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Sorry to resurrect a old thread; I just bought a used 2008 AR230. The area in front of the table pedestal is very soft. Unfortunately I didn't notice it during the pre-buy... I woulda got $600 more knocked off the price!) I took this deck panel off that covers the fuel tank. Do you think there is any chance of cutting the fiberglass open from the underside, removing the soft area of wood, and filling it with something that will adhere to the rest of the wood? I'm not afraid to try since I can order a new deck panel for $600.... which is quite a bit so I'd rather try something first. What do you recommend I fill it with?
update: I used my oscillating multi tool to cut open the fiberglass from the underside, and shave out the rotten balsa wood. It ended up being a 26" x 16" rectangle right in the middle of the deck platform that I ended up shaving out. I cut all the stuff out right down to the layer of fiberglass above (under) the gelcoat. I knicked thru the gelcoat in one spot, so I already ordered a tube of JB weld white gelcoat repair.
I coated it all with fiberglass resin/hardner mix, put my cloth down, coated some more, sandwiched my 3/8" plywood replacement, coated, clothed, more resin. Also added some 1x3 reinforcement boards to overlap my cut. Should turn out nice. Only $50 in gelcoat repair and fiberglass resin/clothspent... much better than buying the whole new fuel cover deck piece for $600!
Will be putting it back together saturday. Going to replace steering lines (should be showing up this week) and install some lighting power wires while this hatch is off.
update: I used my oscillating multi tool to cut open the fiberglass from the underside, and shave out the rotten balsa wood. It ended up being a 26" x 16" rectangle right in the middle of the deck platform that I ended up shaving out. I cut all the stuff out right down to the layer of fiberglass above (under) the gelcoat. I knicked thru the gelcoat in one spot, so I already ordered a tube of JB weld white gelcoat repair.
I coated it all with fiberglass resin/hardner mix, put my cloth down, coated some more, sandwiched my 3/8" plywood replacement, coated, clothed, more resin. Also added some 1x3 reinforcement boards to overlap my cut. Should turn out nice. Only $50 in gelcoat repair and fiberglass resin/clothspent... much better than buying the whole new fuel cover deck piece for $600!
Will be putting it back together saturday. Going to replace steering lines (should be showing up this week) and install some lighting power wires while this hatch is off.
I wish I would have done this on my cleanout hatch cover instead of trying to drill holes and let the rotfix/epoxy seep into the lower areas, it seemed like an easy solution but just cutting the "bottom" side out would have been a much better fix.
I wish I would have done this on my cleanout hatch cover instead of trying to drill holes and let the rotfix/epoxy seep into the lower areas, it seemed like an easy solution but just cutting the "bottom" side out would have been a much better fix.
Why do you say that? I have to tackle this job soon for my ski locker hatch and was planning on using your thread ideas to fix it. Is it not holding up or just too much work?
It was a lot of time/work and I'm still uncertain of all the areas I couldn't see/access, plus drilling holes and trying to syringe it in wasn't that productive.
Looking back I wish I would have dremeled the entire bottom off, scrapped all the rot and just place a new piece of plywood and fiberglassed over it, I think it would have been less work and I knew the job would be good,
update: I used my oscillating multi tool to cut open the fiberglass from the underside, and shave out the rotten balsa wood. It ended up being a 26" x 16" rectangle right in the middle of the deck platform that I ended up shaving out. I cut all the stuff out right down to the layer of fiberglass above (under) the gelcoat. I knicked thru the gelcoat in one spot, so I already ordered a tube of JB weld white gelcoat repair.
I coated it all with fiberglass resin/hardner mix, put my cloth down, coated some more, sandwiched my 3/8" plywood replacement, coated, clothed, more resin. Also added some 1x3 reinforcement boards to overlap my cut. Should turn out nice. Only $50 in gelcoat repair and fiberglass resin/clothspent... much better than buying the whole new fuel cover deck piece for $600!
Will be putting it back together saturday. Going to replace steering lines (should be showing up this week) and install some lighting power wires while this hatch is off.
It was a lot of time/work and I'm still uncertain of all the areas I couldn't see/access, plus drilling holes and trying to syringe it in wasn't that productive.
Looking back I wish I would have dremeled the entire bottom off, scrapped all the rot and just place a new piece of plywood and fiberglassed over it, I think it would have been less work and I knew the job would be good,
Thanks, looking at the bottom of the hatch it isn't readily evident how much is rotted out so I was hoping the rotfix would just seep in. I'm trying to imagine what scraping it out entails to decide which route I'm going to take.