Pacific trawler 40 pilothouse headliner

Well, no joy after posting this on the Pacific Trawler Owners Forum, so thought I'd try the General Discussion forum:

I own a year-2000 Pacific Trawler 40. Immediately forward of the topside "stack" on the flying bridge is a deck fitting that carries the headstay load from the mast. The fitting is a 5/16" U-bolt, with the nuts and (hopefully) backing plate buried under the headliner in the pilothouse overhead.

Does anyone have insight how to remove the pilothouse headliner so I can inspect the backing plate and fixing nuts for this deck fitting? The headliner itself appears to be a vinyl-faced foam, about 1/4" thick, presumable glued to a backing board of some sort that is, in turn, fastened to the pilothouse overhead in some indeterminate manner.

But it's a mystery to me how to remove this headliner for inspection behind it. I'd hate to ruin the entire headliner for the sake of this inspection, so hopefully someone knowledgeable about how this headliner is installed can lend some insight into how to remove the silly thing! Any help would be appreciated.

Regards,

Pete

My boat is considerably older than yours, but I suspect the same applies. Don't try removing the headliner; you will end up paying for a professional to instal a new one.

I suggest locating the position of the nuts and backing-plate by feel and/or measurement. Cut the headliner neatly around the perineter of the plate and inspect. Make up a small varnished panel to cover the hole and secure in place by whatever means you see fit. Be very careful if you decide to drill into the overhead fiberglass.

Good advice from Mike. Whenever I need to get behind something, a well finished decorative cover plate is always part of the process. I've even done one overhead cover with an engraved brass nameplate with the vessel info.

I finally bit the bullet on mine and removed it. This was necessitated by the installation of new electronics and supporting wire runs. Mine resembled an automotive headliner, stapled to transverse wood bows with millions of staples. I have to hand it to Viking, the headliner survived 40 odd years and looked brand new - just zero overhead access for anything.

The replacement is going to be along the lines of some newer Hatts I've seen where the headliner panels (vinyl [?] streched over a foam board and velcro'd in so they can be removed for future access.

Larry - I want to do a similar thing with the brass plate over an access hole I had to cut. The brass stock material I've seen on line seems really flimsy - 0.020 to 0.040" thickness. There obviously needs to be enough meat to accept the engraving. I plan for it to be screwed in place with 4 screws at corners. What did you use?

I haven't seen the liner in one of those so can't say for sure but I also like the idea of a cut-out with replacement custom access panel.

Just be very damn careful cutting with possible hidden wiring up there.

I saw a "custom" panel in a stateroom that had a dark plexi insert. It looked just like a small skylight and nobody gave it a second thought.

Why are you thinking about this anyway? Are you suspicious about the mounting or just curious?

Sbu22: you might find the brass plate you are looking for at onlinemetals.com

The box home improvement stores have plastic disk with sticky tape already on the back. There purpose is to go over a door knob hole in sheet rock. I have seen 2 sizes and 2 colors. I refer to them as "hide uglies" a and b according to size. Good for some interior applications.

When I installed a radar mast on my Camano I needed access through the headliner for the mounting bolts. I ended up cutting a round hole in the headliner and mounting a round plastic deckplate. Since the plate and the headliner were both white nobody even noticed it was there.

Appreciate it, Shoal