2001 Yar-Craft 1895 Storm Cap-Off Rebuild

[Slager]

So while I have been tabbing in the transom, I keep getting little tiny bubbles that I can't get to work out. I kept adding resin and working with the chip brush and they wouldn't go away. I tried using my bubble buster roller, and it wasn't pushing them out either. What am I doing wrong? Is this bad enough of a problem that I need to grind the tabbing off and try again?

Here is a good picture of them.


Here is a picture of a bigger bubble that I left because the glass was lifting in other places when I worked it out. I'll grind it out and fill later.

 

[Slager]

I ground out the worst spots and a little of the surrounding area and I feel a little better now. I found that there were slightly resin starved areas under the big concentrations of spots, but the more isolated spots weren't much more than a pin head. I also found tiny voids here and there in the completely wetted out sections.

I'm planning on leaving the rest alone and putting 1708 patches over the places I ground. My thinking is that if I grind away every tiny pin head sized void, I won't have any hull left when I'm done. There were tiny pin head sized voids, and some much larger bubbles between every layer of glass in the hull that I ground through. Also the boat lives on a trailer and doesn't get more than 8-10 hours of water exposure at a time. The bilge is also set up such that water won't touch the transom unless the bilge gets more than several inches of water in it. What do you guys think, does that make sense and seem reasonable? Or should I just grind it all off?


_

 

[Slager]

I think I finally figured out this glassing thing. I put the first full layer of 1708 on the transom today and it came out great!



For anyone else out there having troubles with small bubbles, this is what I did to get rid of them. First, I wiped down with acetone the cardboard I was cutting the glass on. I also thought it possible that the wood (even though I precoated the wood) may have been still absorbing a little resin. Since I had some wood to recoat after grinding out some bubbles, I put a very thin coat of resin on the whole transom after putting it on the raw wood until it stopped soaking it up. I also washed several times with acetone after grinding. Then to lay the glass, I put on as much resin as I could get to stay on the transom. Then I put on the glass and rolled from the center out with the bubble buster. Then the glass wasn't fully wet out, so I put what felt like a ton of resin on the surface working from the center out. After the resin had soaked in, I could see some places with bubbles. I found that they were easier to get rid of if I pushed the small bubbles together with the bubble buster roller into one larger bubble and then rolled that out. I found that starting near the bottom and rolling towards the top worked the best. It pushed some of the excess resin from the bottom into the areas it was needed higher up. Then I used a chip brush to dab out stubborn bubbles on the filets and edges of the transom.

 

[Slager]

I'm still making progress. So far, I put the second layer of 1708 on the transom, glued and fileted the center stringers and started on glassing in the stringers. I have two layers of 1708 tabbed in on the right stringer and just put down glass on half of one side on the left. Won't be able to do much with the boat this weekend, but should continue Monday.

 

[gsxrdan]

sweet! shes comin out real purdy! i wouldnt worry about the pinhead bubbles, so far id say u were doin 100% better job than the factory would have bothered (but then i dont know much lol). so satisfying getting glass laid down, u rockin it man! i agree it seems best to slather on as much resin as u can before laying on the cloth, then forcing the resin up thru the weave - for most of my build i was literally pouring the resin on the surface and spreading it a bit then laying down the cloth or mat.

 

[kcassells]

Yup.. Lookin like you got the glass issue way behind you. Always seems like the 1st time gets a little nervy,:faint2:

 

[Slager]

Thanks guys. I'm really happy with how it's turning out. Considering the factory left huge air gaps all over the stringers and transom, I'm feeling pretty good. I have a couple larger bubbles from having the resin gell before I could drive them out. Nothing substantial, I'm going to grind and fill them when I have all the stringers glassed so that I don't have to clean up the dust as many times.

 

[Slager]

I finished up putting 2 layers of glass on both center stringers. Eventually I'll trim the extra glass off the top and cap with CSM, but I think I'm going to do the two outside stringers first.

 

[Slager]

Progress continues. I had plans to glass in one of the outside stringers last week, but I realized I was down to my last yard of 1708. I started with 15 yds. So, I ordered more and decided to work on grinding away the remnants of the old deck lip. I used the lip to set the center stringer height, so I didn't need it any more. A couple grinder injuries later and the lip is gone. I also started on bedding and filleting one of the outside steingers. My new glass is here, so I'll hopefully lay some glass on it this week.

