Kidney plate for Centurion

[bjsavage7[TK]]

I was thinking of going for Centurion, when one obvious problem presented itself.....no matter how much I suck in my gut, my side gaps will not meet. I'm a half inch shy on each side.

I have ATA & I really don't want to use shims for such a small gap.

Would it be wise to replace just the kidney plate with a larger one? RT possibly?

Anyone else done that?

All advice is welcome

[captsafe66[Admin]]

Do you remeber if you trimed any off the original kidney plate? Terrell sold me an extra one that I will use for my shims, I have more than a half inch though...lol!

[bigironvault]

You could... but that would be the way more expensive option. But I do understand why you don't want to shim.

[bjsavage7[TK]]

Do you remeber if you trimed any off the original kidney plate? Terrell sold me an extra one that I will use for my shims, I have more than a half inch though...lol!

Nah, nothing got trimmed off of it. I wish I could just trim myself. lol...

[Daetrin[Admin]]

Zero gap is not required. Per the CRL:

 

ideally there should be no gap between the ab and kidney plates, just a single visible seam line.

So ideally you're right, but it's not mandatory and not all screen seen TK's had zero gap.

[theisaac]

Can you shim and still get Centurion? I see the "ideally there should be no gap". So would it be ok to shim or just leave (in my case) a large gap?

[LadyInWhite[TK]]

"Ideally" is the catch word that can mean "I can be lazy and not worry about that" or "I have tried to find a solution and it's not working for me" in order to give you a little bit of leeway.

 

Ideally it should be as small a gap as possible... but like Paul said, not all screen TKs had zero gap.

 

I would have had 1" gap which for me was ugly so I shimmed both sides. "Ideally" when I lose the 25lbs. I really should not be hefting around and return to my supermodel physique, I can pull the shims off and voila!

[Nicky]

I have a question, on how to eliminate the gap beyond what the CRL says.

 

When you successfully shim the gap, I understand the use of webbing straps instead of elastic would help keep the gap minimal, what kind of material overlapping behind the tiny tiny gap would help making the line disappear best?

 

Has anyone tried to fasten the two plates/shim with overlap, inner shim and/or silicone caulk?

[TrooperJay]

For the gaps, I simply used a 3 inch wide piece of elastic and ran it the length of the kidney and ab plates. Because i used the elastic sideways, (not in stretch direction), it provided strength similar to that of nylon webbing. It made for a great quick solution!

[SCTrooper[TK]]

The rt-mod kidney piece is actually not as roomy as the ata, but is a bit taller.