1988 Bayliner Cobra 1800 restoration.

[88BLiner]

Re: 1988 Bayliner Cobra 1800 restoration.

One more question that I had was, does anyone know if there would be any problems using regular bondo for fillets and low spots would be a problem before fiber glassing? What I mean is will the bondo stick to the existing poly and will the new fiberglass stick to it? I am using epoxy.

 

[proshadetree]

Re: 1988 Bayliner Cobra 1800 restoration.

If you have a hole in your boat.Ie you cut it there.I wax paper the bottom,water side after I clean the iner ,ie the floor side.Put thin 1 inch or so cloth then 3 then 5 then 7.So now you have a build up for repair.Pull wax paper off and hull is almost flat only a small amount of work needed.
Just the way I do it.I would use wood dust or regular filler for build up bondo has no place in a boat.

 

[88BLiner]

Re: 1988 Bayliner Cobra 1800 restoration.

Hello everyone, I was just wondering if anybody knows what I can use for filling in areas such as making fillets and such other than epoxy and some kind of filler. I was thinking of using regular bondo but I am not sure if the new epoxy and fiberglass will stick to it or not. I am using epoxy and would like to know what I could use to make fillets and fill in the low spots before I lay the new fiberglass. I really would appreciate any suggestions. Thanks

 

[Mark42]

Re: 1988 Bayliner Cobra 1800 restoration.

Hello everyone, I was just wondering if anybody knows what I can use for filling in areas such as making fillets and such other than epoxy and some kind of filler. I was thinking of using regular bondo but I am not sure if the new epoxy and fiberglass will stick to it or not. I am using epoxy and would like to know what I could use to make fillets and fill in the low spots before I lay the new fiberglass. I really would appreciate any suggestions. Thanks

Don't use body filler, it has no strength. If you are trying to save the epoxy because it is expensive, remember that the fillets are very small. Using something like a plastic spoon to make them is all you need. Anything larger is a waste of epoxy.

I read where some people use construction adhesive, like PL or liquid nails.

If you haven't bought the epoxy yet, I suggest you reconsider and use a good quality polyester resin. Cheaper, more than strong enough for what you are doing, and much easier to deal with.

 

[88BLiner]

Re: 1988 Bayliner Cobra 1800 restoration.

Hey guys, I know it has been a while but all the rain we have been having here in Florida really has slowed me down on my progress.

Mark42, I already have 5 gallons of epoxy. It is not really that I am trying to save epoxy as much as I am trying to find an easier way to do things. I do have a big thing of filler that the fiberglass place sold me. It is called Q-cell. Does anyone know anything about this stuff? Can I use it in the epoxy by itself to make fillets or should I use it with something else?

 

[88BLiner]

Re: 1988 Bayliner Cobra 1800 restoration.

Sorry I forgot to ask about something. I have a tube of 3M 5200 which I have heard makes an excellent bedding for stringers and transoms. The problem is I know I would need like 10 more tubes for everything and that is going to cost a lot more money. My question is do I really need something that flexible or adhesive would the construction adhesive work just as well? Or maybe I can just use the same Epoxy and Q-Cell mixture that I am thinking of using for the fillets? Please correct me if I am wrong but I am thinking that it does not really need to have any flex because the fiberglass is going to keep it from flexing anyway, therefore I think all I am trying to do to avoid hard spots is to make sure that there is continuous solid contact between the wood and the hull, is this correct? I am hoping to get some of this done to tomorrow so if anyone can give me some help tonight I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks guys for all the help everyone has given me so far.

 

[88BLiner]

Re: 1988 Bayliner Cobra 1800 restoration.

Well I am about to go do some work on the boat I hope my assumptions in the last post are correct. Maybe I will just work some more on prep and hope for a response when I get home.

 

[Mark42]

Re: 1988 Bayliner Cobra 1800 restoration.

Pick up a tube of construction adhesive like PL. Quite a few folks here have used it with great success to bed down stringers before glassing.

Not sure what Q-cell is. The popular thickeners are micro glass spheres and silica fibers. I have used almost twice as much glass pheres and another 50% silica to make a really thick paste (2.5 times the epoxy volume). Call the place that sold it and ask what is in Q-cell. Glass pheres alone will thicken, but when the epoxy heats up as it sets, it turns runny without the silica.

