Replacing wood at lower Gudgeon

Posted By: Mark Worden
Date: 5/23/07 11:52a.m.

Report: outside forum guidelines

In Response To: What the PO of my boat did (link) (Jenny)

I took a little different approach here. 1) Drill out the holes using a 3/8 wood drill 2) Chuck a 1/8" drill bit in dremmel tool and hollowed out a cone shaped area behind each hole. 3)Use a bent nail or old allen key in a drill motor with a guide bushing to open up the hole in the rotten wood and turn it to mush. This connects the 4 holes. 4) Use shop vacuum with taped on adapter to such out the mush. 5) Drill in a 1/4 inch vent hole from the top. 6) Allow to dry. In my case the face sheets of the 3/4 plywood insert were solid because they were fiberglassed into the boat when built, but the balsa core had rotted out for 1-2 inches around each screw. I then made mount nuts from 1/4-20 Stainless steel deep throat (3/4 long) nuts I picked up at Harbor Marine. I put hacksaw cuts about every 1/8-1/4 inch on the corneres of the hex nuts and then scuffed them up with 80 grit. I then put wax on the mating cap screws, bolts and gudgeon hardware along with clear packing tape for parting film. I also put clear packing tape on the transom in the area of the rep[air to aid in clean-up. Soaked the plywood in the transom with clear resin injected into the holes and smeared aroundwith an old art brush. I then mixed a big batch of filled resin (would stand up) and poured/spooned this into a zip-lock bag. Then cut the corner off the zip lock bag to make a cake decorating squeeze bag. Injected the resin into the 4 holes till full. Then inserted the hardware, clamped in place and leeft to cure over night. Used the excess resin to seal the foam around the lifting eye holes. Each 1/4-20 bolt is stronger than the original 4 wood screws, is flush and I do not have to worry about moisture ingression due to amount of epoxy and a surface seal of latex cauldk used on installation of the cap screws. Mark W.