swung to close it kind of slams shut with a judder/shudder as if the door jam is not rigid. I could actually observe the jam and adjacent cabin wall simply flexing and shuddering quite badly as the door slamed shut.
So today I looked closely as to what was causing this.
What I found was quite an eye-opener so to speak. Pressing the cabin wall from the cockpit side in the lower left area I found I could easily flex the wall in about an 1/8" to 1/4" just by pressing it with my hand. The area I pressed was immediately adjacent to a screw that presumably attached the cabin wall to some interior fiberglass near the top of the cabin step. I proceeded into the cabin and pushed the cabin wall in the same area toward the cockpit and found it moved out about the same 1/8" to 1/4". Hmmm, with it pushed out I shone a flashlight down the cracked opening and saw that the screw I mentioned above was NOT engaging anything... it just stuck out into thin air. This screw was obviously positioned to low down and was missing engagement into the fiberglass moulding at the cabin steps hinge area. The solution was easy. I drilled a pilot hole 1" higher above the screw and ensured it engaged the inside fiberglass. Then I removed the screw that was doing nothing and used it in the new hole and sure enough this did the trick. There is now no flexing of the cabin wall in this area. It also made the cabin door seal much tighter and when closing the cabin door there is no evidence of the previously mentioned judder/shudder issue.
BTW as an aside -- this not the first time I've found screws positioned badly such that they engage nothing when screwed in. One example of this was when I removed both the walls at the rear of the V-berth for replacing the monkey fur with perforated vynal -- done free by Ranger Tugs by taking them to the factory. Several screws holding these walls simply were not doing what they were intended to do for securing the walls to several wood firing strips glued to the fiberglass. An easy mistake for the installer as the wood firing strips cannot be seen when drilling holes for screws unless careful measurements are taken before hand.
Upon further inspection of the cabin wall flexing issue I noted that there's a small gap (my index finger easily fit into the gap) between the rear cave wall and the cockpit/cabin wall. If I pushed on the cabin wall toward the cockpit near the top corner of the cave wall it would flex out some at the cabin door's jam area. At first I thought this gap was also contributing to the judder/shudder issue when closing the cabin door with some swinging force. So I placed a thickish shim slightly larger than my index finger's diameter into this gap to stop the flexing issue. At first this seem a good thing to do. However, having done this I noted the top left corner of the door frame (as viewed from the cockpit) moved forward and created a 1/8" gap between the door and the rubber seal. This was not good, so I removed the thickish shim. The left corner than sealed correctly. This whole area is very subject to misalignment depending on the various forces being applied.
The real solution for dealing with the thickish gap between the cave wall and the cabin wall at the door jam area is to simply place a shim into the gap that simply fills the gap without exerting any force onto the cabin wall. This shim can be glued into position or bolted into position by placing a through bolt from the outside cabin wall that goes through the shim and into and beyond the top of the cave wall and secured down tight. This will reduce the judder/shudder as the cabin door is slammed shut I mentioned above even more...as it will do at times if it's windy or the boat is rolling to port. I will make this a future task for myself.
The photo below shows the screw I relocated.
The photo below shows the 1" (approx) extent of repositioning the screw so that it properly engages fiberglass of the cabin step's moulding near to where the step hinges.
The photo below depicts the interior cabin wall area in the door jam's lower corner adjacent to the cave just above the cabin step that could be easily moved/flexed outwards toward the cockpit area before relocating the screw that was doing nothing. After the screw was relocated to engage the fiberglass correctly it resolved the flexing movement completely... with the screw tightened nicely it now made for a solid connection between the cabin wall and the interior.
I've always been a bit concerned about how much 'shudder' there is when closing the cabin door with a push or a gentle swing to close it... and it would not always close nicely and had to be pulled shut. When it's swung to close it kind of slams shut with a judder/shudder as if the door jam is not rigid. I could actually observe the jam and adjacent cabin wall simply flexing and shuddering quite badly as the door slamed shut.
So today I looked closely as to what was causing this.
What I found was quite an eye-opener so to speak. Pressing the cabin wall from the cockpit side in the lower left area I found I could easily flex the wall in about an 1/8" to 1/4" just by pressing it with my hand. The area I pressed was immediately adjacent to a screw that presumably attached the cabin wall to some interior fiberglass near the top of the cabin step. I proceeded into the cabin and pushed the cabin wall in the same area toward the cockpit and found it moved out about the same 1/8" to 1/4". Hmmm, with it pushed out I shone a flashlight down the cracked opening and saw that the screw I mentioned above was NOT engaging anything... it just stuck out into thin air. This screw was obviously positioned to low down and was missing engagement into the fiberglass moulding at the cabin steps hinge area. The solution was easy. I drilled a pilot hole 1" higher above the screw and ensured it engaged the inside fiberglass. Then I removed the screw that was doing nothing and used it in the new hole and sure enough this did the trick. There is now no flexing of the cabin wall in this area. It also made the cabin door seal much tighter and when closing the cabin door there is no evidence of the previously mentioned judder/shudder issue.
BTW as an aside -- this not the first time I've found screws positioned badly such that they engage nothing when screwed in. One example of this was when I removed both the walls at the rear of the V-berth for replacing the monkey fur with perforated vynal -- done free by Ranger Tugs by taking them to the factory. Several screws holding these walls simply were not doing what they were intended to do for securing the walls to several wood firing strips glued to the fiberglass. An easy mistake for the installer as the wood firing strips cannot be seen when drilling holes for screws unless careful measurements are taken before hand.
Upon further inspection of the cabin wall flexing issue I noted that there's a small gap (my index finger easily fit into the gap) between the rear cave wall and the cockpit/cabin wall. If I pushed on the cabin wall toward the cockpit near the top corner of the cave wall it would flex out some at the cabin door's jam area. At first I thought this gap was also contributing to the judder/shudder issue when closing the cabin door with some swinging force. So I placed a thickish shim slightly larger than my index finger's diameter into this gap to stop the flexing issue. At first this seem a good thing to do. However, having done this I noted the top left corner of the door frame (as viewed from the cockpit) moved forward and created a 1/8" gap between the door and the rubber seal. This was not good, so I removed the thickish shim. The left corner than sealed correctly. This whole area is very subject to misalignment depending on the various forces being applied.
The real solution for dealing with the thickish gap between the cave wall and the cabin wall at the door jam area is to simply place a shim into the gap that simply fills the gap without exerting any force onto the cabin wall. This shim can be glued into position or bolted into position by placing a through bolt from the outside cabin wall that goes through the shim and into and beyond the top of the cave wall and secured down tight. This will reduce the judder/shudder as the cabin door is slammed shut I mentioned above even more...as it will do at times if it's windy or the boat is rolling to port. I will make this a future task for myself.
The photo below shows the screw I relocated.
The photo below shows the 1" (approx) extent of repositioning the screw so that it properly engages fiberglass of the cabin step's moulding near to where the step hinges.
The photo below depicts the interior cabin wall area in the door jam's lower corner adjacent to the cave just above the cabin step that could be easily moved/flexed outwards toward the cockpit area before relocating the screw that was doing nothing. After the screw was relocated to engage the fiberglass correctly it resolved the flexing movement completely... with the screw tightened nicely it now made for a solid connection between the cabin wall and the interior.