Grinding Question: Part 2

I've gotten my hull almost ready to accept new stringers, transom and deck. My question is i've ground out where the stringers will sit, but there was a thick layer of glass where they had tabbed in the old stringers. Do I need to grind the old tabbing away entirely or is it good enough to just grind a bit off the top of the old tabbing.

Re: Grinding Question: Part 2

As long as the glass in that area is in good shape there's no reason you need to remove it.

Re: Grinding Question: Part 2

It's not a matter of getting rid of it, it's a matter of making sure that any rise and fall to the fiberglass is a smooth transition...you want a flat and straight surface as much as possible to glass to in order to make the glassing go easier to avoid the glass from trying to "lift"...as long as the glass is clean and not dirty or bad in anyway, then you can stop grinding, just make sure it's smooth.

Re: Grinding Question: Part 2

I agree with the above, but with one note.

If you're using epoxy to attach new stringers, and you still have part of the tabbing or attachments in place from the old stringers, you might want to remove the old attachments even if they're in good shape.

This is because new tabbing with epoxy will be stronger than the original poly resin tabbing, simply because epoxy is a better glue than poly. It'll work to attach the new stringers to the old tabs with epoxy, but where the old tabs are attached to the hull they're attached with poly resin (at the factory).

So if you keep the old tabs you're not getting all the benefits of the epoxy you're paying for.

But you may not care, or you may be using poly.... up to you, like so many other repair decisions.

Erik