16' 1978 kenner ski barge hull question

buckfifty83

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Jan 12, 2014
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Hello Everybody!

New to the forums as i am in need of some advice in my fiberglass boat project

So i bought this 16' ski barge about 2 and a half years ago and and have used it the first summer and then a half of a summer till i noticed that the rear of the boat was sitting pretty low in the water and raced to the dock running my bilge pump praying the boat would not end up on the bottom of the lake... happy to say it made it back to the dock and on the trailer ....The boat is old so always expected to have to do some repair to it but when i got it home and started looking underneath i discovered a spot right on the keel / v of the boat that had a few drops of water coming out of it...... so a long story short i started to sand it back some and discovered what looked like car bondo with 1 layer of fiberglass mat covering it up and not doing a good job about it!

So after further inspection i noticed a second hole well that ended up being fiberglassed over what was left of the gelcoat on this old boat and it was peeling off too.....So i decided to strip everything out and off the boat and turn it over to get to the bottom of all this and found what i thought was good paint on the bottom of the boat to be coming off in spots and spots of gelcoat missing....so i pretty much got screwed on this deal but i didnt pay much for it so not really a loss....But would love to get it back out on the water.

Where I'm at now is a boat upside down stripped down to bare fiberglass and two giant holes to fix.I have purchased 2 gallons of epoxy resin and lots of fiberglass cloth to tackle this fix....But in all that (sorry long winded i know) im trying to figure out once i fix these holes and have the bottom of the boat ready to go , where am i supposed to go? I'm so lost and have spent hours on hours trying to figure out what to put on bare fiberglass and have got nowhere!!! I have read up enough to know i need to clean it and all that good stuff im just trying to figure out what is the first layer of what and how much?

also the boat is only used in freshwater and is trailered to the lake every photo(1).jpgphoto.jpgphoto 1332211.jpgtime its used

So any HELP will be so very appreciated
Thank You
 

jigngrub

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Mar 19, 2011
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8,155
Re: 16' 1978 kenner ski barge hull question

buckfifty83;4468653 im trying to figure out once i fix these holes and have the bottom of the boat ready to go said:
I'm sorry, but your question is vague. I think you're asking about how to paint your boat, but you haven't mentioned the word paint at all.

Lots of good paint threads and work in this forum if that's what you're looking for, here's one:
http://forums.iboats.com/boat-resto...lly-started-w-pics-384982-10.html#post3302799

If you're looking for some other info, please specify.
 

buckfifty83

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Jan 12, 2014
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Re: 16' 1978 kenner ski barge hull question

this is my fist boat and i do not have a clue what im doing the reason it all got stripped down to bare fiberglass is because i was worried other bad spots were hiding like the ones i found..... so there is no gel coat on the bottom so my question is whats the first thing you put on bare fiberglass ?

reading about the paints and all the anti fouling stuff when its not a marine ocean going boat or sitting in the water for no more then 8 hours every other weekend or so it seems like a waste of money doing all that... have also read people using epoxy resin gelcoat

Sorry was not trying to sound vague ... just dont know what im doing
 

jigngrub

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Mar 19, 2011
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Re: 16' 1978 kenner ski barge hull question

I understand, and it can be overwhelming.

Gel coat can go right over fiberglass, but Gel coat isn't epoxy... it's more of a pigmented polyester resin. Gel coat isn't an especially easy coating to apply, if you use it you'll need to practice first.

You can use epoxy paint in a marine grade, but you'll have to lay down a coat of epoxy primer first.
This guy did an exceptional job with epoxy paint on his boat:
http://forums.iboats.com/boat-resto...tcraft-c-gull-work-boat-project-630034-3.html
He did use some antifouling paint on the bottom, but you can skip over that part.

Back to your boat:

We see a lot of older boats like yours come through here with pretty much the same problems, and since you're new to this I know you only see the hull breach and paint problems. But history tells us there's probably more problems with your boat than meets the eye.

With those holes in the hull and people patching on it and applying crappy paint jobs you probably have water intrusion problems below deck. This means rotten wooden stringers and saturated/waterlogged floatation foam, the saturated foam is the reason your boat nearly sunk when you started taking on water.

To get to these problems you'll need to remove your decking and do some internal exploring. You'll need to drill your stringers to check for rot, but it may be quite obvious without drilling. The saturated foam should also be pretty obvious too.

I'm just telling you these things so you'll know, whether you do them or not is up to you... it's your boat.
 

buckfifty83

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Jan 12, 2014
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Re: 16' 1978 kenner ski barge hull question

Overwhelming is the correct word to use on this for me lol .... Thank you so much for being patient with me ! So gel coat would be a good sealing layer then a primer then paint on top of that? I have been reading on a lot of the forums about the other issues you brought up with the foam being water logged and the stringers being rotten. I hope I don't run into this but as the not so good repair jobs by previous owners it's looking like its a good chance I will be :(
 

Woodonglass

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Dec 29, 2009
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25,924
Re: 16' 1978 kenner ski barge hull question

I'd drill into that wood in the center keel that's exposed and see if it's wet and saturated. It appears to be in good shape but pics LIE a lot!!!!:D If it's good then you might be ok to proceed. If it's wet and saturated then as JNG says you might need to make some decisions on whether or not she's worth the time, effort and expense. If it's not wet and saturated we can get it fixed fairly easily and inexpensively for you and have you back on the water in a week or so. If it's wet, then the repairs will be a lot more pricey and lengthy. Drill into that woood and let us know what you find.
 

buckfifty83

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Jan 12, 2014
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Re: 16' 1978 kenner ski barge hull question

I will drill into it first thing in the morning to see what I find ... Fingers crossed haha and thanks for the help.
 
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