bassboy416
Petty Officer 3rd Class
- Joined
- Jul 9, 2013
- Messages
- 79
I posted on here before about my 1975 Tahiti having a barely loose bow eye. When I say loose, I mean that the rear end of the loop has slightly more sticking out than the front. There is a tiny bit of wiggle back and forth but extremely minute. I have gently tapped the U bolt with a hammer and it will NOT go up at all any more nor can I pull it down any further. This particular boat is extremely light and it does not seem like the eye is in any danger of being ripped out or causing fiberglass damage. The fiberglass around the area is not chipped or cracked and looks fine, however, I am concerned mostly with water leaking into the hull. Also, upon searching for a way to fix this problem, I found that the bow hull is about 8 feet in front of the steering wheel and has a huge foam filling that takes up the entire bow and is glued in. So, now I'm weighing my options. All I can see as options here are to cut out a tunnel of foam to try and get to the bow eye to tighten it and inspect the backing plate etc.... or to cut an access hole in the top portion of the bow right above where I would need to work on the eye and try to patch it with fiberglass and then have a nasty looking repair job in the middle of a decent looking bow. My issues with these options are that with the first, it is going to be messy, I still don't know what I'll encounter once I dig through the foam if I will even be able to fit in and get to the eye, and how would I fill in the huge gaps in foam that I'd be getting rid of? The second option obviously doesn't appeal because I'd have to do fiberglass repair in a very visible portion of the bow leaving the poor old beast looking ugly. After talking with a few folks who have seen the boat, the consensus is that the structural integrity of the bow eye is still totally acceptable and that years of abuse have caused it to be where its at (which still isn't bad for a 1975). Could I avoid all of these options by using JB weld on the outside of the bow eye to seal any water from getting in without causing future problems down the line? Enclosed are pictures of this model boat (not my actual boat but the same Tahiti model), picture of the bow eye as it is now, and a picture of the underside of the bow. Would JB weld break its bond before causing damage to the fiberglass if the eye were to move further out? I bought this boat very very cheap and am running a VERY old 1976 Chrysler 120 outboard on it. I am just trying to milk as much use out of it for my family before its time to dump it and upgrade. Any help is greatly appreciated! Thanks
Jim
Jim
