'94 Crownline 182 Restore transom/stringers/deck

[Rickmerrill]

Thanks geneseo. Yep, when I bought it I was impressed with the fit and finish, gelcoat finish, the quality of the stainless steal and the nice wide hull. If they had just spent a little more time sealing those drain holes in the bulkheads and engine mounts.

 

[atjohnson]

Everything looks great Rick. I know it seems slow at the point you are at, but you will get there. Keep up the good work.

 

[Rickmerrill]

Well thanks Wood. I was very happy with the way it turned out. Trying to slap on a sticky, stretchy mess is fun and all but I like this method better and I'm sticking to it! Understand what you mean about pulling the glass away from the the fillet. I'm finally starting to get the hang of this glassing thing but watching Nurseman's method of positioning his stringers is a real eye opener for me, I am definitely 3d challenged. I tend to waste a lot of time getting them level and plum, setting the height and then come up with a floppy way of holding them in place long enough to tack them in place with a few dabs of PB. Then wait for that to dry and finish with the PB fillet. I'm going to work on improving that but it sure would help if I had a harem of clamps like he does! I'm sure you being a wood worker you probably have a multi-purpose oscillating tool but I'm telling you with a steel blade (carbide is way slower) it's great for cutting the extra glass from the top edge of stringers, the little nibs from the ends off the stitches on 1708 and even for scuffing up new glass especially any low spots and it never gums up! Anyway, it seems like once you perfect this craft your about done. I guess the only way to leverage this knowledge is to do it again!

 

[Rickmerrill]

Thanks Andrew! I'm not stressing over it but I sure was surprised that it took over a week to finish the center section. My goal now is to try to splash before it gets too cold this year and even though it looks like next week is going to get crazy hot I know it won't be long before I will be worrying about the cold temps and using heaters to get things to setup. So just like getting out of that Tyvek suit before the summer heat hit now my goal is to finish the glassing before it gets too cold. You set a much higher goal for your rebuild and you definitely made it!

 

[Rickmerrill]

Question on how much more resin I need for the deck. It looks like I'll use up the last three gallons of my 20 gallon order finishing the forward stringers. I'll need enough resin to put 1 layer of CSM on the bottom, 2 layers of CSM on the top (3" overlap each) and 6" tabbing of 1708 all the way around. I also need some extra for the seat mounts (Frisco style), trim pump mount, two small hull repairs and CSM overtop of the stringers/bulkheads. If I rough estimate the length of the floor times max width (17' x 8' including 9" for overlaps) I come up with about 15 sq yd's for each layer of CSM on the deck. If I measure a little and section it up I come up with about 12 yards of decking. Using a coverage estimate of a gallon per 4.2 sq yd's that's between 8 and 11 gallons I need just for the floor! Add in 20% waste factor (or more so far) plus the extras I want to do and I'll need at least 13-14 gal more. Could that be right? I could end up using 35 or even 40 gal (an extra 5 gal pail just in case) on an 18' boat? I know newbies waste materials but I could actually need double what I thought I needed and what most people seem to use! The extra cost won't kill me but it's hard to believe I need that much more resin to finish the deck. Am I figuring this right?

 

[Woodonglass]

This should help. It always takes more than you think. You always use more than you need to and that's ok.

MATERIAL.........................................GALLONS
1.5 OZ MAT = 1 gallon covers 4.2 square yds
2.0 OZ MAT = 1 gallon covers 3.4 square yds
Call us if you need help with this. 1-800-507-2003
Here is a helpful table for cloth:
There are about 150 ounces per gallon by weight
1.5 ounce cloth ( cloth not chopped mat)….1 gallon wets out 40 square yards
2.5 ounce cloth….1 gallon wets out 25 square yards
4 ounce cloth……1 gallon wets out 15 square yards
6 ounce cloth……1 gallon wets out 10 square yards
10 ounce cloth…..1 gallon wets out 6.5 square yards
18 ounce woven roving …1 gallon wets out 4.5 square yards
24 ounce woven roving …1 gallon wets out 3.5 square yards.
Biaxial mat 1708.………….. 1 gallon wets out 4 square yards
Please remember several things:
- these are estimates not hard and fast rules.
- if you are laminating over wood, the raw wood will soak up some resin, which is good, but you will use more resin on the first layer.
- thin resin goes farther than thick resin.

 

[Rickmerrill]

Yep, I copied that good info sometime back when I found it in one of your posts. Up to now I didn't even try to figure up how much I'd need, just winged it and guessed based on what other people were saying about their builds. I'm telling yah, there's some big liars out there! Heck, I didn't even know enough in the beginning to make an accurate guess. Now that it's just the floor and a few misc things I can probably guess better but I keep remembering little things like fillets and corners and the order keeps going up. I bet I could use up another 20 gal which would be double my original guess. In the beginning I wondered how I could possibly use 20 whole gallons, now I know!