 

[88BLiner]

Re: 1988 Bayliner Cobra 1800 restoration.

Thanks for the reply mark, do you think I could use that pl stuff for making fillets too? It just seems like it would be so much easier if I could make the fillets out of something that is already at the right consistency and also that the epoxy and glass will stick to. I think I will call and ask, because I did a little test with the stuff I have now and it looked good until I added the hardener. I mixed the Q-Cell stuff in the resin before I mixed in the hardener because I wanted time to play with the thickness. I even made it extra thick to account for the hardener that I would later be adding. It was very thick maybe thicker than peanut butter. Then I added the hardener and it turned runny again, too runny to make fillets so I decided to wait and see if I could work with it once it started to heat up. But as soon as I felt the heat it went from too runny to too thick. I did not want to waste it so I tried my best to spread it to the bottom of the stringer and hull with a plastic spoon but it kind of curled up as the spoon past over it. I did get most of the angle filled but it is not pretty and I will either have to sand it into a nice curved fillet for the glass to lay down on or sand it all of and try some thing else. I am just trying to get rid of all the sharp angles now because I do not want to have to remove new fiberglass.

 

[Mark42]

Re: 1988 Bayliner Cobra 1800 restoration.

The usual method of thickening resin is to add the thickeners after mixing the hardener in. It only takes two minutes or so to mix up about 16 oz of thick resin, so its not taking that much time away from the working window. Also, when I mixed up the thick resin, it took 3 or 4 times longer to kick. So the working time is greatly extended.

Use metal or wood spoons for making the fillits, plastic just doesn't handle the pressure and thick resin well. Somewhere I read that old CD's make good fillit spreaders, but I think a CD makes a fillit that is a bit on the large size.

If PL works for you, go ahead and make the fillits out of it.

 

[88BLiner]

Re: 1988 Bayliner Cobra 1800 restoration.

Thanks Mark42, I think I will try what you suggested and try adding the filler after mixing the epoxy. The metal spoon also sounds like a good idea. I guess if I do not have better luck with that I will then try the PL adhesive. Again thanks for the tips and ideas, I will have another update on my progress on Saturday and Sunday.

 

[BluePaw]

Re: 1988 Bayliner Cobra 1800 restoration.

Hey there,

I'm a fairly new iboater as well. Great job! I am finding your project interesting and useful. I recently bought an 88 Cobra myself. I agree, the lines on this model are amazing. The interior is in rough shape, like yours, but we fell in love with her anyway. Mine has a 1998 120 hp Force, runs excellently! We have pulled all the seating and are staring on redoing the floor. Will you be putting new carpet down? We can't decide weather to stay original and go with carpet or to lay vinyl. We only plan on keeping this boat for 2-3 years.

 

[88BLiner]

Re: 1988 Bayliner Cobra 1800 restoration.

Hello Bluepaw, Thanks for reading my thread. As far as you replacing the carpet, I would say go the cheapest rout if you only plan on keeping the boat for 1 or 2 years. On the other hand I plan on keeping mine for as lon as I can because there are not many out there. I am thinking about using hydro-turf. It is used on PWC's
Here is a link to the site http://hydroturf.com/products.php?cat=Sheets of Hydro-Turf&man=&page=1&feat=

 

[ezmobee]

Re: 1988 Bayliner Cobra 1800 restoration.

I put new carpet in mine 5 years ago and have decided I hate it. It's always filthy and a pain to clean.

 

[88BLiner]

Re: 1988 Bayliner Cobra 1800 restoration.

Hello everyone, I have got some updates for those of you that are reading my thread. I did not get much done this weekend. I wish I was not so scared of starting the fiberglass, I just want to make sure it is done the right way. But anyway here is what I did get done.

First of all I measured and cut the pieces for the transom. I am useing two pieces of 3/4 inch ply. they have been drying for about 2 months and in the prossece it has warped quite a bit. My solution to this was to get some 90 degree angled metal like the kind you build shelves from. I also got some threaded rod, washers and nuts. The picture below is what I am talking about. The black lines you see on the threaded rod are where I am going to cut 4 inch pieces to go threw the transom wood.



