Saturday 5/29
Today is removing the vertical posts holding the tank in position. There are four posts that hold the tank to the side of the boat. There a fiberglass wedges that keep the tank from moving fore and aft. So between the wedges, the side of the boat and the four posts, that is all that holds the tank in place.
Each post has two bolts at the bottom that hold to post to ribs under the tanks and two bolts at the top that go into the floor joists. From removing the center section of the ceiling the inside of the bolts are accessible. The nut on the end of bolt is also above the ceiling over the tank. The aft most bolt took all day Saturday to get at and them remove. All the ceiling aft of the tank had to come down and that meant the hot and cold water lines also had to be lowered. Part of the work on this project is committing to remove something. I try not to take apart any more than I have to so some time is deciding how to do something and not doing too much. But once committed, then the parts come out. I am not happy removing this much ceiling as I know I have to put it all back together. Once I could get at the nut on the bolt there was only enough space to use a little wrench to undo it, 1/8 of a turn at a time. Then, of course, the bolt would not just slide out, it also had to be unscrewed 1/8 of a turn at a time. The bolt was 6” long. So that was a good hour of work. It would be nice to have power tools for this work.
Sunday 5/30
To make a long story short, the other 7 bolts came out today. They were a little easier as the ceiling to be removed was smaller and once the nut was off, I hooked up my power screwdriver to a socked and powered out the bolts. Much easier then yesterday.
With everything obvious clear of the tank, the big test was it move toward the center of the boat. With my crowbar and hammer I could wedge outside of the tank and with one big pull the tank moved several inches toward the center. Success! This tank is free. Now we have a de-tanking party.
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