cabin top repair

[grnich24]

I had a leak in the area of the hatch cover that caused a 1''x2''area of plywood core of the cabin top to rot out. By removing the hatch cover and frame I was able to scrape out most of the rotted wood and I''m now ready to make the repairs. I was just going to replace it by sliding in another piece of 1/2" plywood soaked in epoxy and then filling any voids with caulking. Does anyone have any other ideas or any products that might work better.

[paulk]

We had a similar problem (bigger)and fixed it by fiberglassing end-grain balsa to replace the rotted material, since that was how it was originaly built. We had to cut or grind out the inner headliner to remove the rotted material; it sounds like your access doesn''t require such drastic measures. I would be concerned about a possible weakness in the deck where the plywood sheet butts up against the original material, unless the piece you''re replacing is one of several layers. We were also careful to use fiberglass resin so as to maintan the same flex and bonding characteristics as the original material. Using epoxy might create a "hard" spot that could lead to problems later. Happy gooping!