Re-coring fuel tank cover

[dcobbett]

I’m in the process of re-coring the cover over the fuel tank in my 1976 20’SF. The existing 3/8” plywood core was made up of 6” x6” squares, with narrow filler strips around the edges. The wood was totally rotten and it took me less than 1 hour to strip it down to the underside of the ‘glass cover piece. I still need to sand down the exposed surface, but I’m going to rebuild the piece and I’d appreciate some advice regarding the rest of the process.

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The existing ‘glass cover is about 2’ wide by 5’ long and I have some idea as to what is probably required. Also, I’ll be doing the work inside the house, so I’ll use epoxy to keep the smell down.

Once I sand the underside of the cover, should I lay in a layer of glass and set the new core on that?

If I use ply for the new core, should I cut it into pieces like SeaCraft did, and should I bevel the outer (perimeter) edges of the wood? Also, should I hold the wood back from the perimeter 1” or so to allow the hold down fasteners to be in resin/glass rather than wood?

What type of cloth (and how many layers) should I apply over the new core, and should that be coated with any kind of paint, etc.?

[OFFSHORESYSTEM]

its not that diffucult to do/ after you grind the underside of the hatch and cut what ever you are going to use for a core i would sugest the you use a flat table to do you lay up on this will make sure that you hatch is flat in the end the rest is just glassing the core inthe reason for the little peices belive it or not is so the manufactor doesn't have any waste[use to build hatches for mako]good luck with project

[Ed]

DCobbett-

When I used to work at Wilco Marine, these jobs usually wound up on my to do list [img]/images/graemlins/crazy.gif[/img]

I have honestly done about a dozen of them.. The important thing to consider at this step is to determine what do you want to recore with....marine ply, divinycell, nidacore, coosa, etc.

Shoot me an email and let me know what coring you are leaning toward and I will give you a run down on how I would attack the project. I can also give the name of a local north shore place where you can buy resin, glass, etc.

-Ed-

[RS]

determine what do you want to recore with....marine ply, divinycell, nidacore, coosa, etc. ...
let me know what coring you are leaning toward and I will give you a run down on how I would attack the project.

I've been following this thread because I'll be attacking this same project in the spring. I would be interested in which lightweight coring you would recommend and how you would approach it. Thanks.

[Scott]

hehehe ...I remember doing that !!

from this ....



To this ....

[Finster]

Hey Scott, remember the land speed record for hatch recoring? Hah! Hold on let me go find a pic.........OK got it!

[Trayder]

I have re-cored panels using plywood , Nida-Core, and most recently used ATC brand Corecell. Corecell was by far the easiest to work with you can cut it with a utility knife much like dry-wall.

Here is a link to my repair with Corecell Fuel deck hatch

[Ikan Besar]

are those pic's from Thunder Pig??!!

[thedink9]

Dan

Tackled the exact same job a year ago. Unless you are trying to reduce weight, I would replace with plywood. I laid down a layer of cloth mat first and laid the plywood into it. Be careful around the edges as you need to leave enough space for the wood to rest inside the channel, when you reinstall. I beveled the edge all around so the cloth would form around it nicely. You could do all the glass work in one step but I elected to glass the wood down first. Once set, I removed my weights from the wood , gave it a light sand and then laid one layer of mat , followed by one layer of 1708 biax.
After it warmed up outside I painted the entire bottom with a few coats of epoxy paint and that was it! You already did the hardest part , removing the old rotted wood. The rest is easy! Rich