Small Hull Damage

I managed all season to avoid damaging my boat, until about 2 weeks ago. This is my first boat and I managed to ding the bottom of the hull along the ridge towards the bow. I took the boat out and noticed it was taking on water, it hasn't taken on water all season until recently. It's not a lot of water about 2 gallons in an hour and a half of fishing.

Can I repair it with a repair kit and from the outside? The damage is less than 1.5 inches long and maybe .5 inches across.

I have a roller trailer, would it be good to get a keel guard to run the length of the hull?

I have a 1979 16ft Ranger V-1600.

Re: Small Hull Damage

There's two type of fixes for this. Temporary to get you by for a while and permanent 100% correct perfect.

Temp fix. Get some 60 grit paper, sand it all smooth to about a 6 4 inch diameter and feathered out. Wash it real good with acetone, use some 3M High Strength Filler




Sand it smooth. Use some 3m Marine Premium filler to Fair it and sand it smooth with 120 grit. Then Get some gelcoat paste to paint on it, sand that smooth and she'll probabl last you for years.




The 100% right way would be an inside out repair, but since that would involve removing your deck, I doubt you would be interested in doing that right now.

I'm just sayin...

Re: Small Hull Damage

If you use expoxy, the outside fix will be the final fix, especially on a hole that small.

Feather the edges, mix up some epoxy resin and apply some small pieces of CSM to the hole using epoxy. Three layers of csm and a coat of thickened resin on top and that should be it. Sand smooth and paint over.

Re: Small Hull Damage

Deleted by rfdfirecaptain

Re: Small Hull Damage

Deleted by rfdfirecaptain

Re: Small Hull Damage

You should really start your own thread on this repair, otherwise it becomes difficult to know who is answering which question and one persons issue tends to become lost in the confusion.

Re: Small Hull Damage

Hello Brich..

" Can I repair it with a repair kit and from the outside? The damage is less than 1.5 inches long and maybe .5 inches across. "

Those kits are a waste of time and money..

You need fiberglass ( like mat or something else depending on your repair ).

Grind and feather.. post some more pics and we can guide you through it.

YD.

Re: Small Hull Damage

Yacht Dr. said:

You need fiberglass ( like mat or something else depending on your repair ).

Grind and feather.. post some more pics and we can guide you through it.

YD.

Click to expand...

What kind of pictures do you need to help me? Pictures with a ruler to show measurement? Wider angle pictures?

Re: Small Hull Damage

Mark42 said:

If you use expoxy, the outside fix will be the final fix, especially on a hole that small.

Feather the edges, mix up some epoxy resin and apply some small pieces of CSM to the hole using epoxy. Three layers of csm and a coat of thickened resin on top and that should be it. Sand smooth and paint over.

Click to expand...

Is there a certain type of epoxy, CSM, paint, and sandpaper to use? I've read several posts but not one specifically like this method.

Re: Small Hull Damage

Na.. Im saying grind/feather like your saying..and take a picture like you did before..but after the grind..

How much glass do you grind out would influence what type of glass you should put back

Your probably only going to need some mat and resin.

You wouldnt even need to cut it..just tear it up into small 3" circles and wet out only what you need to for your repair..then sand and go from there..

I did a Step bye step some time ago..

http://s699.photobucket.com/albums/vv352/YachtDr/Sun509/

If this is you..

YD.

Re: Small Hull Damage

great pictures YD.

A couple of questions
1. Do I need to sand/grind away all the gelcoat around the repair down to the fiberglass like in your picture? Do I just gind/sand away about a .5 inch all around?
2. If I grind it, is there a special bit I can get for my drill to grind away?
3. Do I have to wait to purchase the fiberglass until after I grind? Are there different kinds of fiberglass?
4. Should I use "resin" or "epoxy"? What is the difference and is there a certain kind/brand I should get?

Thanks for helping, I think I have time to work on the repair in the next few days.

Re: Small Hull Damage

brichbk said:

great pictures YD.

A couple of questions
1. Do I need to sand/grind away all the gelcoat around the repair down to the fiberglass like in your picture? Do I just gind/sand away about a .5 inch all around?
2. If I grind it, is there a special bit I can get for my drill to grind away?
3. Do I have to wait to purchase the fiberglass until after I grind? Are there different kinds of fiberglass?
4. Should I use "resin" or "epoxy"? What is the difference and is there a certain kind/brand I should get?

Thanks for helping, I think I have time to work on the repair in the next few days.

Click to expand...

1. I would feather for 2-3 layers of mat.
2. naw..you can find simple disks for your drill ( I use 3m rol-lock ) but you can get something from a big box store thats cheap.
3. I would have your glass and resin there before grinding ( scrap mat and resin ( unless it gets bigger then whats in your pics)). yes there are many types of fiberglass .. you just need the mat.
4. You should use poly. Your only going to need a few .. 4 oz of resin lol.. ( Im not going to get into the poly - epoxy thing .. Im SURE someone will pop in and give a complete diatribe soon )

Acetone,resin,mat ( torn by hand not cut ) MEKP, a 1" crap brush for the glass work .. oh and gloves ..

YD.

Re: Small Hull Damage

YD... 2 questions.

1. Why tear the mat by hand?
2. What is MEKP... where can you buy that? Never seen it on a shelf before.

Re: Small Hull Damage

rfdfirecaptain said:

YD... 2 questions.

1. Why tear the mat by hand?
2. What is MEKP... where can you buy that? Never seen it on a shelf before.

Click to expand...

The resin will creep beyond the repair ( cuttin will stop it making a hard rollout.

mekp is your catalyst...for your polyester resin..

YD.

Re: Small Hull Damage

I went out to price supplies and want to make sure I get the right resin. Would the gel resin be better? I took a couple of pics of what was offered at one store and then went to an auto parts store and the same materials were 2x-4x the price.

Will I also need to gel coat over the resin?

Re: Small Hull Damage

Buy the normal resin, resin jelly is a thickened no drip product that sort of sounds good, but it can be very difficult to wet out the glass with thick resin.

Re: Small Hull Damage

Read the directions on the poly can carefully. There are two kinds of resin, "waxed" vs "unwaxed". The unwaxed resiin stays sticky on top, allowing you to lay another coat of resin or resin/glass on top with good adhesion between layers. the waxed resin has a wax in it that rises to the top of the resin as it cures, giving a hard surface to that layer- the resin doesn't cure completely unless it is protected from the air, that's what the wax does. You can remove wax by wiping with solvent and sanding, but if you're doing multiple coats, it's easier to use unwaxed resin until the final coat. But on a small repair like this, you don't want to buy lots of different stuff. I'd guess what you took the picture of is waxed. So read the directions carefully on how to clean the wax off for additional coats of mat/resin. Start with a small piece of mat about the size of the lowest layer of mat you ground out, and make each additional layer an inch or so bigger all around, so that you keep the bottom of the hole you ground out level with the top surface. That will make it easier to blend the repair in with the curves on the hull. You will also want to get some gel-coat patch, for the final surfacing layer. Sand that smooth with sandpaper, using finer and finer grades until you can just use a polishing compound to blend (oops, scratch this last. The area you are patching is pretty rough. You won't need to polish it out, just blend the gel-coat layer with 320 grit.

Re: Small Hull Damage

Started the sanding today, here are the pics.

I am having a hard time finding gel coat paste locally. Any idea where to get some gel coat paste?

Re: Small Hull Damage

Here is the glass applied and sanded smooth.

Re: Small Hull Damage

I would have feathered out more... and packed that hole with some putty before the lam..

Thats the thing about them strake impacts..there a real toughy because there so close to radius' .

YD.