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Cargo Bay Door latch

August 01, 2015, 11:03:37 am

On my 91 GV some of the screw s  that hold the edge latches have stripped out of the fiberglass and will not tighten. Do any of you have a recommendation to either fill the holes and redrill new or use some kind of insert that would not come loose?Ideas Thanks

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Re: Cargo Bay Door latch

Reply #1 – August 01, 2015, 11:15:00 am

I repaired one latch (all four screws) by drilling the holes large enough to use a threaded insert. The hole has to be larger than you would use in wood, because the fiberglass being much harder than wood will fracture instead of cutting threads. So I made it a snug fit on the threads and screwed in the ¼"-20 threaded insert with some epoxy on the outside threads (with a screw on the inside threads to keep the epoxy from gumming those up). It has been solid since I did that almost three years ago (utility bay hatch, so you know it gets used a lot). If I have to do another one, I will probably use a Rivet-Nut instead but will likely use a tiny bit of epoxy on the outside of those as well, being very careful to keep it away from the threaded area.
Don

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Re: Cargo Bay Door latch

Reply #2 – August 01, 2015, 11:20:04 am

Put a toothpick in the hole, start the screw, put a little gorilla glue on the threads, pull the screw on down and break the toothpick off.

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Re: Cargo Bay Door latch

Reply #3 – August 01, 2015, 11:33:22 am

Did a compartment latch assembly exactly like Don did. Drilled it out larger, filled cavity partially with epoxy, installed a stainless nut with bolt to insure no epoxy got on the threads and now it's much stronger than the OEM installation.

Piece

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