Adhesive for mounting Marine Board to inside hull

[landlover42]

Hi, just joined,

I will soon be getting a new Carolina Skiff J14 kit boat. I will not have a lot of time to get it ready, so I am trying to line up the materials I will need beforehand.

As some of you may know these hulls are known for collecting water. Although the theories vary, most attribute it to screwing into the floor without proper sealing. It is also suggested that the floor is not a good base to screw into from a structural perspective. The side walls are also not good screwing surfaces as they are too thin and would require a bolt through the hull side.

My plan is to not screw anything into the hull, but to mount items by first gluing small pieces of 1" thick Marine Board or Starboard (High Density Polyethylene formulated for the marine industry) to the inside of the hull to form a screwing surface. Strips of this would be used to form corrals on the floor to steady the portable gas tank and battery. Attachment hardware would be screwed into the strips to anchor the straps. The side walls would get pieces for attaching rod holders, cup holders, bimini top, etc. I can route a radius corner on this material where appropriate to make it look better.

I think the inside hull of this model skiff has somewhat rough look and feel, not a slick gel coat. I would like an adhesive that would be the strongest and not fail. I do not have a need to ever remove these mounting plates, so it can be permanent.

What product would I use to mount these?

thanks very much,
fred

 

[Arawak]

Nothing sticks to polyethylene well. You'd want to select another material.

Wood... teak, or black locust, or some other rot resistant species, epoxied in place.

GRP -- either epoxy or polyester with chopped fibers, aka PB.... epoxied in place

 

[Woodonglass]

Welcome to iBoats. The problem with the Man Made materials is that Nothing really "Sticks" to them very well. The only adhesive I've heard about that might stick to starboard is called Lord 7542-AB and you can get it at www.wensco.com I think...

I'm curious as to what your building materials will be, and why you won't be able to attach the floor to the hull structure on the bottom or the sides. I'd be interested in seeing the the schematics for the "Bones" of this boat.

 

[landlover42]

Thanks for the input,

What if a layer of aluminum or stainless steel is screwed to the Marine Board, does the metal present an easier surface to bond to fiberglass?

thanks,
fred

 

[Woodonglass]

Not really. Fiberglass doesn't bond well to metal either. Again what are your building materials? If it's wood then epoxy will do the job with other wood. I don't quite understand the reason for introducing the man made materials into the mix. Properly encapsulated wood will never rot

 

[landlover42]

Woodonglass,

Thanks for that advice. Here is what I am doing.
I will have a hull like this one that everyone says don't screw into:

I want to add mounting blocks for things to the floor and walls. As you all have suggested I should use some sort of stable wood. As you can probably tell, I don't know much about working with fiberglass. So as I understand it I would buy some products, epoxies? or whatever and glom it under and over these wood blocks?

Obviously, I need to get some fiberglass education online perhaps.

thanks for any ideas,
fred

 

[Arawak]

Yeah, don't crew into the hull is good advice.

But I'd just use douglas fir plywood, epoxied to the hull where you want it. If it's encapsulated properly it won't rot.

 

[Woodonglass]

Soooo, are you building this boat from a kit? That is a Glass boat with a rolled gunwale. There is no way to screw into the sides. You would absolutely grind and glass to those sidewalls but that's easy since its all glass construction. I was under the impression from your first post this was a KIT boat of some kind and thus would be of wood and glass construction???:noidea: But seeing as how I AM just an Old Dumb Okie, my assumption may be way off!!!:crazy:

 

[landlover42]

Yes, it is a confusing name. Carolina Skiff calls it a kit boat because you can order various accessories like a center console, bench seats, front deck etc. and build assemble it the way you want. All I am doing is bolting on two bench seats to the lip.

So I would like to put the battery box and portable 6gal gas tank under the forward seat to help weight distribution as this is a tiller situation. That is where I thought it would be nice to have little 1" high corrals to keep those items from sliding and straps to keep them from hopping up in the air. This hull is famous for delivering a rough ride in a bay chop.

