Fiberglass Spa suction port.

[Stream99]

Good Evening,

I have an inground fiberglass spa that is built above my concrete pool. I'm in the process of refinishing the fiberglass finish on the spa, and need to replace several fittings. I was able to remove all 7 Roto jets, and their flanges. I have 3 intake suction ports in the footwell. I've attached 2 of the three pics. They appeared to be glued to the pipes on the underside of the spa. I am having the darnedest time trying to figure out a solution to be able to get grilles back on these without removing the spa to get to the underside. Any thoughts would be appreciated! Escpecially if you can identify what the heck these original ports were?

Thanks in advance.

 

[ajw22]

@RDspaguy ideas?

 

[RDspaguy]

It looks to be a threaded wall fitting with a nut on the back then glued to the pvc. There is no way to replace it without access to the back. With the broken cover mounts and non VGB drains, it is a safety hazard as is.
Depending on the size, you may be able to get a different fitting to glue or caulk in there, perhaps with a little help from a dremel tool sanding drum, but that's a maybe. It would take some experimenting with various fittings. I have done something similar many years ago, but don't recall the details on which fitting was used.

 

[Stream99]

Thanks very much. I've had the spa glass refinished and looks like new. I dremeled the remainder of the studs off, so they look like standard flange fittings now. I'm in the process of tooling a few of slip fittings for glue with a drain cover screen on top. Appeared to be my only option, as threading the old plastic would no doubt cause it ti crack and break.

Thanks again for the thoughts and comments. Reaffirmed I needed to manufacture a solution.