How to gluvit side seams where gravity is not on your team?

[jimmwaller]

Hi all:
About to gluvit my hull (finally!) and I have one last question.

I'm planning to just paint it on, and I see how it gets the center seams: gravity pulls it down through any leaks and it seals it up. But I also feel like I have some seams that are further up on the sides of the hull that will be under the waterline, but aren't where gravity can get the gluvit.

So there's one seam in particular that I'm worried about. it's on the side of the hull, and the "top" of the seam is fine, it's the "bottom" the leaks. So if I just paint the gluvit over the seam, since the "top" side is sealed, it'll just run OVER the outside of the seam and drip down the hull. I need some way to force the gluvit up the bottom side of the seam. Do I just use a syringe? but then I'm worried that not only will this take forever but the gluvit will just run right back out again (i hear it's fairly runny). Do I need to tilt the boat so I can let gravity do the work for me? that seems really difficult to do, as the boat is in dry storage on a trailer and there's no real infrastructure to allow that to happen. So I need to open up the top seam, so the gluvit can flow down?

Any insights would be very much appreciated, as I am at a total loss.

Thank you all!

 

[lckstckn2smknbrls]

I would tilt the boat.

 

[jimmwaller]

Any tips on how to do that safely? It's literally stored in a dry storage lot on a trailer, with about 1 foot of room on either side of it. And I live in an apartment building so I don't have a yard or driveway or anyplace else to do it.

Will the boat be able to support its own weight when it's on its side? I don't need to worry about it, like, bending or anything, right?

 

[GA_Boater]

No, 1 - How big is the boat?

No. 2 - Some pics would help.

No. 3 - Don't pry a seam open for the Gluvit to run into the seam. You will only make things worse.

 

[Kern Fischer]

I have never worked with Gluvit so do not know all the properties with which you are dealing.

What might work is to mix the Gluvit with some fibrous material that will increase the viscosity to a paste like consistency. I use this technique with my epoxy resin in many areas of construction. I have mixed it with sawdust from my table saw, with cut strands of fiberglass, and with the microballoons sold by Jamestown Distributors (No affiliation).

With a little experimentation you can obtain the consistency that you need to stay in place in the gap.

To be certain of a good bond to all surfaces, I would either clean them thoroughly with some solvent or sand them. Then coat all surfaces with straight Gluvit prior to inserting the paste mixture.

Hope this works for you;.

 

[jimmwaller]

Thanks for all the replies so far.

The boat is about 17 feet long and pretty hefty. I think with the trailer it hits around 1,200 pounds, according to the highway patrol scale. I'll take photos next time I'm at the storage place (it's about 30 minutes from my home).

I thought about the fibrous material. I had just heard that gluvit is so good because it flexes with the boat, and I don't want to mess with any of the properties of the epoxy. Has anyone done this successfully?