Carver Owners Forum

Hello Folks,

Last week I was in a hurry to get to a bridge opening and unfortunately left the dock whist still plugged in. I broke the starboard access door to the power hookup. UGH!
The door is made out of Carver 'white' lucite. (we know it's an off-white)
I visited two businesses today and one can manufacture a unit in standard white. The second offered the same service with an additional option of a 'seafoam starboard', which leaned beige. The latter material does not have a 'shiny' surface and will not match the finish of the fiberglass.
I am thinking that if I can find a source for the lucite, I would purchase it and then bring it to the business to fabricate.
As we well know, I cannot contact the Carver folks for information on the source for part and am wondering if anyone on the site has been in a similar situation and how you went about the fix.

Thanks,
Dennis

My rear door is made of what looks like solid fibreglass resin and about 7\8 of an inch thick. When I purchased the boat is was shrink wrapped and yours truly removed the wrap and the awesome really sticky tape they use. Turns out some of the paint came off with the tape and the door looked terrible. Lived with it for a couple of years and then decided to visit the local paint supplier. Brought in the door and they color matched a batch for me. A little prep work and after spray painting it with what the supplier called fibreglass paint, it still looks great today. Had plenty of paint left over so I actually painted our pool diving board and base this spring with the same paint which also came out looking great. Now I know this does not help you out in finding a replacement door however it opens up other alternatives for you. The doors you have look very similar to my interior doors of the cockpit so I will say they are made of acrylic assuming the same material. Here is the only picture I could find of those doors, please ignore my daughter.




Oddly enough it seems like all the pictures I have are with the rear door open. This will give you an idea though.

Whoops .......well what comes to mind for me would be to check around the area for boat salvage yards.....perhaps you can find some of that material in a larger door from who knows what........as you probably see there will be some fading/color change......I know there was on ours so worth a try......good luck.

Give The Marine Connection in Fort Pierce Florida a call.... http://themarineconnection.net/

I would like to take a moment and update the crew on the solution path I have chosen.
I found a local guy who will fabricate a new door out of white Lucite, using the undamaged port side as the template. He explained that it would be near impossible to match the original 2005 color of the access doors. In fact, they have faded due to age and if you look at the image the doors are no longer an exact match to the fiberglass.
I will then bring both doors to a local body shop and have him paint the doors. He will send a technician over to the boat to get the color via a 'gun' which reads and determines color.
The fabricator also suggested that StarBoard would be a 'stronger' material then lucite, however, that material cannot be painted.
I believe the final result will look at least as good and may even be a better match to the fiberglass.
I am certain that I will not let that mistake ever occur again!