Hey,
CRAZY STORY:
Well, last Sunday I had a day from hell. On the way to the beach, my trailer tongue snapped. Luckily, we discovered this hanging by a thread when we stopped at a Canadian Tire out of all places. At first we thought our day was over but after 1.5 hours of drilling we installed another tongue without the weld temporarily. When we finally got to the beach and launched, the motor wouldn't start. Apparently, the float was stuck it was spewing out gas from the carb. I'm guessing this happened because I ran out of gas the day before as it was going full throttle. I gave up on this 2 hrs later after tapping and what have you.
When I got home, I saw a gash underneath the bilge area (front) dead center. Well after dreading the dirty work ahead of me, I took initiative by first removing as much water and rotten wood as possible with a screwdriver. After realizing how much water was there since it was still draining 2 days later, I duct taped a hairdryer to the hole and left it for 24 hours. It actually worked and dried up nicely. FYI, this is an old Crestliner and I don't believe there is any foam inside, just wood between the layers since I can see the fiberglass right through the hole clearly. I then used an angle grinder to get to the actual fiberglass but accidently cut through the corner a bit so I sanded another 1.5 inches of the flat part to compensate.
My question is, shall I stuff fresh wood inside the center before I patch? Is this critical? I have done this work before when I first bought the boat just 2 feet behind this hole and glad to see its stronger than ever. I know the proper procedure usually would be to take out the floor and re-foam, but I really don't think its necessary here. I hate working upside down, I'm thinking of taking off the motor and tilting this fully on the transom on the grass. I'm also thinking that if I will end up working upside down, I'll resin the area first, and only stick a dry sheet and paint the resin over that. What do you think? I want to get this done ASAP so I can take it out on Sunday, I'll give it 8 hours between cures with a space heater and fan... Thanks for reading.
More pictures will be up soon as I am not home right now and they are on the camera.
Regards,
Eyal
CRAZY STORY:
Well, last Sunday I had a day from hell. On the way to the beach, my trailer tongue snapped. Luckily, we discovered this hanging by a thread when we stopped at a Canadian Tire out of all places. At first we thought our day was over but after 1.5 hours of drilling we installed another tongue without the weld temporarily. When we finally got to the beach and launched, the motor wouldn't start. Apparently, the float was stuck it was spewing out gas from the carb. I'm guessing this happened because I ran out of gas the day before as it was going full throttle. I gave up on this 2 hrs later after tapping and what have you.
When I got home, I saw a gash underneath the bilge area (front) dead center. Well after dreading the dirty work ahead of me, I took initiative by first removing as much water and rotten wood as possible with a screwdriver. After realizing how much water was there since it was still draining 2 days later, I duct taped a hairdryer to the hole and left it for 24 hours. It actually worked and dried up nicely. FYI, this is an old Crestliner and I don't believe there is any foam inside, just wood between the layers since I can see the fiberglass right through the hole clearly. I then used an angle grinder to get to the actual fiberglass but accidently cut through the corner a bit so I sanded another 1.5 inches of the flat part to compensate.
My question is, shall I stuff fresh wood inside the center before I patch? Is this critical? I have done this work before when I first bought the boat just 2 feet behind this hole and glad to see its stronger than ever. I know the proper procedure usually would be to take out the floor and re-foam, but I really don't think its necessary here. I hate working upside down, I'm thinking of taking off the motor and tilting this fully on the transom on the grass. I'm also thinking that if I will end up working upside down, I'll resin the area first, and only stick a dry sheet and paint the resin over that. What do you think? I want to get this done ASAP so I can take it out on Sunday, I'll give it 8 hours between cures with a space heater and fan... Thanks for reading.
More pictures will be up soon as I am not home right now and they are on the camera.
Regards,
Eyal
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