Re: 1988 Bayliner Capri Cuddy Rotten Resto Project - UK
Hello there Funkiegh!
Sorry for the late reply! I've been busy with work the last couple of weeks so not had much of a chance to get on here!. Thank you for the compliments, too kind!
Clean and degrease as much as you can before you start!
Well where to begin, The ply i have used is 18mm CE 100%marine grade hardwood (no voids in laminate) (not Okume as it is just not worth it for this sort of work)I've used this throughout the boat.
I know this is thicker than the original 12mm/.5" +/- but to me it did not seem strong enough as it was, will give the boat a little more stiffness I hope too! Its not going to affect the weight massively so I'm not concerned.
The underside of the ply I coated in west epoxy for two reasons, once coated the ply becomes almost impervious to moisture and two it forms a great surface to bond to because it penetrates the ply. If you bond directly on the ply you will not get such a strong bond as the surface veneer is the only part of the ply you are sticking to! The new formers were bonded directly to the hull with colodial silica (west) and west epoxy mixed using about a 20mm radius around all adjacent faces also for two reasons; one a radius spreads loading over a larger area so making the joint stronger and two it allows for much better glass work over the top. Oh and yes I'm using CSM as its fine for this purpose, granted its not as strong as woven but its horses for courses and its plenty strong enough for this job and if you have a hot mix its much faster to work. I will add though that you will need to rough up the surface of the dry west and clean with acetone before glassing on top.
As far as prep work goes,Cover up as much of the boat as you can that you don't want dust in! it will get into everything! I cut out as much bulk as I could with a recip saw and a fein machine, then I'm afraid there is no way around getting in there in a tyvek suit with full dust protection kit and gloves unless you like having the inside of your fingers itch like buggery for days. and going at it with either a 4" grinder with a diamond blade for trimming and cutting out those last few chunky bits and then with a 4"p40 flap wheel on the grinder to prepare old glass surfaces a good 6-8 inches around either side where you are going to be bonding new bits (you only need to attack the old stuff not your new bits!) keep a few of the flap wheels handy as you will get through them quite quick but they rip stuff down very quickly so be extra careful over the top of the stringer as its quite thin! Use it to go over all areas that are to be bonded so you get a nice fresh surface to begin with.
Once you have cleaned out all the dust and believe me there will LOTS of it! get your acetone and use liberally on rags to clean and prepare all of your newly prepared surfaces, once again I would recommend gloves and a mask as the vapours build up in the hull quite quickly!
I have not put drains in the side compartments as the main reason for water ingress in the first place was poor construction, ill fitting wood and very low quality are the culprits! I have however removed most of the foam, I did leave a section in place against the hull to form a support for the new seat base while it was tacked into place. The idea being that once I have finished taping in all the seams on the new work I am going to bore several holes into the ply to fill with pouring foam, once cured I will trim off the excess and encase the whole cockpit in a couple of layers of csm covering the foam holes and flow coating making it 100% waterproof so no water should be able to get below the deck. I will be putting carpet back on top so it will appear like the original.
As far as bonding the new deck down, have a a good couple of test/dry fits before you bond and mark the centres of the stringers in a place easily visible once deck is in situ but not on the deck itself yet.
You want to make absolutely certain that you are going to be able to drop the deck down without any snagging or fouling as its a real race against the clock once you have mixed up your bonding and a small oversight could cause you many hrs of needless work cleaning up to start again. I should also mention too that the outside edges of the deck panel that meet the hull will need to be chamfered about 45 degrees for a clean fit.
what I used to bond the deck down was some micro-balloons mixed with poly resin, but a better choice would be west colodial silica and filleting compound mixed 50-50 with epoxy, again depends how far you want to go. Equally you could use Sikaflex 291 to bond to the top of the stringers. Spread it along the top of the stringers to form a sort of upside down "V" about 30mm high and along the edges where the deck meets the hull rise. Once you are certain you have left no voids slowly lower the new deck in place and once you are certain you have it in the right place use a straight edge to transfer your centre marks for the stringers to the deck, then very carefully drill pilot holes every 8" or so and wind in some 4.5mmX50mm Stainless screws to pull the deck down tight against the stringers and paying particular attention to the outside edges fill any voids and remove excess gunk!
Also its worth noting that avoid standing near the outside edges until cured as you will push out all the paste you worked so hard to get in there! Once its all cured you can then do all the seams, the easiest way to work with glass mat that I have found is to cut your strips and get a good size piece of cardboard large enough for you to easily fit one of your strips on, then with a "Fluffy" roller wet out liberally with resin and pick it up and place in position quickly as the binding in the glass will break down quickly and will just end up as a handful of fluff if you wait too long! work into area with more resin and roller then once you have all your pieces laid up roll them out with a penny roller before the resin starts to gel for good finish and to ensure all glass is wetted out correctly.
I'm not sure about the whole transom yet, I will have a better idea once I have removed the transom plate but as far as I can tell it all seems in quite good shape. I am however replacing all the other timber in the stern while I'm at it as it was mostly junk! Again poor construction and materials are the main problem.
I do currently have all the components made to go in the back there so it might be handy for you if you are going to replace any on yours as I presume they are the same, can easily run a router around them to replicate as many as I like at the moment
Thanks about the seats too, not a perfect copy but quite close, I could not re-upholster mine as the foam was gash and I just do not have time or inclination! to re manufacture them. If your bases frames and foam are good then it should not be too horrendous to get them re covered.
Thanks for the support too! Its easy to get dishartend and frustrated when things don't go as planed.
If you are having problems with glassing I can pop down some time and give you a few pointers if you like.
Anyway, this has turned into a bit of a essay! oops Well i hope some of this is helpful and look forward to seeing some more updates!
All the best!
