Redoing the sun pad....need help
 

Okay as many of you know I am redoing my Cafe. The paint is just about done so I need to get the sun pad redone. My problem is the frame is rotted. The pad is approx. 7ft bt 51/2 ft. It looks to me like it's just plywood(marine I am sure). The problem is a standard sheet is 4' by 8'. Has anybody run into this or have any ideas?

Thanks for any imput,
Frank

Splice it togetner with fiberglass and resin. After it is bolted back on it will hold inplace if your splice is not that great of a job.

You can special order different sizes of plywood. You will have to go to a Lumber yard for that though. I just did this on my Bullet and I special ordered a piece, wasn't Marine grade but after I cut it to size I coated it with a penetrating two part epoxy so it is totally sealed.

im glad somebody else is runnin in to this, my frame looks good i just tryin to prevent the bowin of the center of the sun pad, thought was to run some extra ribs in the center, idont no not sureif it ill work.

Post pics of your work! I need to redo my engine hatch too. Mine has this funky drop off towards the back & when girls are crossing between boats, it seems like thats the spot where they step & lose their balance. Plus the interior has some crappy mirroring that needs to go.

Talked to Phil at LipShip and said they use PVC now, pretty good idea I guess I just hope the staples will go into it.

I didn't take any pics of the process but I have a couple of the finished product. I also replaced the old material that was used for the hatch with 3/4" Coosa. I cut out the old material down to the fiberglass and laminated the Coosa in using a 3-1 laminating epoxy. The plywood is one piece and then I coated it with 1-1 penetrating epoxy. I purchased all of the materials from www.fgci.com These guys were very helpful

When I redid my sun pad ( the plywood was rotten too), I used a material called Starlite. It comes in all sizes and thicknesses. It's a pvc material that is easy to work with, holds staples just fine and is totally waterproof.

Excellent that is what I need! Where did you get it?

when i redid mine last year i used ply wood and coated it with three coats of west. the original one was only a picture frame around the hatch 6 inches wide the 7 ft side goes all the way across to the top and bottom of the hatch from end to end so when you do the top to bottom you tie in an it will be about 12 inches shorter then your 51 1/2 inch .