In the midst of the hot dusty mess.

I had a cutoff wheel explode and hit my arm.

All finished.

 

[Teamster]

It's hot and it sucks,...But a long sleeve shirt might be a good idea,...

Boat is gonna be awesome when done,.....

 

[Slager]

It was about 87 F when that happened, I was roasting with the tyvek and mask and goggles, so I didn't wear the long sleeves and payed for it. I was also sacrificing a bit of safety for speed by using the cuttoff wheel.

I think that's the last of the major grinding. I may have a bit more to do here and there, but it'll be nothing comparetively.

 

[Slager]

No Title

Still working on the stringers, I got two layers of 1708 on the right stringer. Then I bedded and fileted the left stringer and have 2 layers of 1708 on all but a few feet of one side. The photos are from a couple days ago, so no glass on the one side yet.

 

[Slager]

No Title

Well, I finally started capping the stringers with 1.5 Oz csm. That stuff is messy compared to the 1708. I beat it up a bunch and used plastic to help squeeze out some of the bubbles. Its not perfect, but it came out pretty good.

 

[Slager]

It's been a long time since I posted, but progress continues. I finished capping the stringers with CSM and moved on to installing the bulkheads. I have them all bedded, filleted and covered with glass, the only thing left to do is grind the sharp edges and cap with CSM. I ordered more glass and resin again. The supplier I used had sold out of 1708, but offered me 1808 as a replacement. Since I wanted to continue quickly without ordering from someone else, I told them to send me the 1808. The 1808 behaved quite nicely for covering a couple bulkheads.

 

[Slager]

I also test fit the deck and started covering the underside of the pieces with 1.5 oz CSM. The center deck pieces is propped up because I haven't put in the cleats that support it yet.

 

[Slager]

And lastly a couple questions. I'm planning on using the 1808 to tab in the deck. Do I need to cut the 1808 at a 45 degree angle, or is the 0/90 fiber orientation acceptable?

Also, does anyone have suggestions on getting the remnants of this 3M 4200/5200 off the gel coat?

 

[kcassells]

Nice work I see there! I like the way you are doing the bulkhead tabbing. Are you doubling it or going with the 1 tab in those areas? Just wondering. Looks pretty biulletproof!

 

[Slager]

Two layers tabbed to the hull and two layers tabbed to the stringers. The original had the bulkheads full width and the stringers notched together, so I wanted two layers to hold them together. Originally the very center bulkhead did little more than separate the batteries from the gas tank, but I put the heavy glass on it and made it a structural piece.

 

[Slager]

So, I'm thinking about filleting around the outside of my deck and thinking it'll take a bunch of peanut butter. I have a couple ideas that may reduce the amount needed.

1. After gluing the deck to the stringers and bulkheads, pour the expanding foam and let some excess come up around the outside edges. I could form a radius to lay the glass over using some weights to push a wax coated pvc pipe up against the side of the hull. Then fill in with thickened resin where needed. I could also use a round rasp to form a radius in the foam.

2. Use some of foam weatherstrip crack filler/caulk backer of various thickness to fill the deck to hull gap and use thickened resin to form a radius on top.

Has anyone ever tried either of these? Based on deconstruction, I think the original was assembled using method 1. They used foam to form a radius.

Any input is appreciated.

 

[Slager]

Made a little more progress. I ground off all the sharp edges at the top of my bulkheads and I got all the bulkheads capped with CSM. It doesn't look much different, but it should be good to go for adding the deck. You can also see some of the dark spots on the sides of the hull, those are places I ground through a coremat layer, I filled them with a couple layers of glass. I used scrap pieces CSM, 1708 and 1808, just putting down any piece that fit well. Next step is to add some cleats to the bulkheads and stringers, cut a couple holes for tubes and wiring etc, and cut a couple hatch holes etc in the deck. Then deck installation time.

Anyone have any input on my above ideas about using foam for my deck to hull fillet?

Also, would 1808 be suitable for tabbing the deck to hull, or should I cut it at an angle? I'm going to have to order another yard or two of biax in order to have enough to tab the whole deck, I'm just trying to decide how much.

I've also read that when gluing the deck to the under-structure, weights instead of screws can be used to hold the deck down while the glue/thickened resin dries, but I have never seen anyone actually do it. Does anyone know of a thread where weights were used successfully to hold the deck down?