Replacement material suggestions

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ronp

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On my flybridge there are some sliding door panels that hide all the wiring etc below the instrument panel. They were made of masonite or similar hardboard. All too frequently, the paint peels and cracks.

I think it is just not the right material to have in a damp environment like that, so before I repaint it yet again, anyone have any suggestions what to make new ones out of?

I thought of starboard, but that looks like it comes in 1/4" thickness at minimum. These have to be 1/8" to fit in the tracks.

Is there some kind of plastic panel that can be cut with a saw, and comes in opaque white, that I'm likely to find at a lumber yard or something?
 
you should be able to find some white frosty lexan, just like what's used on white hatches
 
Try Tap Plastics, they should be able to fix you up with an opaque plastic.
 
Well, I took a quick trip around at lunch. No one locally has anything suitable, at least, lumber yard, Ace, WM and HD all don't. HD had clear Lexan and clear acrylic.

I tried TAP and another online outfit, US Plastic, they both have a number of materials that might work. HDPE, Polypropylene, Polystyrene, PVC, ABS.

Most of those appear to come in a frosty white. They all say they are rigid and impact resistant, so they are probably strong enough for what I want. Any reason to prefer one over the others?

None of them appear to be UV stabilized. I'm thinking that may be OK since this is under a cover any time I am not using the boat, which is probably 90% of the time.
 
HDPE and maybe polypropelene won't glue and probably not good for painting. Too slick.

Tap Plastic has everything...if you have one in your area.
 
There are at least two choices that I would find acceptable:

Smoke gray color Lexan

White PVC. PVC can easily be glued and is cheap, the Lexan is likely stronger, more expensive and much more difficult to glue.

Imho. There are many options.

I use Piedmont Plastic which has a "local" outlet ( New Orleans area )
 
My electrical panel covers/doors are the smoked (black) acrylic plastic type. One broke last year, taped it back together & took it to a local glass company they ordered exact replacement material & even cut out all the holes for the hinges & knobs. Good Luck
 
Thanks all for the great input. It looks like TAP's stores are just on the West coast. So far I have not seen any similar retail operation in the NY metro area so I will probably be having something shipped. Hopefully they will cut somewhat to size so it is not an oversized shipment.

Bill, the smoked Lexan look would be nice but it wouldn't match anything else on the boat - it's an early 70's boat and it's less modern looking than that. I'm thinking it may look out of place. I don't know, OTOH maybe some updating wouldn't be bad.

I don't really need to glue anything, these are just flat sliding panels with finger holes. As long as I can cut and drill the stuff without special bits/blades, I'm set.
 
Just make sure you drill the finger holes with a Hole saw bit. Dremels with a rotary sanding disc work great for rounding the corners inside the hole. 1/4" starboard would work just fine. Just use a step router bit and "thin" the edge to the depth of the old track. If there was room you could put the step on the inside and you would never see it.
 
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