external chainplates

[county]

I want to install new chain plates in my Mao-Ta 36 very similar to the H.C.36 and Union 36, the chainplates are buried behind the interior woodwork and shelving. From what i read on this board and many others it looks like plenty of people are going external and using the existing chainplates as backing plates for ease of installation and inspection (sounds good to me).
What I'm hung up un is the how.
Are you lopping off the heads of the existing bolts then drilling new holes thru the hull and the old chainplate or drilling out the old bolts or am I just missing something?

Please if any one has any insight it would be greatly appreciated!

[scleary]

Although I have no experience with converting to external, I would think in order to do it you'd have to get access to the existing plates, because regardless of the approach the existing bolts have to come out. If you take the head off the bolt, it needs to be driven out into the interior...if you take the nuts off, the bolts need to be driven out from the inside. In either case, you'd already have to pull everything apart on the interior to get at them.

The 2 HC's i've owned either had them exposed for easy access, or with access panels that were easily removed for inspection/removal.

Ultimately, no matter what you do...you will need to remove the bolts in order to inspect-be they internal or external. That being the case, every 'inspection' will involve removing the plates completely. I'd invest your effort in creating access panels.

Just my .02

[mimoza]

That makes sense to me. In order to be confident in backing plates, I would think one would want to know as much about them as possible. Instead of reinventing the rig, why not use the existing design and just make the chainplates more accessible?

[marzipanj]

Here's where in a previous thread the consensus was that converting to external was far more efficient, if not the only possible option: viewtopic.php?f=7&t=3873&start=15

These people seem to have solved the problem of the bolts somehow, in their conversion to external--I just don't see how.