Bottom fiberglass work

[HVF21221]

I need to do some repairs before painting the bottom.
Small blisters and gouges, how should I handle them.
I am thinking West systems with one of the fillers they offer. Which one would be sandable?
How deep would the gouge need to be to use biaxial cloth also.
Anyone ever used west system with barrier coat addative? This seems very expensive.

Any help appreciated.
Thanks, Howard

 

[Bryan 2530]

Depends on the repair, my cousin Mike had some small chips on the chine on his 2320, we use Marine Tex there.

Maybe he'll chime in.

 

[miky2884]

Correct i used marine tex, and was very pleased with the out come. Again I only had minor dings here and there and a few burns that where caused by a travel lift because the boat was rack stored by the previous owner, no ding or scrap was more then a 1/4 of an inch, i sanded the areas then took a dremel and grinned out the areas (i didn't go crazy with the dremel) sanded again wiped with acetone and applied the marine tex, because the dings where so small i used the fast drying version and it worked great it was fully hard in about 25 min and i sanded and feathered the area's back to normal.

In my opinion if the dings are minor there is really no need to use the west system just my 2 cents, any other questions let me know.

 

[miky2884]

Also if you use the rapid set get everything ready and prepared before you apply because the stuff sets up very quickly, i learned the hard way

 

[windknotnc]

If you have blisters it is a different situation. You will have to grind these out to see how far the delamination goes. Blisters are caused by a variety of reasons, almost always resin related. There are several great resources online to correctly repair these. There are even some good Youtube videos. Google this repair on here and THT and you will get all you can manage.

 

[miky2884]

agreed if you have blisters its a totally different situation

 

[DaleH]

For blisters look up http://www.yachtsurvey.com and follow his advise, professional marine surveyor.

With that said ... I for one dispise Marine-Tex! I use to use it, but their mixing schedule s#$ks. The last place I'd want to put an epoxy mix of which I cannot verify the mix ratio is on the bottom. I now use Raka epoxy for any of my needs, but their $18 sample kit that has fast & slow hardener, plus epoxy, plus samples of all of the filler you could ever need. Mix up to consistency of peanut butter and have at it. http://www.raka.com

Raka is a simple 2-parts to 1-part (resin to hardener) regardless of amount needed. I've mixed from plastic water bottle cap fulls, to small cat food tins worth, to 8-ounce containers. Note ... for any LARGE amounts, always use a huge pan in width and length, akin to a large deep cookie pan or baking pan, so that the mix doesn't cook off in the bucket. Epoxy cures by an exothermic reaction (gives off heat) and that heat can burn a small bucket full ... which is what I had tried (and lost :shock: !) once ...

Oh, and though it can be done, M-tex is wicked hard to gelcoat over, as the polyester-based resin doesn't chemically bond with the M-tex base.

 

[GoodChance]

I just repaired 20 blisters and more nicks/scrapes/gouges on a 1986 25 Parker. First, grind down to clean glass (the blister will be white/cream colored; the good glass will be pink). Once to good glass, fill the shallow blisters with epoxy and 50/50 mix of cabosil/microballoons; the deeper blister (ie greater than 3/16" deep) can be filled with a small piece of biaxial mat, saturated with epoxy resin and topcoated with cabosil/microballoons.

I also use RAKA epoxy extensively.

 

[jeffnick]

I have a freind who repairs surfboards professionally. He uses a UV cure poly or vinyl ester. He works inside in front of a huge exhaust fan while doing the grinding, then applies the fix (always using some kind of glass with the repair), then puts the repair in the sun to kick. For deep gouges he'll do the repair in layers/steps so the epoxy isn't too deep to get the UV rays. I was blown away by the speed of his repairs.
Product info here:
http://solarez.com/faq.html

If you've got some time to waste, watch the video - it's amazing how easy he makes it look, building a surfboard out of a piece of styrofoam.
http://solarez.com/uv_resin.html

Might be a little difficult for boat repairs, but interesting none-the-less. I guess it's a similar product to what dentists use for some fillings.