A winters work

[SimonStDavids]

The weather and time constraints have beaten me so I have taken the boat out of the water and now it is time to start the winter repairs. But i have a few questions as always

First job is to glass the deck back down, the bit in the foreground is where i have pulled off one of the tempory repairs i put on to get me through the season. The second picture is a closeup of the cracked area, should i fill the gap with resin or grind the lip back flat? i then plan to glass a new lap 15cm either side with two or three layers of matting. Should that be enough?

The areas that haven't cracked yet i was planning just to reinforce with two layers of matting as above, should that be sufficient?

What is lowest temperature that i can glass in? i know adding more catalyst speeds things up but doesn't it was weaken the glass?

Then a quick coat of flowcoat and all should be tidy again!

[SimonStDavids]

I just noticed the second picture is upside down, the deck is at th etop of the picture and the hull at the bottom. duh

[EnglishLes]

I found this on the WEB (http://liambean.hubpages.com/hub/How...ass-like-a-Pro) :

Weather is very important. Ambient temperature should be between sixty (60) and eighty-five degrees (85) Fahrenheit or between sixteen (16) and thirty (30) degrees Celsius.Temperatures below sixty (16) will mean extremely long cure times or no cure at all. In fact if ambient temperatures are at or near freezing the resins won't set.

Relative humidity should be below sixty percent (60%) though epoxy is not as susceptible to humidity. You do not want to layup an FRP job in the rain. Trapped moisture will not stop the curing process or even slow it down, but water bubbles in your layup can cause the lamination to come apart months or years later. This in turn will compromise the strength of your creation so just avoid it if possible.

[ribraff]

You want to make sure you grind off the mat from the temporary repair, there is areas underneath that second picture which are not keyed up to lay up on to properly and eventually this will delaminate.
The best thing is to attack it with a 36grit grinding disc and take off all the stippled gel coat finish to get back to a properly keyed area. This is really messy and you'll need a dust suit, gloves and proper mask to do it properly but its best to get all the grinding done in one hit.
3 layers of 150 chop strand should suffice but go heavier if you have the opportunity, a 15cm overlay will be fine but keep going with the screwdriver under the fibreglass until you reach the properly bonded section.
If you're worried about temperature use one f the cheap halogen heaters in there with a 2% catalyst mix, it'll help if you tip the boat up when you've done it to help the styrene vapour which is heavy to run out of the elephants trunk.
Consolidation is the key.
Good luck

[SimonStDavids]

I Thought I would post a quick update on the work so far. Finally managed to take the grinder with a 40 grit pad to the hull and deck today and have now taken most of it off. I must admit that at first it was pretty scary wielding the grinder and it rips through the glass at an alarming rate, but the plus side is fours hours later most of the work is done so thanks ribraff

The first photo shows the mess i managed to make

I was wondering about the gap in the second photo? should i fill this gap and if so what with? i was considering resin with a bit of chopped strand in to make it a bit thicker?

The last picture is what it looks like after a quick hose down. I plan to tidy up the last few sections, sort the gap problem and glass away

I have to do the glassing outside as i don't have a shed So I am both worried it either going off to fast or not going off at all! looking at the weather next week it looks dry and around 13-15 degrees on Wednesday, is that going to be warm enough?

An finally i have a long roll of matting, would i be better to glass in long strips, i.e the whole hull length or break it down into smaller 1m sections?

Don't suppose there is anyone in pembs who is good at this who could help me for a create of beer?

[SimonStDavids]

With the warm weather I have managed to glass the deck back down and sand the edges smooth again. In the end I filled the voids between the hull and the deck with sikaflex. I am pretty pleased with results and hope it is super strong...

I plan to give it a sea trial on monday and see how it holds up, then if all being well I will flowcoat over the whole lot to tidy it up!

Must say a big thank you to eastcoast fiberglass as recommended on here, seemed reasonable price, arrived next day and provided loads of phone support for a newbie