Look At this Damage. Pictures attached any Advise please. Fiberglass Repair

Was out fishing yesterday in lake Erie with a buddy the winds were rough and the lake lost a few feet in some areas.

Going 35MPH when all of the sudden Booom Boom Boom engine stops Prop breaks.

4 foot crack along the bottom rear of the boat. i can see the crack under the oil pan aswell.Also put a hair crack through the engine mount, although i did start the engine and it does not seam to have any effect on the motor.
Seeps water through the crack. 3 gallons an hour

The boat is only worth 3500$ but i love my boat i take really good care of it i would never sell it it was passed down to me by my grandfather who passed away.
Price at local shop 1500$+
Can i do this myself i am very mechanically inclined although i dont kno much about fiberglass other then going through 12 blades cutting 6 holes for my marine speakers but anyways thx for the help and possitive advise only.

Re: Look At this Damage. Pictures attached any Advise please. Fiberglass Repair

I was told from speaker to a friend of mine i need to grind use resin and sheets of fiberglass and make layers but what i really would like is for someone to tell me step by step procedure that i must do to get it back to the way it was. Will removing the gas tank which is located underneath the bottom of the carpet in the center help get to the V part of the bottom of the boat or will i run into plywood or bilge areas

Re: Look At this Damage. Pictures attached any Advise please. Fiberglass Repair

some of the fiberglass experts will chime in....but basically (and they'll correct me if i'm wrong)
you'll repair the glass from the inside of the hull, and dress up the cosmetics from the outside of the hull.
i do not know the actual construction style of your boat, but it may involve removing some of, if not all, of the deck.

it may be able to be repaired from the outside....wait for some of the experts to chime in

Re: Look At this Damage. Pictures attached any Advise please. Fiberglass Repair

No sonar (depth/fishfinder) unit on your boat? Live and learn eh?!

I'm not a f'glass guru, but I believe DJ has you headed in the right direction. Those repairs will need to be made from the inside requiring the removal of decking for access. If you try to make the repairs from the outside it'll look like a Billy goats butt sewed up with a grapevine and the patch won't hold for long on the outside.

Re: Look At this Damage. Pictures attached any Advise please. Fiberglass Repair

That boat hit hard. What happened did it fall off a trailer looks like toast to me.. way to much keel damage transmitted into the engine bay..

Re: Look At this Damage. Pictures attached any Advise please. Fiberglass Repair

The only thing you can do is start grinding on the outside and chase all the bad glass out.

See how it opens up and go from there.

You may have to remove the motors .. or not ..

You just have to 'explore' right now hands on ..

YD.

Re: Look At this Damage. Pictures attached any Advise please. Fiberglass Repair

Ouch! Sorry to see that. Yes, Start top down. All the ugly fix'n can be hid under your deck (floor). The bottom can be made nice again, and you will know that boat inside out when your done.

I would bet your pulling that motor.

Chris

Re: Look At this Damage. Pictures attached any Advise please. Fiberglass Repair

Tail_Gunner said:

That boat hit hard. What happened did it fall off a trailer looks like toast to me.. way to much keel damage transmitted into the engine bay..

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No. and i do have a depth finder and im very very familiar with the water in which the incident occurred on.
The sherrif and coat guard who closed the marina after i went in couldnt signal me back and there assumption is that due to STRONG wind branches or trees from the aggressive winds may have led them to fall into the water near the islands i was fishing near and caused a tree trunks to float in the area this happened. and i agree because i was near about 13 islands.

Ill go ahead and pull the gas tank from the center of the boat.

Re: Look At this Damage. Pictures attached any Advise please. Fiberglass Repair

No matter how the damage was done, your boat will take a considerable amount of work to get fixed.

Fuel tank, engine, deck, and some foam removal. Grinding the damaged area on the outside, grinding back to good glass on the inside.

I'd say you need to grind and lap the patch back to both stringers for strength, then after she's patched on the inside use a good PB type filler to fair in the damage to the outside... and then you can fix the gel coat.

You should also do or have a complete inspection to your drive system and motor mounts.

Have you contacted your insurance company about this? Has a claims adjuster looked at it?

Re: Look At this Damage. Pictures attached any Advise please. Fiberglass Repair

Is the outdrive ok? I know you said the boat has sentimental value but as least consider taking your good motor and outdrive and putting it in a boat with a cracked block or wrecked (or stolen) outdrive. You are looking at a lot of work but assuming you had it insured you will still get a fair amount even after your deductable. They may want to total it out but if you can keep the boat or buy the salvage back it is likely the least amount of work and cheapest alternative. That said good luck with the repair if you put it back together, you will certainly know your boat inside and out after that project.

~$1500 would be a very reasonable price, would the pull the deck or do the whole project from the outside (except the engine mount)?

If it were mine and went the route of repair, I would support the boat very well to stabilize the hull, grind out about 1/2 through the hull in the damaged areas and taper it to each side at a 10/1 width to depth ratio and build it back up with CSM and vinylester resin. Then I would pull the engine, deck, and tank. Take good measurements of the motor mount, cut it out along with the lower portion of the forward engine compartment bulkhead and grind out the damage. I would build this back up with 1708 and epoxy for extra strength again tapering out. The big unknown would be whether you have enough room to get a proper width to taper the repair without removing the innermost stringers. Vinylester on the outside let you use gelcoat to finish and provide greater bonding than polyester.

Re: Look At this Damage. Pictures attached any Advise please. Fiberglass Repair

I removed the gastank/carpet clover. removed the hoses lines wires for the gastank then removed the gastank. under the gastank was plywood i cut through it and got to the FOAM under that. then removed the foam and was able to get the the fiberglass hull.
The Pipe you see in the picture is what makes the water in the front of the boat go thorugh it and out the back but the pipe is layed down and is resined to the floor.

