[Kenn]

Have been working on the trim and I am getting tired of punching and drilling holes. The trim that is mounted to the upper unit (FRP living quarters) is easy to install with sheet metal screws. The lower unit takes much more time and has been a challenge. The corner pieces go into .120 wall tubing and the horizontal side pieces go into a .125 piece of 5" flat stoke welded to .120 tubing. My first plan was to use the sheet metal screw into the thicker material by drilling a larger hole, not. I did some testing on the workbench and found that it would wipe out the screw threads or just break the screw off. I tried removing broken off ss screws from mild steel and decided that was a bad plan. I got some ss drill point screws that Fastenal said were much stronger and they also broke off. I ended up using 10-24 ss button head machine screws. They are a close match to the sheet metal screws. I did a lot of testing on how to tap 200 + holes most of then into 1/4". I found some taper taps that don't cut a full thread until about 3/4 of an inch. Most of the holes are about 44 inches off the ground so I was able to use an old brace and bit to tap them. You can hold the tap square and run it in at a slow speed until most of the material is removed. My brother and I drilled 42 #26 holes into 1/4" and tapped them all in under forty minutes. We tried using a cordless drill but the lack of feel made me nervous. I still need to drill and tap the rear corner pieces and then plan to use the same black marine sealant that I used on the upper trim.