Sunpad repair questions

[JASinIL2006]

The screws that hold the hinge to my sunpad/engine bay cover have chewed up the wood that forms the substrate of the sunpad. (See picture below.) As a result, I can no longer tighten the screws.

I peeled back the upholstery and to my surprise, the wood is actually in pretty good shape, outside of some staining and, of course, the dogged-out holes. I’m thinking the some kind of structural, thickened epoxy would allow me to fill, and then re-drill the holes. I am looking for any recommendations as to epoxies/products to use. A web search led me to a couple of different products, bur I have no experience with either. They are:

Woodepox:

Abatron Wood Epoxy | WoodEpox Filler for Rotted Wood

Abatron WoodEpox is a 1:1 epoxy filler that rebuilds missing wood. Sand, drill, stain, and paint it like wood. GREENGUARD certified. 6 oz to gallon.

thecraftsmanstore.com

PC Woody Epoxy Paste and Wood Hardener:

Amazon.com

Any thought/recommendations?

 

[MikeSchinlaub]

Any epoxy fix is only going to be as strong as the wood it's attached to, and that wood doesn't look good to me.

Best thing would be to just replace the wood. Second best would be to get some stainless 1/4x20 T nuts and machine screws. Just know that as the wood weakens, the T nuts can come loose and be a bit of a pain to get the hinge back off when you do replace it.

 

[JASinIL2006]

The wood is actually quite sound; the black ring doesn’t seem to be rot, even though it looks bad in the picture. The wood isn’t soft or punky, and the plies beneath that surface layer are clean and sound. The wood looks pretty much the same as it did several years ago, when we had the marine fabric off to repair some stitching.

I had considered T-nuts, too. I used those to secure the pedestal bases to my deck when I replaced the transom and the deck in 2012-2013. I’d probably still want to fill the current holes and re-drill, though.

 

[Scott Danforth]

Use a t-nut on the back side

 

[cyclops222]

Can you slide the hinge SIDEWAYS a small amount to virgin wood ?

 

[JASinIL2006]

Can you slide the hinge SIDEWAYS a small amount to virgin wood ?

That’s an interesting question… I need to go out to the boat and see if there’s room to drill new holes in the fiberglass and move the hinge.