272 gas tank cover flexing
#1
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272 gas tank cover flexing
After talking to some people about the screws in my gas tank cover pulling through the cover, it has been said that I possibly have some rotten balsa wood on the under side. Has anyone experienced this and how did you go about fixing it? I plan to remove the bolsters and bench this weekend and pull the cover to see. The seat bases are solid, but from rocking back and forth over the years in the bolsters the screws in the front drivers side corner of the cover have started pulling through.
#2
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At my 232 the Coversrews are only in the Gfk from the floors and many srews are pull out or not tight after so much years!
i open the cover and make at the defect srewholes watertight hartwood with silikon glue under them!
after this the cover never again pull any srew.So take out the cover first and check if it is same at the 272.
Michael
i open the cover and make at the defect srewholes watertight hartwood with silikon glue under them!
after this the cover never again pull any srew.So take out the cover first and check if it is same at the 272.
Michael
#3
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I think what I am going to do is chisel out the wood from around the cover and replace with aluminum angle iron as a frame to the back of the cover. That should give the screws in the cover something solid to hold to instead of just pulling through the cover.
#6
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Join Date: May 2011
Location: Toronto, ON
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Yes, your core has some soft spots. There are older posts here of people cutting out the core from underneath, bonding a new core in, and fibreglassing it back together. I'd reccomend a composite core.
#7
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My floor actually had very minimal rot and I was really surprised. Just a small bit around some of the screw holes of the cover where they were never sealed after they were drilled. We took an ice pick and poked around in the screw holes of the stingers and they were all solid with good wood, so luckily I didn't need to fix anything there.
I ended up removing the cover and taking out the soft wood from around the screw holes and had a shop glass new wood in along with sealing the ID of the screw holes. While I was at it, I had the shop glass some stringers on the bottom of the cover cross ways to give the cover more rigidity. After the cover was fixed structurally and cosmetically, I added a piece of aluminum underneath the floor across the front to give me something more structural to through-bolt the cover to. Through-bolting where I could along with adding some longer screws, to actually get into the stringers instead of just touching the surface of the stringer, made the floor solid. The front three screws across the cover were holding nothing. This is what started everything since the bolsters are through bolted to the cover. Just the bolsters rocking back and forth over time just wore everything out. The middle screw should have been through-bolted from the factory since it is just into fiberglass and the two screws in the corners weren't long enough to get into the stringers. Everything is sealed now and should give me no more problems for another 18 years. Total cost after everything was $750. Now I get to do my buddies 272 this winter with the exact same issue.
I ended up removing the cover and taking out the soft wood from around the screw holes and had a shop glass new wood in along with sealing the ID of the screw holes. While I was at it, I had the shop glass some stringers on the bottom of the cover cross ways to give the cover more rigidity. After the cover was fixed structurally and cosmetically, I added a piece of aluminum underneath the floor across the front to give me something more structural to through-bolt the cover to. Through-bolting where I could along with adding some longer screws, to actually get into the stringers instead of just touching the surface of the stringer, made the floor solid. The front three screws across the cover were holding nothing. This is what started everything since the bolsters are through bolted to the cover. Just the bolsters rocking back and forth over time just wore everything out. The middle screw should have been through-bolted from the factory since it is just into fiberglass and the two screws in the corners weren't long enough to get into the stringers. Everything is sealed now and should give me no more problems for another 18 years. Total cost after everything was $750. Now I get to do my buddies 272 this winter with the exact same issue.