pad eye and swim deck repair ?s

[buckdrew]

the wealth of info here is amazing. thanks so much to those who share it...
i am replacing the bow pad eye with slight damage on the boat. should i just clean, fill with thickened epoxy and re-drill for new eye?
also, swim ladder zone has to suspicious cracking areas. what are thoughts on this? do i cut larger chunk out or just grind these down. there does seem to be some separation of the skin and the core in this area (just by pressing on it) but it all seems quite solid in general.

 

[richie rich]

The bow eye needs to be drilled out clean and inspected before knowing how to fix....if its just a little bigger than original, thickened epoxy should be good....but if you need to remove a lot of material to get to good glass, and the 3/8 hole is now 1 inch, you will need some small layers of glass tape in their to build it back up. You'd grind from the inside to open it up and fill with glass and epoxy...leave the gelcoat side as in tact as possible for cosmetic reasons.

As far as the skins seperating at the swim deck??? Without opening it up, you just don't know...if you're adventurous and can handle redoing the area if needed go for it and see whats up underneath..do a little probing in the bad areas...see if any wet core comes out..otherwise, see what a dependable shop thinks of the situation.