Gunnel rod holder repair ideas ?

B

bgreene

Banned
The V21 features the white fiberglass ( or is it plastic) horizontal rod storage port and starboard sides.

How best to repair a few cracks ( thanks to last person to work on my boat ) such as where the screws were over tightened and broke the mold ?

I removed the entire section while running the wires for the trim tabs so I can repair this now.

What type of compound / epoxy etc would set up nicely and not crack easily ?
 
They're plastic. I reinforced mine with fiberglass and painted it with Krylon spray paint made for plastics.
 

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permatex and others make a 2 part "plastic welding system" basically a black double barrel syringe. You squeeze it out and mix it just like 5 minute epoxy... It works better than anything else I ever tried on plastic... you can kill the cracks with a tiny drill bit, drilling each end of each crack. You can use thin glass cloth to reinforce if needed.
 
Actually now that I think about it... the rod boxes are not repairable... they're junk..... if you'll send em to me I'll see that they are disposed of properly lol
 
awthacker said:
They're plastic. I reinforced mine with fiberglass and painted it with Krylon spray paint made for plastics.
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that's exactly how i did mine.they turned our pretty nice and the fix was alot cheaper than buying replacements.
 
i also repaired mine with fiberglass and some 2" tape. I also put a thin strip of pressure treated pine around the inside of the cut out in the hull. this gave the boxes a little more "meat" to screw to.
 
In 13 years of V20 ownership, this '84 is my first time dealing w/factory, wellcraft rod holders...mine were mounted inside the cutout w/teak on the outside as trim...so the expectation is for the small screws going thru the thin plastic will hold up over time and punishment...I don't believe this to be a realistic expectation...if yer gonna remount the inserts inside the cutout, behind the plastic rod holder flange is where reinforcement is sorely needed IMO...the treated wood Phat mentioned would be ideal...
 
These plastic gunnel rod holders dry out after years, no matter how well maintained.

Then, a marine mechanic must have used a screw gun and busted a corner off the plastic and cracked a few other spots by over tightening.

So, I just removed the panels and added this to my list of things to do.
I picked up some product at Lowe's that may work out.

Wellcraft could have / should have used a more substantial material for this fixtures.
They were obviously taking more and more " cost out of the boat " as the years went on.

It's our job to repair and replace things to make it better than original.
Better, stronger, faster.........
 
bgreene said:
These plastic gunnel rod holders dry out after years, no matter how well maintained.

Then, a marine mechanic must have used a screw gun and busted a corner off the plastic and cracked a few other spots by over tightening.

So, I just removed the panels and added this to my list of things to do.
I picked up some product at Lowe's that may work out.

Wellcraft could have / should have used a more substantial material for this fixtures.
They were obviously taking more and more " cost out of the boat " as the years went on.

It's our job to repair and replace things to make it better than original.
Better, stronger, faster.........
Click to expand...

You can always buy new ones from Flounder Pounder...in our Links section...
 
wellcraft did a much better job on rod boxes than dodge did on dashboards. gotta remember we are talking about 30 years old boats that are , far the most part, totally exposed to the elements.
 
rod boxes

i found this product a Lowes calle Plastic welder. its a double cilinder seringe type deal. i used it on my big MK tile saw tray that came back from a friend looking like it had been through a war. whatelse is new rite . anyway It worked great ! i let water sit in the saw tray for 3 days , no leaks and the cutoff tile pieces falling on it are not a problem. so i guess now i'll try it on my rod boxes. but i do have one hole in the corner can i tape that from the back and if so what do i do with the front, Bondo ?
 
rod boxes

oh ok Smoke i didnt even know you could sand a shape that stuff thanks.This is why i love this web site, now maybe someone can tell me how to get rid of this stupid line i've got going on here, lol
 
I got a '77 cc last month that didn't come with rod boxes. So I have to make them. So far not really that difficult. I am using 1/2" mdo ply. Made a radius on the inside edges with west system with 410 filler so they are easy to clean. Finishing with britside off white. Then making new teak trim to finish. You might as well improve the design by making a box that don't crack,flex and has more meat to mount to. I can post pics as I get to finish. Trying post pics but not going so well. Seems that snapfish don't work with iPad. Any thoughts.
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Johnsonboat that's some nice work...I'm probably missing something, but shouldn't the corner radius be on the outside of the mold since the inside of the rod box is what shows?....like I said, I'm probably missing something here...:head:
 
reelapeelin said:
Johnsonboat that's some nice work...I'm probably missing something, but shouldn't the corner radius be on the outside of the mold since the inside of the rod box is what shows?....like I said, I'm probably missing something here...:head:
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I don't think it's a mold. It looks like he's building a wooden rod box.
 
Yes it's not mold. Don't have the skills for that. I wish I I was confident enough to do a mold.
 
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