best do it yourself deck repair

[deleno]

I have wood that's been damaged by gas spills by previous owner .was wondering if I should just cut out the damaged area and fiber glass it or just repair it back with wood .it's the right back corner it's about 12x18in area? New to boats and want to do work my self to pick up on boat self repairs

 

[GA_Boater]

mmmm - Where is the damaged area? She look as clean as new.

 

[deleno]

I'll take a pic of the actual damage tomorrow and put it up its on the right side of the picture he had a gas tank on that side a big o 20 gallon tank the woods weak and kinda dark looking compared to the rest

 

[deleno]

That's the deck floor pic .what would be the best fix ? The rest of the deck is solid except for this area

 

[Woodonglass]

You'll need some Fiberglass Mat, Fiberglass Filler, Fiberglass Polyester Resin and Mixing cups, rollers etc. Plywood same thickness as what's there now. Cut away all the bad rotted section and then use the resin and mat and screws to attach some cleats to the edges of the opening . Cut a piece of new wood to fit the opening with a 1/8" gap. Coat the new wood with resin and both sides with the glass mat. Butter the cleats and edges of the new pieces with the filler and screw in place. The filler will ooze out and fill the 1.8" gap. Smooth with a putty knife. Cover the entire patch with two pieces of the fiberglass mat and wet out with resin. Done!!! This drawing hopefully shows what I just said...

 

[Mark72233]

Deleno, good to see you posted your project. Welcome to iBoats. That is a clean looking boat at least from those picks. I hope that's all that's wrong and that your repairs go smoothly. Listen to Woods advise it's always worked for my project. For that matter listen to everyone's advise and take what sounds best for you and your boat. Good luck. I will be following your progress.

 

[Woodonglass]

A few other points. Make sure the carpet glue is sanded away around the patch area at least 3-6 inches all the way around. Make sure to pre-drill all screw holes then coat the holes and screws with resin. The fiberglass mat is Called CSM (Chopped Strand Mat) and you should try and get 1.5oz. The big box stores sell .75oz so if you get it you will need to use 2 layers on the bottom of the wood patch and 4 layers on top. Also the Bondo Resin has wax in it so you should do all of your layups "Wet on Wet". That means each layer of glass should go on the previous one before it dries. If not and the resin dries the wax will rise to the top and interfere with the bond and you will need to sand it off and wash with acetone to get a good bond. For a small repair such as this, wet on wet should be easy to do. Let us know if you need further help

 

[deleno]

Do I us regular wood or is there some sort of marine wood

 

[Ned L]

Exterior plywood is fine (ACX or BCX would be all you need) . Ahh, ....... wood doesn't really get all that 'damaged' from occasional gas spills. You might want to do some checking for other damage before jumping into far. Can you show a picture of the damage?

 

[deleno]

That's the damage its about 8in away from sump .the woods all soft

 

[deleno]

Let me rephrase that the the wood is soft from where the hole is at towards the back 5inchs away from transom and about 8 from the sump it's on the right side

 

[jbcurt00]

The pix is pretty small, and doesn't show a whole lot, other then there is a hole :facepalm:

But w/ what looks like a radiating crack in the deck extending toward the bottom center of the pix, I wouldn't expect to find much good news below decks.

Could be isolated damage, but if you read thru some other

I have a soft spot on (or hole in) the deck of by boat

topics, the vast majority are going to have a good bit of work ahead, and a heck of a lot of them are going to be full tear down and gut projects.

You have to clean up that hole to patch it as WOG suggests anyway. Find the limits of the damage and either cut it all out and post a pix, or outline it and post a pix showing the extent of the damage you can easily identify.

Good luck

 

[deleno]

No Title

 

[deleno]

Went as far as sump

 

[Yacht Dr.]

I think its safe to say that the cleating in gig aint gonna work now. How are the stringers? And do you have any more pics you can shoot us..not upside down

 

[Woodonglass]

Uhmmm, yeah!!! Now that you have all the stringers and other structure exposed, I'd highly recommend you do some core sampling of the wood to see if it's been compromised. If it's water logged as well you'll need to consider a total restoration of the boat.

 

[MTboatguy]

Any kind of rot in a boat is like a disease, you can cut it out, but if you don't get it all, then it is going to rear its ugly head again in the future. I help a buddy at his RV shop every once in a while and when we find black or discolored wood, we figure we are only seeing about 2/3rds of the damage that is actually there and replace based on that estimate. So just make sure you get it all, as has been said, check the stringers and it might be worth a couple of small cores in the lower part of the transom, just to make sure.

 

[deleno]

The stringers are rotted but not completely I sawed out about 12 in more up towards the bow to make sure it wasn't rotted , the wood was well covered with fiber glass and is solid the transom is slightly rotten I scraped most of it of it looks good but still considering replacing it .is making the stringers aluminum out of the question ?

 

[Woodonglass]

Uhmm, Aluminum stringers in a fiberglass boat has been done in the distant past in some boats. Haven't seen it tried recently. If you used epoxy to glass em in it might be feasible. Using wood is still the most common method and if done correctly and then if the boat is cared for and maintained properly they'll last 40+ years. IMHO, you should plan on removing the entire deck, stringers, and transom and do a total restore, IF, BIG IF, you like the boat and want to keep it. You'll have at the max $2,500 invested (compare that to New Boat Prices) and when you're done she'll be like new or better. It's a lot of Hot, Itchy, Yucky work, but most find it rewarding and if you're handy, you'll be able to take a lot of pride in your work when you're done. We'll be here to help all along the way.

 

[deleno]

Okay thanks is it possible to remove transom with out removing the top hull like I've heard? I seen a video where he cut out the whole top and pulled up . not sure but what's that foam blocks the the stingers for ? Really appreciate the help