First rebuild - '89 Campion Allante 185 - Stringers, Deck, Transom

[Redtruck12]

Looking really good Steve
best of luck and a speedy recovery from your surgery.

 

[kcassells]

Ditto to that!

 

[steve_h7]

Great progress Steve! Aorta surgery sounds a bit scary, but hopefully it all goes well.

I think I mentioned this before, but dont glass the top of the deck until after you have put the holes in your floor to pour foam into. I made this mistake and burnt up my drill trying to drill holes. I ended up having to get a heavy duty cement mixer drill to finish up.

Thanks for that tip! And yes, I remembered reading your thread and so did just what you suggested... all drilled and I have the foam all poured in the deck but it’s clear I won’t have enough to do the float boxes in the back and another area in the bow so I ordered a 3rd 16 lb. kit along with a couple gallons of gelcoat to do the interior when the time comes.
And thanks everyone for the well wishes. I’m just laying here in the hospital with my new stint in place ... should get to go home tomorrow and back to real fun... workin’ on the boat!

 

[dezmond]

Get your rest and soon enough you will be at it. Don’t over do it. It will still be there when your ready to get back at it.

 

[steve_h7]

I'm looking at how much 1708 and CSM I have left and I wondered if anyone has an opinion of this combo for the deck.... If I tabbed the deck in with a piece of 8" 1708 and then cover the whole deck with 1708 and have it extend from the deck up and over the 8" tabbing, and then cover that with CSM. I've heard using cloth without covering it with CSM on a deck can result in the cloth running if it gets snagged when just covering with gelcoat. Not sure if that's a valid concern or not never having done it before but it sounded like a reasonable option.

 

[Chris51280]

couple of things i would do:
if i go with 1708 over the deck, then 1/2 plywood would be enough. you adding a lot of weight and strength into the deck.
you can do one layer of csm and then flip the 1708 around so the woven is facing down and the .8 csm is facing up.
you can also do 2 layers of csm.
the 8" tabbing would apply to all of the above. no need to go up the sides but it doesn't matter. maybe somebody else has a different opinion and I'm wrong on this.

 

[steve_h7]

couple of things i would do:
if i go with 1708 over the deck, then 1/2 plywood would be enough. you adding a lot of weight and strength into the deck.
you can do one layer of csm and then flip the 1708 around so the woven is facing down and the .8 csm is facing up.
you can also do 2 layers of csm.
the 8" tabbing would apply to all of the above. no need to go up the sides but it doesn't matter. maybe somebody else has a different opinion and I'm wrong on this.

Nice, I never thought of doing CSM and then doing upside down 1708 but that makes sense. :thumb: I'm using 1/2" ACX.

 

[ACon977]

I'm looking at how much 1708 and CSM I have left and I wondered if anyone has an opinion of this combo for the deck.... If I tabbed the deck in with a piece of 8" 1708 and then cover the whole deck with 1708 and have it extend from the deck up and over the 8" tabbing, and then cover that with CSM. I've heard using cloth without covering it with CSM on a deck can result in the cloth running if it gets snagged when just covering with gelcoat. Not sure if that's a valid concern or not never having done it before but it sounded like a reasonable option.

Aint no rest for the wicked huh? :lol:

Regarding your tabbing idea, I think your 8" up the sides is a good idea. I ended up doing 2 layers on my deck in order to help smooth out any transitions between deck pieces and smooth radius up the walls. the first layer I did CSM then Cloth (equivalent of 1708) of about 8" (4 on the deck, 4 on the hull). Then went over the whole deck with CSM and Cloth (1708 equiv). Then final layer was an oversize deck piece to go up and over the 8" tabs I put on the hull.

Regarding the cloth, if everything is wetted out (which I mostly just put down the cloth over my CSM and it was able to soak up enough resin) you shouldnt have an issue with anything catching. In the few spots that are bound to bubble or fold on itself, take your grinder and smooth it down.

Again, personal opinion, but however you do it I'm sure will be fine. One last note though, CSM doesnt give much additional strength, it acts more as a binder, the Cloth is what carries most of the load.

 

[steve_h7]

Thanks AC and everyone else who chimed in. :thumb:
So just to catch up I added the 2 part foam in all cavities and got the plugs reinstalled and PB'd the gaps between sheets as well as the space between the deck and the hull. I tabbed in a 8" piece of 1708 around the whole hull perimeter as well as the transom.
After thinking a while about how exactly to do the final layer on the deck I decided to just do a regular layer of 1708 and then do the 1.5 oz CSM on top of it. The 1708 has a lighter layer of CSM on the backside so I went this way for better or worse. I'm pretty happy with the way it came out. I'm now out of both CSM and 1708 so some more is on order. I was amazed at how fast I'm going through the 3rd 5 gallon pail of resin but still have a couple gallons left so we'll see if that will last the rest of the way or not. I might need to pick up another gallon or two locally to avoid having a whole pail sent from Florida. Also after being on the fence of how to finish the deck I decided to bite the bullet and remove the rest of the carpet, minus the pieces inside the side storage areas and commit to gelcoating the whole thing.

