I am planning to start pulling all my carpet to redo the decks this winter. I am noticing that the deck lids are cracking. Would I be able to sand everything down and then add a few layers of woven fiberglass to reinforce them? I want to change out the latches so this was going to be my plan before I noticed the cracking anyway. My front deck hatches seem ok, it is mostly the rod locker and a couple lids on the rear deck.
That will work, plus you can add some reinforcement underneath in the form of a piece of Al angle down the middle. Lowes and HD sell angle in 3 or 4 ft pieces and I'd drill it and install small SS screws with nyloc nuts every 12" or so. Small screw heads under the carpet won't show much and the screws can be trimmed flush with the nyloc nuts on the underside.
I would add a aluminum hat channel on the under side (Link Below). On top and bottom I would add 2-3 layers of fiberglass cloth to cover and hopefully fix the cracks. You could screw the stiffener in or glass it in.
https://eagle-aluminum.com/product/a...-3-34-12-tall/
2020 Ranger 521L, Merc 250 Pro XS
Maybe? get a piece of 1/8 aluminum plate the same size of the lid and use contact cement and bond it to the top?
Just an idea?
Make sure you file the top edges of the plate to make sure there was no sharp edges.
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