Next I drilled holes a little bigger than the threaded rod I am going to place threw them. The idea here is to straiten the wood by attaching the metal which I know is strait. Here is a picture of the holes I drilled and the threaded rod after I cut it to the right size.





Next I put a couple coats of epoxy on the wood and let it soak in for a while. Then I placed the fiberglass down and wet it out. Then I pushed the threaded rods threw the holes, put down the angled metal, and placed washers and nuts on both sides. I then tightened everything down so the wood is strait like the metal.





I already know that I made a mistake by not putting something on the threaded rod so that the epoxy does not stick to it but by the time I realized it was too late. Oh well, just another challenge. Isn't that what makes this fun? Anyhow the finished product came out very strait, it will just take some elbow grease to get those threaded rods out.
Wel I do have more but it is getting late here and this post is getting long so I will write more tomorrow after work. Talk to you guys then!

 

[88BLiner]

Re: 1988 Bayliner Cobra 1800 restoration.

Alright, man I have had a busy couple of days. Any how here is a little more that I got accomplished last weekend.

The next thing I did was ruff cut the stringers. I forgot to take pictures of the stringers but there are 2 stringers on each side of the boat that are 66" long and 3" tall. There are also 2 more main stringers that run along the whole length of the boat. All of them are cut from 3/4 inch exterior grade ply.

I then cut the transom knees that will be glassed to each side of the knees that were shaped to the back of the main stringers. The original set up on the boat just had 1 knee glassed to the side of each of the main stringers. I figured it could not hurt to add a second to the other side of each stringer. So there will now be 2 1/4 inches of ply attaching the transom to the hull and stringers.



Next I was trying to decide how to get rid of the sharp corners on the tops of the stringers so hopefully the new fiberglass will not give me too many problems. There are a lot of wonderful tools out there that I could have used to to the same thing, but unfortunately I do not own any of them. I did not want to spend money on new tools if I can accomplish the same job with stuff that I already have and a little more elbow grease. So the following pictures show what I came up with.





All I did was take a piece of 3/4 inch PVC pipe and cut it in half length ways. Then I took a hand plainer and ran it across the tops of the stringers to get the initial curve shape and also to get rid of a lot of the wood that would have wasted the sandpaper that I had.

Then I took some 60 grit sand paper and laid it inside of the PVC pipe and went to it. It really did not take me as long as I thought it would and it came out okay I think. I just hope that radius of the curve is big enough for the glass not to pull off of it because the stringers are only 3/4 inch. I know the next picture is a little blurry but you get the idea.



Well that's all for now. Hopefully I get get to work on it more this weekend. Remember all questions, concerns, comments and Ideas are very welcome.

 

[proshadetree]

Re: 1988 Bayliner Cobra 1800 restoration.

Looking good man.Getting in the home stretch now.Going to try to get mine back in the water this weekend.Need to get my camera back from my daughter so I can post some pics.

 

[88BLiner]

Re: 1988 Bayliner Cobra 1800 restoration.

Awesome proshadetree, I will be looking forward to seeing some of your pictures. Thanks for the encouraging words.

 

[88BLiner]

Re: 1988 Bayliner Cobra 1800 restoration.

Well, once again I was rained out here in the sunshine state. So I did not get any thing done to the boat today. OH well maybe tomorrow, I do have a question that maybe somone can help me with.

I do not have a picture right now of the area in question but in the bildge area of my boat where the bildge pump is attached to the floor I noticed while grinding the grinder hit an area that is raised a bit and made a small hole. It is not even ground down to the hull yet and water came out of this hole. I was wondering if anyone knows what this is. Is this an area that would have wood or channels for water to run from the front of the boat?

If so do you guys think that i will need to grind all this area out or should I just fill in the holes and continue?

Sorry about not having a picture of what I am talking about I will try to get one tomorrow.

 

[88BLiner]

Re: 1988 Bayliner Cobra 1800 restoration.

One more question, does anyone know what the best product would be to use to repair pits in an aluminum gas tank?