Mystery Hole

[KarenP]

So there is a strange hole in the passenger side wheel well of my new (to me) toy. Check out the first picture. The hole is at the rear of the wheel well, and is partly in the floor and partly in the fiberglass of the rear, mostly vertical wall of the wheel well.

What do you think - is this caused by a blowout, or is it the sad, sad remnants of the most ham-handed water system repair job ever? There is an elbow joint made accessible by the hole (see second picture) that would have been pretty hard to get to otherwise.

On the inside, you can't see it because there is a water heater tank sitting on an OSB box that covers the wheel well. Too bad, because fixing it from the inside would be easier!

*sigh*
-Karen

[Donna D.]

Looks like a tire blow out to me....

[KarenP]

I am now wondering if the hole is related to an exploded water heater tank. I pulled the tank out tonight because it had a huge leak. I am glad I did because it turned out to be such a mess (pictures are in another thread, "water heater woes.") Here are some more pics, of the nice clean white OSB shelf the water heater was sitting on, and the mess below.

If the exploding tank was responsible for the hole in the floor and wheel well, or if the same thing that made the hole also destroyed the water heater tank, somebody did a cover-up! The nice clean white shelf was in between the tank and the hole. It wouldn't look so nice if the two were related.

I guess I will fix this by smoothing the hole in the OSB, cutting a plywood plug to match, and glassing it in top and bottom. Same on the wheel well portion, without the plywood plug.

[Joe Z]

I'm with Donna......Looks like a tire blowout to me and the easiest repair would be to re-glass it from the inside.
Go on YouTube and type in the search window "How to repair fiberglass" and there's many video's on the subject and it doesn't look all that hard to do.
Joe

YouTube: "How to repair fiberglass"
‪How to repair fiberglass‬‏ - YouTube