hole in the keel

[59Hustler]

I found this hole well not really a hole but worn through spot on my keel just forward of the rear step or where the keel goes away this is on a 1959 Hustler 15 foot runabout. I have had the boat about 7 years and there were no marks on the bottom and she has always been solid. I found this when working on the rear roller of the trailer which is just aft of this spot..
My question is what is the best way to proceed with this repair?

 

[kcassells]

Well, Add a couple of other pics with a little distance so we can see where the area is and what is the size of this problem? You will more than likely need to cut out the area and determine how bad the keel/wood is affected. Looks kinda like a termite thing and the damage is hard to determine until you start cutting into it.
Looks like the boat is glass? So shoot more pics.

 

[pauloman]

wet dry 700 kevlar reinforced epoxy putty

 

[Woodonglass]

Is she painted or Gel Coat? Is the wood/glass wet underneath? Have you checked the trailer to ensure there's nothing on there causing it to create this damage? Don't want it to re-occur after you get her fixed

 

[59Hustler]

I haven't had a chance to work on her this weekend however here are some more pics.. She is still weeping from the gash. I tilted her more bow up and there is a problem with the keel rollers they are not rolling.

 

[Woodonglass]

I love these old Classic boats. I have one very similar looking to yours. I kinda figured from the looks of the pics that the underlying wood was wet and saturated. You're gunna have to wait for it to dry out before you can do the repairs and that may take a long time unless you get the Bow up as high as you can and then get a heat gun on that wood as much as possible to dry it out as quickly as possible. I'm afraid you may have a lot more issues than you may think. Boats of this vintage usually do. Can you hear any water sloshing around inside the hull? Do you have any soft spots in the floor/deck? Have you checked the transom to see if it flexes when under stress? These are all areas that need to be investigated. What size motor does she have?

 

[59Hustler]

There are no soft spots on the floor and the transom is very solid.. I had also drilled test holes in the transom and test holes in the floor they came out with dry wood not rot. I am about to drill a hole in the floor to stick my endoscope in and look around now that I found this. The motor is a 1960 Mercury 400 45 hp. The motor runs sweet.

 

[Woodonglass]

That's some very good news. As I said the wood in the keel has to be totally dry before any repairs can be done. Once it's dry the repair will be fairly simple and straight forward. We can walk you through that when you're ready. Won't cost more than $50 bucks and take more than 2 -3 hours to fix.

 

[kcassells]

I like that info from WOOD and yup that is 1 cool looking boat! Hopefully you'll get her back to perfect. Pizza Pizza. :happy:

 

[59Hustler]

What supplies should I buy to do the fiberglass repair? I will need to order them as the only fiberglass materials I have found around here is Bondo.

 

[Woodonglass]

Is the keel the only glass work you need to do?

 

[59Hustler]

The keel and A few small scrapes on the side. could use it while II am at it.

 

[Woodonglass]

Well the Keel repair will need less than 1/2 a yard of 1.5oz CSM and Biax fabric, and a quart or polyester resin. You could use the Bondo resin and the CSM and Fabric sold at the auto body stores to do the repair on the keel and obtain more than acceptable results as long as you did a wet on wet repair which you could easily do. Again the wood and surrounding area would have to be totally dry for the repair to be successful.

 

[59Hustler]

I checked to see if it was dry yesterday and found a damp soft spot> I shoved an 1/8 inch drill bit right through the thin layer of glass and water peed out for a minute. should I open this whole gash out with a grinder or cut off tool.
?.

 

[kcassells]

chop chop there is no fix for this other than cutting out the bugger. Then make determinations. So no pics no wasn't done.

 

[59Hustler]

No Title

I cut it out today and took some pic's. that fiberglass is thick down there at least a 1/4 inch thick. all was dry and I sent my inspection camera up there as well but didn't see anything. my question now is how do you lay up fiberglass this thick if you only have access to one side?

 

[Woodonglass]

Well, you'll use a technique similar to patching drywall. Are you familiar with it?

 

[59Hustler]

No Title

Sorry for the double post it showed up again
The way I do drywall is to by a section of dry Wall or a patch and plaster it in using drywall paste and tape. so no.

 

[Woodonglass]

On the bench, using wax paper or plastic, use 1 layer of CSM, 1 Layer of 1708 biax, and 2 more layers of CSM. Make a backer patch approximately the shape of the hole and 2" larger. Sand the inside perimeter of the hole and Wash well with acetone. Butter the inside well with PB resin then follow the drawing and apply the backer patch. Let cure for an hour. Then use PB to fill in the hole, build the keel back up to it's appropriate configuration, apply more layers of CSM and 1708, Sand, Fair, Gel Coat or Paint. 4-6 hours and you're done.



OR Fabricate a new piece of wood in the same of the keel and cut the glass away a bit more so you can fish the wood in a PB it into place and then do the glass work. Either way will get the job done.

I must interject here that if the keel is this far gone and rotten, then I'd be highly suspect of what else is going on under the deck of this old girl. Boats of this vintage can have some serious structural rot and need to be thoroughly inspected to ensure their structural integrity.

 

[59Hustler]

Well I finally got around to it I made the first patch last weekend but it didn't turn out too god I think I made it too thick I used one more layer of mat to make it better. so I remade the patch yesterday but it was too large it met the size quoted as 2 inches larger but then it hit the inside bottom of the keel and wouldn't lay flat against the hull so I ground down that side this morning. I then made up my PB out of cut up mat and cabosil it was a little hairy compared to the pictures I saw on U-tube but it was PB consistency. I am now waiting for it to cure for the one hr.
Oh I also I found out my boat doesn't have wood stringers or keel they used all fiberglass.. Except in the transom.