Mr. Powerquest
 

Hope you can help. Most of the screws that hold my engine cover to the hinges have come loose or fallen out. It appears that the machine screws are threaded directly in to the fiberglass. Most of the holes seem to be stripped. Can I re-tap them for a larger screw? Any suggestions would be great.
Thanks,
Chris

2000 280

I had the same problem on my 1999 280, though it was only a couple of screws. I tried using 4200 epoxy (worked perfectly on a stripped screw in the rubrail) but no dice. A larger screw would probably work, but I wonder if the problem would just come back after a bit of time...

I'm going to try recoil inserts this weekend. They are used in carbon fiber. They should work in fiberglass. I'll let you know how they work.

I think there's nuts behind 'em!
 

toptrim,
Are you sure the nuts didn't just fall off the screws? My Enticer had regular nuts on them and they managed to work their way off-ended up in the bilge. i put nylock nuts on 'em, but you could also use blue or red loctite to keep them from coming off again.
Paul

I think there were nuts on the screws. I can hear them roll around. I didn't want to remove the sun pad so I just installed re-coil inserts w/ blue loc-tite and they are very tight. I will let you know if this fix works.
Chris