On Tue, 25 Dec 2007 00:06:18 -0500, JohnM wrote:

wrote:
If I've got this right, you drill and tap a hole, and then you plug the hole
so you are back where you started. Why?

Well, indeed, without the context this sounds pretty strange I´ll
explain it. The metal plate is actually the deck of my boat, which was
covered with teak wood. All these strips of teak were fastened to the
deck with screws. After removing the teak (because it become really
rusty underneath) I ended up with 800 holes, 5 mm. Which have to be
closed. At first I wanted to weld them, no worries about corrosion or
waterproofness. But on the inside there is sprayed-on foam which makes
the welding unsafe. To remove the foam all the ceilings have to come
out of the boat and to do that a lot of cupboards need to come out as
well. Unfortunately the boatbuilder used nails on a lot of places, so
it is really hard to remove interior parts without damage. Filling the
holes with some epoxy based filler would have been easy, but after
that it is impossible to sand blast, which is really necessary looking
at the condition of the deck.

Have been there and done that. Get a bunch of socket head set screws.
Drill and tap the screw holes and screw the set screws in after
dipping the screws in epoxy or locktite. Make sure that they are
flush. Let them set over night and sandblast the deck. Immediately
prime, fill, fair and prime with high build primer. Finish sand and
paint with 2 part paint. then apply antiskid of your choice.

An alternate method would be to sandblast and immediately prime. then
fill the holes with epoxy filler, fair and prime and finish.

I suggest that the first methow\d will result in the longest lasting
repair.


Bruce-in-Bangkok
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from address for reply)