[Parrot6909]

I purchased a 16' Garvey with a v-hull about a month or so ago. It needs a ton of work, new floor, paint, steering and possibly the motor. With all of these costly items in store for me and not a huge budget, I wanted to know if anyone has suggestions for cleaning up the console itself. It has holes from prior drillings for a compass, depth finder, vhf etc. Some are 2" or more wide while others are a normal size screw hole. I'd like to have a "like new" boat look when I am done. Any suggestions would be great. Tried searching a bunch of different ways before posting but couldn't find what I needed. Thanks in advance!

[Buttanic]

I just completed a similar job. Run a drill bit a size larger than the screw holes through them to clean them out . Then use a counter sink and lightly counter sink the outside of the holes.I used a epoxy putty stick from Home Depot, pushed it into the holes but left it a little high on the outside so it could be sanded flush. For the larger holes I cleaned the edges with sandpaper and bonded a piece of glass cloth over the inside of the hole. I then cut peices of mat and cloth to the size of the hole and laminated them in. Leave the lamination a little below the surface and use filler to fair it in. I used epoxy resin to laminate and added cabosil to it to fair the hole. This is not a structural repair and this is strong enough.

[JasonJ]

If the holes are fairly close, you could always mount all your guages and switches on a piece of aluminum that is large enough to cover the area those holes are in. If they are spread all over the console, Buttanics technique is the better bet...