advice on re-core fuel cell hatch

[phatdaddy]

never did like the way wellcraft had sheet metal screws holding down the hatch, too easy to strip out, kept loosening up, etc. decided to see if i could improve on this. screwed some aztec board to the stringers, going to drill and tap and put some 1/4-20 stainless screws in them. for the ones on the forward side i had to epoxy some starboard on the lip, bulkhead was to far away.

the "clamps" are pieces of 2" pvc, work great




when i changed out the tank 3 years ago, i had to cut the lip off one side. replaced it with aztec also



epoxy supplies should be here tuesday, tying to get it back together for snapper season,

all 3 days of it

[wellcraftv20step]

Looks like it will work well phat, love the pvc clamp!!!!!

[phatdaddy]

supposed to rain today, so i started this phase:



well, weatherman lied, but i was already committed,



waiting on epoxy to cure now. not too happy with work, ply had more warp in it than i thought, hope i got a good bond

[RidgeRunner]

Weight, shoulda added weight to the plywood to press it into the adhesive. My .02 probably a little late now.

[SkunkBoat]

Thats one reason why they use little squares instead of a full piece

[phatdaddy]

I did ridge, i had 6 five gallon buckets full of water, plus a couple of of battery cores and 100 lbs do lead ingots on it. I applied a thickened mixture of cabosil and epoxy on the hatch, wet out the ply and put it on the floor. Then stacked the weight on. Worked great. After that, a layer of 6oz cloth.

Solid as the deck of the kitty hawk now.

Exactly skunk. I was thinking about doing the squares again, but figured this was faster.

Worst part of the whole deal is my caulking.

[RidgeRunner]

LOL, cool. Weight will mash that plywood in nicely. Good job.