Dougcole
Guru
Hi All,
Along with my fuel tank replacement, I found this little gift under the tree today, and I'm soliciting repair advice from the board.
This is in a notch that was cut for the forward engine mount in my port side, midship stringer. With the motor out for the tank replacement, I can see it and reach it easily, which would not have been the case with the engine in place. So I'm lucky, I guess? I have no idea why Mainship cut that notch, they built the height back up with aluminum plates under the mount, it's odd and they did not do it on the starboard engine. I strongly suspect that they cut the notch and did a poor job putting a new skin on top, resulting in the void. I'm stumped as to where the moisture came from though as this area never gets wet.
I dug back in with an oscillating saw until I got to solid wood core all around, it's about 2" high, 1" wide and 3/4" deep. It's still a little damp though. This is my plan, please let me know if you have suggestions.
1. Use a heat gun to dry it out as much as possible.
2. Paint unthickened epoxy in to soak the core.
3. While the epoxy is still wet, layer in thickened epoxy.
4. Push in a small block of plywood to fill the void, with more thickened epoxy on top.
5. Put a couple of layers of mat in to fill the hole.
6. lay a layer of cloth over the top, overlapping onto the sides of the stringer.
7. sand and paint.
Thanks.
Doug
Along with my fuel tank replacement, I found this little gift under the tree today, and I'm soliciting repair advice from the board.
This is in a notch that was cut for the forward engine mount in my port side, midship stringer. With the motor out for the tank replacement, I can see it and reach it easily, which would not have been the case with the engine in place. So I'm lucky, I guess? I have no idea why Mainship cut that notch, they built the height back up with aluminum plates under the mount, it's odd and they did not do it on the starboard engine. I strongly suspect that they cut the notch and did a poor job putting a new skin on top, resulting in the void. I'm stumped as to where the moisture came from though as this area never gets wet.
I dug back in with an oscillating saw until I got to solid wood core all around, it's about 2" high, 1" wide and 3/4" deep. It's still a little damp though. This is my plan, please let me know if you have suggestions.
1. Use a heat gun to dry it out as much as possible.
2. Paint unthickened epoxy in to soak the core.
3. While the epoxy is still wet, layer in thickened epoxy.
4. Push in a small block of plywood to fill the void, with more thickened epoxy on top.
5. Put a couple of layers of mat in to fill the hole.
6. lay a layer of cloth over the top, overlapping onto the sides of the stringer.
7. sand and paint.
Thanks.
Doug