 

[Chris51280]

Looking good. you will go right past me. I'm on my sixt and last bucket. was just enough to finish. you can fair the deck to smooth things out before gelcoating

 

[steve_h7]

Looking good. you will go right past me. I'm on my sixt and last bucket. was just enough to finish. you can fair the deck to smooth things out before gelcoating

Thanks Chris,
Do you know if most use fairing on the whole deck? Or just on the edges where the glass starts? I'm just not sure how much will be visible through a few coats of gelcoat.

 

[Chris51280]

That is a good question. I go over with my fingers to see if I feel a very noticeable edge. Either feather it out with the grinder or fair it.Mine is still wavy but I tried to smooth it over as much as possible so I would not have to sand the gelcoat as much to get a smooth transition. Its either now or later. The thing is that most will be visible after applying gelcoat. Sanding is inevitable. Its just a question of how much. If its too much, then a another gelcoat application will be necessary and another round of sanding if you'd like. Its all about prepwork with painting. I hate it too and wish there is a way around it. Whatever mine will be, I will live with it since I don't want to spend a lifetime sanding. Better things to do lol

 

[steve_h7]

Thanks Chris. :thumb:

Question ... I've searched and searched and can't come up with any good examples of how people that chose not to pull the cap completely off but instead just removed the splash well like I did, how they reattached it?
This is how I thought I'd try and do it: I ground the gelcoat off the area where a narrow piece of 1708 will be applied and then I planned to do the same but wider and a couple of lamination's on the opposite side of the splash well.

Is this okay or is there a better way?

 

[Chris51280]

I don't have it but it seems to be the right move. I would also put bp in between the gap.

 

[ACon977]

I removed my cap, so take this with a grain of salt, may make sense to put something on the backside, even just a real thin piece of ply thats been wrapped in glass. It would give a little more structure...

Lots of guys put holes in their hull during deconstruction and used this buildup from the back to patch the hole. However they had more structural integrity left, because you have a full cut through, I would be a little wary to just slap some PB and glass on it, for fear of cracking.

Although glass is stronger than ply.. so IDK maybe I am talking out of my ass. just throwing out ideas for people to comment on.

 

[steve_h7]

Thanks guys,
Those pics didn't show it very well so I found one I took back during deconstruction so you can see that the motor actually bolts through the splash well and the transom and the back part of the splash well rests right on the transom, so I'm thinking (hoping ) after the motor is reinstalled, the glass won't really be supporting much.

 

[ACon977]

I definitely see where you are coming from, however most of the structural integrity of the hull comes from the geometry, putting a weak spot in it like that would make me nervous.

Here's my thoughts.. right, wrong, or otherwise, just throwing ideas in the wind to see what makes sense to you. Maybe treat it like a cap. PB a plywood tab piece to the back then glass over it. then lower your "cap" on top of the hull fiberglass, throw some PB against the glassed wood, then you can run some screws through the cap piece into the wood. then continue with glassing over the front like you had.. does that make sense? I sketched out my thoughts.


Maybe its overkill. Maybe its not the right solution, but I think it would be worth spending the extra time to over-do it now, than to have the possibility of cracking in the future.

 

[steve_h7]

Thanks Austin!
That makes a lot of sense. I'm all for overkill now to prevent cracks in the future!
I didn't envision screwing through the "cap" into the plywood but looking at your drawing now I wonder if I could do the same on the "hull" side to mechanically attach both pieces to the plywood and then run two layers of 1708 over the whole thing on the underside... sort of like this?

 

[ACon977]

Sure! Dont see why not, I was just thinking you would have more working space with the "cap" off to build the backer, then drop the "cap" section on and screws would be the easiest way to do it. If you can wrap the whole back in glass I think that would be so rock solid!

 

[steve_h7]

Thanks again Austin... this worked out better than I had hoped. :thumb:

I was able to make some modifications but was very happy with the results so far and thought I'd share due to the little that seems to exist of examples of reattaching splash wells removed during reconstruction;

My splash well had a factory installed plywood already on the backside of the "wings" of the splash well because this is where the backrest of the rear seats are attached, so when I removed it I cut through this plywood and the fiberglass and so when I reinstalled it I was able to add a strip of plywood to span where I cut it and countersunk screws to attach to the two pieces of plywood. Hopefully a picture will better explain it better than a description.