My lower unit is gone but i purchased i used replacement rebuilt one for 300$

Good news is where the crack is for the stringer is at, the crack is only in the gelcoat i was able to reach my hand underneeth and found no crack to the wood at all.

what should i do now and thanks for the advise im following what your saying to do

Re: Look At this Damage. Pictures attached any Advise please. Fiberglass Repair

Oh yeh one more thing HOW THE HELL DO I GET FIBERGLASS SPLINTERS OUT OF MY ARMS AND FINGERS REALLY REALLY SMALL ONES.

wife wont let me lay on the bed furniture couch anything because shes afraid i will shed some off on the furniture lol

Re: Look At this Damage. Pictures attached any Advise please. Fiberglass Repair

1500 may sound steep at first glance for a 3500 boat. If this boat didn't have sentimental value, I would say don't spend that and consider parting out the boat and buying another one, or rolling up your sleeves and doing the repairs yourself.

However, having done some fiberglass work before, this doesn't sound all that bad to me for a repair price. I do think its something you can fix yourself with some reading on this forum and some elbow grease. However, you will probably have several hundred bucks in materials and tools, not to mention your time in gutting the boat, flipping it over, putting the engine back in, etc...

Just a thought.

Re: Look At this Damage. Pictures attached any Advise please. Fiberglass Repair

with that part of the floor cutout, this may be a good time to do some core samples in your stringers. check for rot...the wood splinters in pic #2 above, look really dark and wet

Re: Look At this Damage. Pictures attached any Advise please. Fiberglass Repair

1987CenturyBronco said:

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This pic says the motor needs to come out and that motor mount needs to be replaced, I would replace both of them.

If you'll read and study other fiberglass restoration and repair threads on this forum I'm sure you can do this job yourself, lots of other folks here have done this and done a fine job restoring and repairing their boats.

I'm not sure I'd trust a $1500 shop repair job for the damage you have, I think they'd either jack the price up half way through the job (this is a bigger job than we first thout and we've found this and that we didn't see when we gave you the estimate) or you would get a shoddy job, which we see and hear a lot of on this forum.

This is a great thread on retoring a f'glass boat, and even though you have damage instead of rot it'll give you a real good idea on how to lay glass and put a boat back together:
http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=510077

There are quite a few other threads that will help you too, just start digging around and read.

As always, there's also the member help/support you'll get when you start working on your boat and start asking questions in this thread.

Re: Look At this Damage. Pictures attached any Advise please. Fiberglass Repair

1987CenturyBronco said:

Oh yeh one more thing HOW THE HELL DO I GET FIBERGLASS SPLINTERS OUT OF MY ARMS AND FINGERS REALLY REALLY SMALL ONES.

wife wont let me lay on the bed furniture couch anything because shes afraid i will shed some off on the furniture lol

Click to expand...

Welp.. you need to scrub your body with a luffa (spelling) pad with loads of hot water and soap ( or thick shaving cream works well for some reason ). This will get the bulk of it sheered off .. the rest will get sheered off while in bed or everyday working.

Wear better protection mate.

You also should have to grind off any/all gelcoat where you see damage. You need to investigate the damaged glass which is under the gel.

YD.

Re: Look At this Damage. Pictures attached any Advise please. Fiberglass Repair

I see alot more going on here that just keel damage. I see alot of wet wood and rot.

Re: Look At this Damage. Pictures attached any Advise please. Fiberglass Repair

you goin to have to grind all around the the damage part of the hull from the inside and outside and lay down aot of fiberglass sheet inside and outside. when you finsh laying the matt on the outside you can sand it down smooth. after you sand it down smooth you can use gel coat and this powder stuff made from TEK. what it do is turn your gelcoat to something like putty where you can add MEK to the putty to harden it. when it's harden you can sand it down and respray the gelcoat to mach the boat hull. and about getting the fiberglass out of your hand and arm wrap your hand and arm with tape and slowly un wrap it. it's a little painful if your have hairy arm lolz. good luck with the repair.

Re: Look At this Damage. Pictures attached any Advise please. Fiberglass Repair

PHUONG727 said:

you goin to have to grind all around the the damage part of the hull from the inside and outside and lay down aot of fiberglass sheet inside and outside. when you finsh laying the matt on the outside you can sand it down smooth. after you sand it down smooth you can use gel coat and this powder stuff made from TEK. what it do is turn your gelcoat to something like putty where you can add MEK to the putty to harden it. when it's harden you can sand it down and respray the gelcoat to mach the boat hull. and about getting the fiberglass out of your hand and arm wrap your hand and arm with tape and slowly un wrap it. it's a little painful if your have hairy arm lolz. good luck with the repair.

Click to expand...

Classic Post !!

What is "lolz" in this post..

Back to the OP ..

You should cut out bad/rotted stuff as much as possible.

You Inspect where the bad stuff is .. make a determination of what might be better to cut out.

You might have good wood .. but it merges 3" from bad wood from your stringers/bulkies.

You have to make a call on where your NEW system is going to fit on your boat.

Sometimes its better to cut out the good to scab in your new pieces .. and then again .. sometimes its better to Cleat your new wood in.

YD.

PS. I would not recommend putting tape on your arms .. I would recommend a better grind setup for your protection ..

Re: Look At this Damage. Pictures attached any Advise please. Fiberglass Repair

yes he goin to have to replace the rotted wood and make sure he use enough glass. and about wraping tape around your arm. the tape will help pull most of the little fiber out of your skin by sticking to the tape. if you just rub it with a pad and hot water . it will make it worse because hot water open your pore and the fiber will stick in deeper.

PS owner of Precision Fiberglass and gel coat repair Saint. Petersburg FL