Well, another project can be checked as "done". The hatch cover housing thingy had cracks in the fiber glass and the core material was soaked. I cut out the section and removed the core material. Now a previous owner has apparently tried to repair this because the coring in this section was made of some kind of bent wooden slats. after cutting out the glass, I removed the slats back to the point where there was still some of the undamaged original balsa core. I sanded and ground down to the glass mat of the bottom side and beveled the edges. I replaced the core with actual balsa coring and then glassed in with some glass cloth that kind of looked like mat on one side and regular bidirectional weave on the other. I forget what it was called now but it gave a good solid surface. The next layer of resin was thickened and faired and finally a rolled on thin layer of clear resin. This was all sanded smooth with fine wet dry sandpaper. I finished by rolling and tipping a coat of Interlux Brightside, actually I am not quit finished because I will need a couple more coats but at any rate considering this is my first attempt at fiber Glass repair I believe it will be at least a serviceable repair.
BTW does anyone know the actual name of this part other than the hatch cover...cover. It's not the actual hatch but the cover that it slides under.
BTW does anyone know the actual name of this part other than the hatch cover...cover. It's not the actual hatch but the cover that it slides under.
