Bow Fish Finder replacement

[Heavy M]

Does anyone know of a manufacturer for a cover plate for 5" fish finder hole cut into the bow of my 2006 198 Elite.

I want to upgrade but I will have to cover that hole.

[1bluemcm]

Ya, me. ha.

I don't think any company per se is making them anymore. But I made one for mine out of 3/8" polycarbonate in case I ever wanted to mount a graph there. I'll try and post some pics in a bit of what I did. The previous owner made one and it kinda looked like doodoo, I'm going to have my new one dipped along with some other stuff. Not too hard to make, I might be able to do one for you since I have some polycarbonate left, but you may have to get it dipped, etc. Are you handy at all? The way I did it, it clamps on very securely but you might have to fine tune it a bit, you'll see in the pics.

If you can, post a pic of the hole.

[ClarkBird]

I made one out of 1/16" steel plate, welded a piece of 1/8" flat stock on the back for support.

[1bluemcm]

Material is 3/8 Makrolon - polycarbonate, from ebay. The stuff machines similar to wood using woodworking tools. Sharp tools are better, on the router you have to take your time removing small amounts at a time. I did a partial round over on the edges, the dull finish is after sanding to prep for hydrographics.

Making the basic plate is easy enough, the dimensions of the plate and position of the screw holes may need to be custom for your rig. The wide beam boats look like they have a wider flat area up there, which might make it easier. I can make the plate easy enough and you can make the holes, or if I had a template of the hole, I could make the holes too. You mainly just want it to end up square and not looking off kilter.








I decided to try a different way to mount it. The four corner holes from the previous plate done by the previous owner would put the screw heads at the extreme edges of the plate and the flat area there in the center is really narrow, this is about as big as I could make the plate and have it conform well.

I used 1" aluminum angle, the heavier stuff, and devised a way to use through bolts so it can be clamped down. Very secure. I notched out the angle material a bit so that it interlocks with the opening to prevent it from shifting too. I don't have plans for a graph on this, probably just a clamshell to run wiring through, but it could probably hold a graph on a RAM or similar mount no problem.







In the pic above and below, you can see on the back side toward the side edges it's dull. I sanded the sides down a hair on the back to fit the contour of the cap. It's not perfectly flat. If I had mounted the plate with a flat back, there were big gaps at the top and bottom edges because the cap is not flat. It's all about the details with this refurb job, so I took the time to make it fit well.