 

[Woodonglass]

Yeah, well some of the fillets I see are MASSIVE!!! I know that Way to much resin is used to wet out the glass especially when you look at the chart. Think about it 4 sq. yards of CSM is 144 sq ft. Your average boat deck is about 120 sq ft. Don't think to many newbs could wet out their entire deck with 1.5 oz CSM and only use 1 gallon of resin do you??? We all know you have to soak the wood with resin first but even after that most newbs will still use way to much resin to wet out their Mat and cloth. But it's better to do that than to have a resin starved layup. Usually you get better as you go and when you start running low on supplies and try to start stretching things a bit you start to realized that you can get it to wet out with less resin and when fresh supplies arrive they seem to last a bit longer.

 

[Rickmerrill]

You almost had me there Wood, isn't 4 sq yd's 36 sq ft? But I get your point and no way I could get 120 sq ft covered in 3.3 gal. I started using a tea spoon radius when you mentioned to Goldie he could make his fillets smaller - no problems. And I soak up any thick spots of resin as the roller gets dry, just to help a little with it being resin rich. But I'm still looking for tricks to stretch the resin.

 

[Woodonglass]

Yup, I flunked Math!!!!! So a gallon should do I side of 1 Sheet of Plywood. that's about right. Sorry, I keep tellin everybody I'm an Old Dumb Okie!!!! On Flat surfaces like decks I use a 10" plastic Putty Knife and drag it across the Glass to squeegee the resin up into the glass. You gotta hold it @ a low angle and it takes some practice but it can be very effective and can cut down on bubbles and resin used. It can be problematic too if you don't know how to use it. The wood boat builders use this technique a lot with epoxy. Works good when wetting out fabric can be problematic with CSM.

 

[Rickmerrill]

Yeah, I flunked it too. When I posted I was hoping somebody would tell me I figured it wrong and tell me I could finish with a few more gallons. Still waiting for that post.

 

[Rickmerrill]

Question. Just got 2nd order fro USC and they sent 1/2" chopped strand instead of 1/4" like I ordered. Am I going to have any problems just going with the 1/2" for fillets. No progress this week, just a sinus/allergy battle going on here.

 

[Woodonglass]

It'll be a little hairy and a lot more structural but it'll work. I wouldn't use as much of it either.

 

[nurseman]

Hey Rick, I finally got around to reading all the way through your thread! I can relate to your woes about using resin! I'm into my 4th 5gal pail and looking to use at LEAST one more, perhaps two more by the time I am done with my cap remodel. Oh well, if I wasn't blowing money on resin, I might be wasting it on things like food and what not! I like the style of your boat btw, and your glass work is looking good.

 

[Rickmerrill]

Thanks for reading Nurseman and for the kind words. In scuba diving they call people who use up their air too fast "air hogs" so I guess I'm a "resin hog". Been on the couch with allergy/sinus problems so no progress for two weeks! I'm back at it now so will be updating soon. Great weather for working here, low 60's in the morning and md 70's in the afternoon. I'm hoping to get a warm, sunny day in a week or two to pour the foam. We will see...

 

[Rickmerrill]

Not enough results to do an update yet but I've been working steady and almost ready to start on the deck. I think I've got a way to get the temps up to at least 80 to pour the foam sometime in the next few weeks. That's 30,000-60,000 BTU's of artificial summer for $111 shipped. Mr heater has what they call "quiet burn" that is suppose to be half as loud as your average torpedo heater, well not what you'd call quiet but no jet engine simulation either.

 

[Jared9220]

Hey Rick I'm joining your rebuild thread a bit late, but I read through everything to catch up and I must say "Great job so far"! I will be following along with your progress from now on. Good luck with the rest of the rebuild.

 

[Woodonglass]

RM Propane heat is a "Wet" heat so be aware of that when laying your glass. I gallon of Propane burned will put about a gallon of water in the air or so they say!!!

 

[Rickmerrill]

Thanks for the good words Jared. I'll be following yours to. At the rate I'm going you may not be that late!

 

[Rickmerrill]

Wood I appreciate that. I can probably finish up most of the glassing without it or a light or two for heat if it drops below 60 at night. But I'm glad you said that cause I might have decided to go for it if it was colder and I got the notion. I was mainly thinking of using it to get to 80 so I can pour my foam. Let me know if there are any issues with that; I'll be looking it up too.