In the process of making my gates, I took a lot of previous posts from members here and applied this process to my boat.
1. I made the pattern out of cardboard and taped it to the area where I thought it should go. A benefit that I had is I had the wicked wake surfgates for both sides and used those for my mock ups.
2. Once the pattern and size where decided and cut (cardboard), I used the pattern and cut the gates out of coosa board. Worked great. Once cut out, I sanded them down. I placed the SS hinges on the gates and set them where I thought they needed to be. I drilled the holes out and on the outside of the gates, I drilled bigger holes so the bolt heads would be buried and not shown on the finished product. I used a marine epoxy from menards and secured them so they would not twist out.
3. Next, I mocked up where the gates were going to go on the boat....use lots of blue painters tape so you not scratch your boat. Marked the holes that needed to be drilled. Countersunk all of them...a bit nerve racking, but after the first few....went pretty easy.
4. As others on this site, I did use lenco actuators... The newer faster ones...pretty nice too! Decided where they needed to go and drilled the gate as well as the boat.
5. Sent the gates off to be fiber glassed and gel coated. I have to be honest...this is where the budget went bye bye. I had no idea how much this would be and all I can say is the place I took the gates to could match the color to my boat...which was a plus...but they had 19 hours of labor in my gates@ $117 an hour. You do the math!! Not saying they did not do a great job....but more than what I wanted to spend. Also got surf gate emblems off eBay to make it to look as factory as possible. They do look fantastic though!!!
6. Got the gates back, assembled hinges, mounting brackets for the actuators, and mounted to the boat. It did require 2 people to do this. Used 3m marine sealant 4200 fast cure. Sealed on both sides and as the pics show...I did make backing brackets for the backside. Some say you do not need them, but you can not over engineer in my mind.
7. I did run manual switches up by the dash to operate the gates. I will add a pic later to show this. I may look at a controller in the future, but this will do for right now.
8. I may raise the swim platform in the future, but I want to see how it does. One reason I did not is because I have the Malibu ladder mounted underneath the swim platform. I did relocate the ladder because it originally mounted where the gates are. I will add a pic to show what I did. I still want my kids to able yo use the ladder...another reason I have not raised the swim platform yet. We will wait and see.
9,. I think this is all at this time. If you have question, pm me and I will try to help. I will update if more mods are needed for this project.
10. I have added pics of the switches I added near the dash.
Looks awesome!! Love those 247's!!
