Thread subject: Whaler Central - Boston Whaler Boat Information and Photos :: Montauk Igloo Cooler

Posted by luckydog on 05/20/10 - 2:42 PM
#2

Hi ,

I was in the same exact situation with my cooler a couple of years back. I'm almost embarrassed to tell you the lengths that I went to in order to preserve it, but here goes.
First I separated the top and bottom of the lid. If I remember correctly I think I was able to use putty knife and split the seam. After they were apart the foam came right out. I then remade the underside piece out of a starboard type of material (actually it was the stuff used for those white plastic cutting boards) I was able to buy a sheet of it from a local surplus materials place. After cutting it to fit in the top half of the lid I routed a groove around the underside edge so that it would fit the top lip of the cooler like the original. Before I put the two pieces together I cut two "rails" of the same material to fit lengthwise in the space between two halves of the lid (turned on edge) for strength. I screwed these into place from the underside of the new piece. To join the two pieces together I used stainless 1/8" pop rivets set in "blind holes" drilled through the side edge of the top piece and into the edge of the new piece. You can only see some of the rivets that are not covered by the cushion flaps. To top it all off (like I said great lengths) I drilled two 1/2 holes in each of the spaces made by the two rails on the inside(6 holes) and injected "great stuff" foam to ad extra support between the two pieces. I plugged the holes with white plastic hole plugs from Home Depot. I would not have bothered sharing all of this if it didn't work well. It's super strong and I never worry about hitting a wave with people sitting on it. This will be it's third season of use, still rock solid.