I get the feeling from you guys that attaching a small piece of wood to the floor is not as simple as applying adhesive to the block and pressing it on the floor, perhaps with a weight until cured. If it is a serious sanding and glassing job that will perhaps void my warranty, I may want to consider other solutions like a piece of adhesive backed Oceangrip or Seadek under the seat to place the battery box and gas tank on. And, of course, I would put a piece of that non-slip rubber material under them. As for the hopping into the air, I would have to design some kind of dampening device under the bench seat. The bench seats are open season for bolting to, so I could also hang some rod holders and other items off of them.

thanks for any ideas,
fred

 

[ondarvr]

Use the Starboard or UHMW just like wood, cut the peices and shapes you want, then glass over them. You can now screw into them as much as you want and nothing will rot or leak.

 

[Woodonglass]

Ok that's a highly polished gelcoated surface and it would have to be prepped in order for to much of anything to adhere to it. You might consider some industrial strength Mounting tape. Some of that stuff has a bonding strength of 2000lbs psi. Pretty amazing stuff.
http://www.essentraspecialtytapes.com/Duraco-High-Bond-Pieces-Roll

 

[ondarvr]

What warranty do they have on a kit boat?

 

[Yacht Dr.]

I would suggest looking into some Pro-Set adhesive..

http://www.prosetepoxy.com/adhesives.html

Give them a call and see what they say about starboard. But in the long run its all about bonding. Sure you can get something to stick to the gelcoat..but how well is that gel stuck to the glass? Thats the main reason for removing all the gel when doing layups and such.

 

[Scott Danforth]

if it was me, I would use 3M 4950 VHB tape to secure the battery box (usually ABS) to the fllor. I would also use the 3M 4950 VHB tape to secure a tray for the fuel tank. Or you can use 3M 5200. Make the tray out of something that adhesives stick to (ABS, Fiberglass, Wood, Aluminum, etc.)

you could also make a small frame work to support them under the seat and not on the floor. that way crud wont accumulate under the tank and battery.


not much sticks to HDPE, UHMW, or any of the other Poly Ethylene plastics.

you can encapsulate it like Ondarvr stated, however you can also encapsulate wood.

 

[dingbat]

A good friend has a factory version he uses for crabbing.

Battery box, console and seat attachments points are all glass over wood. Cup holders, trot line roller, cleats, etc. are all thru bolted.

 

[Benny67]

3M makes a epoxy called DP-460

This stuff is THE strongest epoxy I have ever seen. You could glue the wheel back on your car with this stuff. I use it at work on quite a number of things. It bonds with just about everything I have used it on.

It's a bit expensive but well worth the cost.

 

[ondarvr]

The Pro Set adhesive that will work best is M1033/M2036-1 high-elongation adhesive, it's used to repair roto molded kayaks and similar stuff, it will bond UHMW about as good as possible. (I was traveling with the Pro Set rep yesterday)

There's another adhesive designed for these types of plastics that is rather new and I haven't seen it yet, but will be traveling with that rep the last week of this month.

The next option would be to use extruded fiberglass, it comes in all the same shapes and sizes as metal, flat bar, angles, round, square and round tubing, etc. These pieces can be glued down with normal epoxies.

 

[landlover42]

Thanks for all the ideas! I will have to explore these options.

What warranty do they have on a kit boat?

My current understanding is that it is the same as their regular 5 year hull warranty. It has exclusions for issues caused by modifications or installations of accessories. I have seen several customer reports of water in the hull and it seems they will not warranty it if you screwed into the hull.

The Marine Board dealer says 3M HS 90 spray will work, it specifically says it is for polyethylene. It did not sound like he had any actual experience with using it on fiberglass, however. I would have to experiment. Perhaps high density polyethylene is different from standard polyethylene. Some of the product instruction you all have suggested have you heat treating the surface of the high density polyethylene with a propane torch prior to gluing. Maybe this product will work without that.

http://www.amazon.com/3M-90-24-Spra...p/B0002BBV2S/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top?ie=UTF8

 

[ondarvr]

Hard to say if that 3M product will work long term, I've used several 3M adhesives but not that one. Frequently those types of products like smooth close fitting surfaces, they don't like to fill gaps, which when gluing to gel coat could be an issue.

It's cheap, so buy a can and do a little testing, then report back how it works.

 

[Woodonglass]

This is kinda fun to watch...