Gunnel rod holder repair ideas ?

[bgreene]

The V21 features the white fiberglass ( or is it plastic) horizontal rod storage port and starboard sides.

How best to repair a few cracks ( thanks to last person to work on my boat ) such as where the screws were over tightened and broke the mold ?

I removed the entire section while running the wires for the trim tabs so I can repair this now.

What type of compound / epoxy etc would set up nicely and not crack easily ?

[awthacker]

They're plastic. I reinforced mine with fiberglass and painted it with Krylon spray paint made for plastics.

[smokeonthewater]

permatex and others make a 2 part "plastic welding system" basically a black double barrel syringe. You squeeze it out and mix it just like 5 minute epoxy... It works better than anything else I ever tried on plastic... you can kill the cracks with a tiny drill bit, drilling each end of each crack. You can use thin glass cloth to reinforce if needed.

[smokeonthewater]

Actually now that I think about it... the rod boxes are not repairable... they're junk..... if you'll send em to me I'll see that they are disposed of properly lol

[jeffmo]

Originally Posted by awthacker

They're plastic. I reinforced mine with fiberglass and painted it with Krylon spray paint made for plastics.

that's exactly how i did mine.they turned our pretty nice and the fix was alot cheaper than buying replacements.

[phatdaddy]

i also repaired mine with fiberglass and some 2" tape. I also put a thin strip of pressure treated pine around the inside of the cut out in the hull. this gave the boxes a little more "meat" to screw to.

[reelapeelin]

In 13 years of V20 ownership, this '84 is my first time dealing w/factory, wellcraft rod holders...mine were mounted inside the cutout w/teak on the outside as trim...so the expectation is for the small screws going thru the thin plastic will hold up over time and punishment...I don't believe this to be a realistic expectation...if yer gonna remount the inserts inside the cutout, behind the plastic rod holder flange is where reinforcement is sorely needed IMO...the treated wood Phat mentioned would be ideal...

[bgreene]

These plastic gunnel rod holders dry out after years, no matter how well maintained.

Then, a marine mechanic must have used a screw gun and busted a corner off the plastic and cracked a few other spots by over tightening.

So, I just removed the panels and added this to my list of things to do.
I picked up some product at Lowe's that may work out.

Wellcraft could have / should have used a more substantial material for this fixtures.
They were obviously taking more and more " cost out of the boat " as the years went on.

It's our job to repair and replace things to make it better than original.
Better, stronger, faster.........

[reelapeelin]

Originally Posted by bgreene

These plastic gunnel rod holders dry out after years, no matter how well maintained.

Then, a marine mechanic must have used a screw gun and busted a corner off the plastic and cracked a few other spots by over tightening.

So, I just removed the panels and added this to my list of things to do.
I picked up some product at Lowe's that may work out.

Wellcraft could have / should have used a more substantial material for this fixtures.
They were obviously taking more and more " cost out of the boat " as the years went on.

It's our job to repair and replace things to make it better than original.
Better, stronger, faster.........

You can always buy new ones from Flounder Pounder...in our Links section...

[phatdaddy]

wellcraft did a much better job on rod boxes than dodge did on dashboards. gotta remember we are talking about 30 years old boats that are , far the most part, totally exposed to the elements.