My 80's Hobie 16 Pylons have corroded from contact with shims the prior owner has installed. The top 3" of pylon material has thinned material in sections and one pylon is cracked from the bolt hole up. I am also installing new front corner casings after having to resort to cutting the old ones off and the pylon holes are .25" out of alignment with the 2 front castings.
My plan for restoring the pylons is to insert 5" or so of the aluminum pylon sleeve from hobie into the existing pylons and JB weld it together with the Aluminum version. I plan to have the sleeves run 1" below the casting so I can then mechanically fasten them with 3 3/16" stainless capped/sealed rivets at the front and 2 sides of each pylon. Logic for only using 5" of pylon sleeve is to have just enough sleeve to rivet below the casting, but leave a section of exposed pylon in case this solution does not work and I need to later resort to cutting the pylon, inserting a longer sleeve and new piece of pylon just above it. I plan to then re-drill the pylon sleeve/combination to align with the holes in the new corner castings for installing the 4 1/2" bolts.
Does anyone have any better ideas? I saw lots of threads on using the sleeves, but little information on how people attached the sleeves to the existing pylons. I plan to start this process Thursday as the pylon sleeves are in transit. Any and all advice is greatly appreciated! thanks in advance!
Keith
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