costly mistake?????

93bronco

Ensign
Joined
Nov 11, 2001
Messages
962
i was at my buddies house working on the trophy & he was working on his 14ft keywest.<br />he had a friend come over who claimed to be a fiberglass repair tech & proceeded to help him fix some grounding spots, breaks in gel coat- standard stuff.<br />before i knew it they had taken a wire wheel <on drill> to the spots. with no clean up other than sweeping with a rag- they started coating with poly resin than glass cloth+ more resin. i was shocked!!<br />- <br />this was placed on the bottom, sides & transom.<br />the guy told him to put it in the water tomorrow and if it held it would be ok????<br />am i mistaken in assuming that the unprotected, poorly prepped patch work wont hold up underwater?<br />-<br />my buddy wants me to fix it with out removing the work.<br />what can i put over it to seal it and cover the resin?<br />gulvit with coloring, interlux vc-tar epoxy coat or VC performance epoxy bottom finish??<br />-<br />i only want to do this one time to atleast cover the problem, but dont know if the epoxy base coat will adhere to the poly resin patch repair.
 

JasonJ

Rear Admiral
Joined
Aug 20, 2001
Messages
4,163
Re: costly mistake?????

I don't know, I'm not an expert or anything like that, but it doesn't sound like the way I have seen a patch job done. I have always thought you take your trusty 4" grinder and grind away at least three inches all the way around the damage, creating a dished effect. Then you lay alternating layers of mat and roving, each layer a little bigger than the last, to fill in the dished effect. Sand, apply gelcoat (hopefully it matches decent). Wet sand gelcoat to hopefully blend, and you are done. Its not an overnight thing by any means. It sounds like the patch job you describe would be very ugly, may not stick, and could potentially actually be torn off with the constant force of water passing over its rough ugly surface. That being said, I have seen people fill small holes or gouges with silicone and it stayed on for years, so who knows....
 

jomac

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
May 1, 2003
Messages
195
Re: costly mistake?????

2K as long as the wheel wire was grease free, not cleaning doesn,t matter that much, poly resin will absorb any dust left over If the repair is faily smooth sand it level then Gel-coat then as JJ said wet sand smooth and buff
 

snapperbait

Vice Admiral
Joined
Aug 20, 2002
Messages
5,754
Re: costly mistake?????

All the area around the repair should have been cleaned with a good amount of acetone after sanding to remove any oils or grease and dust... Neither Poly or Poxy will stick to oil or paint....<br /><br />What they sanded the area with is neither here nor there... Wire wheel, grinder, whatever works.... The important part is that they got past the gelcoat and got into fresh clean fiberglass so the poly has something to "catch" onto....<br /><br />(edit) An Epoxy repair will stick to old polyester but a polyester repair won't stick to epoxy... And Gluvit is the stuff!
 

93bronco

Ensign
Joined
Nov 11, 2001
Messages
962
Re: costly mistake?????

i just got back from looking at it, what a cluster----!<br />he doesnt want to correct it, so i told him to sand with 80 to 100 grit , than apply GLUVIT w/ some color tint for the bottom- to cover up the dark spots under the resin. <hopefully><br />-<br />that way it will atleast seal the bottom from water intrusion into the sanded resin & gel coat.<br />what ever he does im sure it will be better than leaving the areas unsealed.<br />Owell- his attempted quick fix has cost him his week off & then some.
 
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