remove interior side panels 96 talari z220
 

Hi all, its been a while since i have been on here. I am looking at putting a wake board tower on my 1996 talari z220. My question is: how much of a job is it to remove the interior side panels to get to the rear tower mount. Are the panels permanetley installed or are they easily removable? I don't want to tear my boat apart to find out, so any hints or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance, Scott.

Re: remove interior side panels 96 talari z220
 

It seems like an easy job, but it's not. On my boat, the side panels are all one piece, which requires all the seats to be removed, even including the rear bench seat. The side panels are mounted *inside* the upper hull mold. I've attached a pic that illustrates this. The almond colored piece is the side panel, and the white is the upper hull mold. To remove it, you need to be able to move the side panel down, and out, in an L shape move. It's nowhere as easy as it sounds...

Re: remove interior side panels 96 talari z220
 

I recently put a tower on my 97 198 Shabba SE. I had to remove the back bench seat, front seats, remove the side upholstered pads(where his pic above is showing what is underneath them) Form there, you can see the screws that attach the inside hull to the outside hull, those screws have to be removed, then near the floor of the boat, the "baseboard" if you will has to be removed. There are screws in the carpeted area that you have to find and unscrew. If you put a screwdriver in the top and lightly pry it outward and shine a flash light behind it you can get an idea of where to look for the screws. Once you have those removed, you'll have to remove the screws that hold the bottom of the inside hull to the exterior hull, then you can maneuver the inside hull away from the side to gain access to the underside of the outside hull. From there, after determining the location of the feet, I drilled my holes and put the biggest piece of plywood that would fit between the hull ridges. I was able to use a 3'' wide x 12" long 1/2' piece. If I had to do it again, I would use a little thinner so it will "conform" more to the inside of the hull. Anyway, take the plywood and mark vertical and horizontal lines across the face and while someone is holding it and while your looking in the hole, have your helper move the plywood to what they thing is the flattest spot on the underside of the hull, then you mark the plywood through the hole, closest to the vertical and horizontal lines and remove it and drill a matching size hole through the plywood. Once I had that done, I bought a tube of 5200 marine adhesive that I got at home depot for about $7. I liberally spread that on the face of the plywood, put the plywood on the hole, put the bolt thought the hull and the plywood and snugged the bolt till some of the adhesive spewed out. I let that sit overnight to dry and to basically fill any voids between the hull and the wood to where the backing plate was going to get screwed down to minimize the stress on the hull.

Took me 4 nights(5 hours a night) after work to install mine. Hardest part is finding a consistent way of measuring off the tower tubes to a fixed point on the boat to make sure it's all even. Both for the attachment point to the hull as well as when your sliding the tubes into the x-section. I'm as anal as the day is long and it had to be perfect so I was always trying to find different ways to measure to get all things even.

In addition, wired up 4 speakers and 600Watt amp. It ROCKS. If you haven't bought your tower, don't discount the ease of lowering and raising it. I got the Aerial Airborne from H20 watersports. Quality is great, however lowering and raising is a pain, takes 2 peeps to do it and I could see over time the screw threads becoming stripped. Just something to keep in mind if you have to raise and lower a lot. If you don't, I wouldn't think twice then about buying the Airborne.

Hope that helps, and sorry so long winded. (remember I said I was anal)

Re: remove interior side panels 96 talari z220
 

Mariah198se Good Info. Could you post some photos? I was thinking of the Aerial tower.

Re: remove interior side panels 96 talari z220
 

I guess I can only post one at a time.

Re: remove interior side panels 96 talari z220
 

Thanks for posting. Tower looks great. I will have to reread your steps to see what is involved.

Re: remove interior side panels 96 talari z220
 

I tried to post more pics of the install, but the upload kept failing. I'll try and post more later.

Re: remove interior side panels 96 talari z220
 

Thanks to all for the helpful info. The ariel airborne is the exact tower i am looking at. Thans for the pic of yours looks great.