repair/protection of cockpit below footplate

One of the bolts below my nelo footplate wore through its rubber stopper and gouged into the cockpit. Not a serious gouge, but I'd like to protect it against further wear.

This is in a nelo 510, so rotomold plastic.

What have people used to protect this area?

Is this the sort of stop or support between the bottom of the footplate and the cockpit floor that helps maintain the angle of the footplate?

Anyway,I used Lexel to reglue a bulkhead in my 510 and it seems to stick pretty well. Could you find a piece of thin, tough plastic to googe in place under the bolt?

You can also find plastic welding kits. But I think you'd need a sample of the same kind of plastic to weld on.

The blurb for Lexel specifically states that it shouldn't be used on polyethylene, so I think I'd avoid that.

I'd like to hear about other people's experience, I'm pretty sure people have commented on reinforcing this area.

I had a very similar problem on my Nelo 550 with a plastic footplate.

A first, I protected the bottom using a piece of plastic cutting board (5mm thick PE) with a thin layer of EVA foam underneath to spread the load while not scratching the cockpit floor. That worked well for one season.

I eventually replaced the plastic footplate by a carbon one that does not need the support feet at all.

Thanks, that's useful.

I'll see if I can source similar plastic. Maybe cut-up bits of yoga ball would do - the cat has destroyed one.

I use some high density PVC foam and shape it to the footwell and screw and glue from the top, using the same holes originally used for the rubber bumpers. You can make it as wide as you like to transfer the load.

Ranga wrote:

I use some high density PVC foam and shape it to the footwell and screw and glue from the top, using the same holes originally used for the rubber bumpers. You can make it as wide as you like to transfer the load.

I'm not sure I understand what you mean.
The bolts/bumpers I referred to are attached to the footplate.

Are you suggesting removing those bolts completely and replacing their function with a slab of HD foam, secured using the original bolt holes?

That kind of makes sense, apart from losing the ability to adjust the footplate angle (which I don't tend to change anyway).

In case anyone is in position to 3d print, here is what I have designed for my 520:
www.thingiverse.com/thing:5530831

Ideally you would print with TPU because it's soft and will conform better.

EDIT: Actually it needs to be soft for assembly, so *must* be TPU.

SpaceSputnik wrote:

In case anyone is in position to 3d print, here is what I have designed for my 520:
www.thingiverse.com/thing:5530831
Ideally you would print with TPU because it's soft and will conform better.
EDIT: Actually it needs to be soft for assembly, so *must* be TPU.

Super helpful, your orbitness.

One of the kids has a 3D printer, I'll ask if they can print this.

mrcharly wrote:

SpaceSputnik wrote:

In case anyone is in position to 3d print, here is what I have designed for my 520:
www.thingiverse.com/thing:5530831
Ideally you would print with TPU because it's soft and will conform better.
EDIT: Actually it needs to be soft for assembly, so *must* be TPU.

Super helpful, your orbitness.
One of the kids has a 3D printer, I'll ask if they can print this.

Most welcome. Hope it works for you.

A tip you can pass on: the model comes as one continuous piece and separate top and bottom. If they use Cura, they can combine those and set different infill settings. I think I did 100% for the top and some non-100% value for the bottom..20-30 % maybe. The idea is that the bottom needs to be flexible and the top should favour strength.