1987 Larson DC-215 restoration

[kcassells]

It's all about pics.

 

[sms986]

I know, I know!

It's a mess in there right now so I'm going to grind as much as I can tolerate today, clean everything off, and get some pictures.

 

[sms986]

Have about 1/2 of the stringers ground out. About 1" of fresh snow!

​​​​​​I've been reading through other forums and such, and I read on another forum that one of the older guys who had helped a lot out finally quit posting on the forum because of all of the people who argue with his advice.

I just want to take a short intervention and say that I appreciate all of the help you all have offered. I've learned a great deal and I'm pretty sure I'm being pointed in the right direction. If I say something to rebut your advice, I'm not looking to "outsmart" anyone, I just want to explain my thoughts on the matter, in hopes that someone says "that's a good idea," or more importantly "that won't work because of this."

 

[JASinIL2006]

Just grind down to good clean fiberglass.

 

[sms986]

The moment you've all been waiting for! Picture time. I'm going to do this in sections. First section, just some general pics of what I've done. I have all of the initial grinding complete my next move is to l let this dry, get the carpet glue off with some WD-40, and sand everything down with a belt sander and 40 grit. I would like to leave the lips for the motor mounts where they are so that I can be exact when putting them back in. I'm not so concerned with the height though because the mounts themselves are adjustable. I'll be within 1/2" on the height.

 

[sms986]

Next, the transom. Here you can see the little bubbles I was talking about. Are these ok to leave? Also, I tried to get a good picture of the waviness.

You can also see in the lower right corner an entire layer of CSM that came out with the wood. That's a pretty large void. Will PB take care of that or should I put a layer of CSM on that?

 

[sms986]

Last, am I taking off enough glass?

Also you can see dark brown spots on the hull. Isn't this rotted fiberglass? Should I be worried about this?

I heard a small cracking noise when walking along the right side chine earlier. I saw no crack on the top or bottom of the boat. Is this a concern? I'm going to basically have at least one full layer of fresh 1708 covering the entire bottom of the hull when I'm done.

 

[sms986]

...is it really that bad?

 

[Mechanicalmike08]

The brown isn't fiberglass its usually rotted wood or dirt. Mine seem to have a lot of dirt trapped by foam.

the layer of missing csm can be taken up by pb but ull have to be careful where you clamp when you install the transom to not put to much pressure there.

you can leave lips if you really want but everything needs to be cleaned out of them and well stuck to the hull. If there weak you now have a weak point even if you glass over it. Maybe a better way would be to grind them away in front the transom, once the new transome is in you can mark the transom and grind them the rest of the way out will still having your reference point.

 

[Chris51280]

looks like you have dirt under there. more sanding required. I had some kind of filler under the stringers.

 

[Woodonglass]

IMHO, you have a lot more grinding to do. The old glass should be pretty much all a uniform color/shade when it's ready for new glass.

 

[sms986]

Good info! I'll be back to work the first week of March and I'll keep you all posted.

 

[Chris51280]

fiberglass does not rot. at least we wont be alive until it does. keep sanding until you see nice green. you can tell where the hull is vs the csm on top. don't have to sand all of it down, just feather it in until you see good solid glass and not air pockets.

 

[sms986]

Good to know... I was most concerned with that. I guess I don't mean "rot," but waterlogging. I've seen a lot of posts about brown waterlogged fiberglass and I was hoping that wasn't a real thing..

I can definitely see where the CSM ends and the roving begins, but on parts of thick tabbing I can't find the roving underneath, or at least I don't want to grind until I start cutting into the hull.

I can definitely tell where the tabbing isn't connected anymore because it's a light green. I've been sanding all of these spots off and levelling them out. I'll go another round in March end I get home and see what you think.

 

[sms986]

Back at it again!
following the advice from woodonglass, I am further grinding the old tabbing. I'm only using a belt sander for this. I have some deep gouges (none penetrating through the hull, or even coming close) that will need filled in with PB. I'm not going to make more. Essentially, what I'm looking for is high spots that need more attention and light spots that indicate air pockets. I'm halfway done, so tonight I'll be measuring and cutting new wood!

Unfortunately my phone doesn't like water as much as I do, and long story short my camera no longer works. I'll have to get my tablet out tonight to get some pictures, but they will be coming.

I know we've been over this before, but I still don't have a definite answer. Do I need to grind all the way down to the hull, or just until I get good, solid, smooth glass?

 

[tpenfield]

You will get some varying opinions . . . I favor less grinding. So, as long as you have gotten into good glass that you can tab into, no need to go further.

 

[Chris51280]

I did not grind everywhere to the woven. there were areas from the old stringers that had alot of resin that are solid to the hull without loose chop strand underneath that I left. Just feathered out. There are obviously some spots that have little dots of air pockets underneath that I left as well. I figured that if it hasn't come apart yet, it never will. I looked at friscoboaters videos and other pictures and nobody cleaned it up 100% to the woven

 

[sms986]

So it took longer than expected, but I got the hull finished. Now all I am doing is cleaning and prepping. I'll get some pictures when I'm done.

Also, I used old, old gasoline to clean off my old carpet glue and a 4 1/2" wire wheel on a grinder. Worked like a charm.

As for the fiberglass grinding, I really really hope this is the longest single part of boat rebuilding. I have ~45 hours into just grinding fiberglass, from start to finish.

I will get pictures put up here once I get the boat cleaned up.

I have one question: can CSM be used with epoxy? I've seen a lot of yes and a lot of no, but I have 30 yards of 1708..

 

[tpenfield]

I have one question: can CSM be used with epoxy? I've seen a lot of yes and a lot of no, but I have 30 yards of 1708..

I believe the binder that CSM has holding the strands together in the mat is the issue. Epoxy does not dissolve the binder so the mat stays more rigid, rather than softening, as is the case with PE or VE resin

http://www.epoxyworks.com/index.php/chopped-strand-mat-and-epoxy/

 

[sms986]

Ok, no big deal. I got it free from one of our accounts! What is recommended?