Leer latch repair

Bought an 08 DCB that came with a Leer. Dont know what the model is.

I didn't bother to look inside to check the material condition till weeks later. Now I see why it was held down with a bungee cord.

Does anyone have any recommendations as to repairing this? The only thing I can think of is to drill from the outside, get some bolts, washers and set the bracket in and put compound and fiberglass over it and paint it back.

Or clean out the old compound, reset the latch, and seal it back up.

I hate fiberglass repairs and I'm not familiar with this shell.

 

Makes you wonder if someone snatched the back open. It looks like someone tried to slather body filler on it. Grind that crap out, rough it up, and do a proper fiberglass repair. In order to get any real strength you're going to have to either pull out more of the carpet and glass over a larger area or use some bolts or rivets through it. The rear windows tend to vibrate at speed so it needs to be fairly sturdy or it'll likely crack again. There are some good fiberglass boat repair videos on youtube.

 

If you look at the latch, you can see wood screws. Looks like they tried to use the filler as a base and screw into it.

I'm pretty sure I'll have to put some type of metal base with bolts through it and fiberglass it. Kind of like how you put a plate with bolts into the ground to put up concrete pillars.

Lining up guess what's going to be the problem. Want to make sure I get the alignment right.

 

Yeah that's what I meant by slathering that stuff on, it looks like they tried to build it up enough to get some purchase from those two different screws. It almost looks like they used Water Putty or something. Well executed- LOL.

You could do a fancy job and make it look nice from the outside but if it were me I'd probably just get a stainless plate for the outside, wire brush and paint that inside bracket and bolt it together with some stainless round head screws and nuts. I would clean that mess out though and build it back up with a bit of fiberglass. I'm sure you know how but tape over where you want to drill, use new or sharpened drill bits on the fiberglass, start with a small pilot hole, etc.

 

I'm trying to think of the best way to approach this without having anything sticking out from the outside of the shell.

If I can find a plate that allows me to put anchor nuts on it, then I'll just clean the inside, put anchor nuts ontoothe new plate, use some 2 party epoxy to mount the plate, fiberglass patch over it with a vacuum and heat gun then attach the latch to it.

It's been years since I did fiberglass repair on helicopters panels so I'll.have to play around with it.

I'll have to look up some ideas and see what kind of