Compression post shim
Here's the deal... the reason the bulkhead was warping was because the compression post is (was) 1/2" too short. I called Frank Butler and in a conference call with Gerry Douglas we came up with a shim kit that is needed for some of the earlier 310's. The shim is 1/2" thick with a slot for the smaller alignment post on the bottom of the compression post/base plate. Also, the shim has holes bored in the corners for the mounting screws to pass through. I used blocking just in front of the compression post to allow a 4" gap so I hsd room to slide the shim in when the base plate was raised. On top of the blocking, I used a 1" thick piece of steel then a 12 ton bottle jack. The jack pushed up against 2 two by fours laminated together. The 2x4's went up to 2 pieces of 3/4 plywood about 10" square with a couple of layers of carpet between the ply and the cabin ceiling. It took several hours of gently jacking up then leaving for an hour or so to let things set in. When I returned each time, I put a 1/2 or 3/4 crank on the jack handle until things tightened up again then stopped. As soon as I had the 1/2" plus a tiny bit more, I slid the shim in, aligned the screw holes and gradually removed the pressure. I did not take pictures and I did not allow my wife on board until all was done and cleaned up. I really did not want her to see a 12 ton bottle jack pushing the cabin roof up in the V berth. Catalina was great to work with and "Warren" in Tech. (Florida) was a great help.
