bonding keep to hull

fibersport

Petty Officer 2nd Class
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Jul 18, 2010
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103
I've been a member on this forum for a long long time, just have not been very active lately. I'm starting my Century Coronado Cardel rebuild in earnest and have run across something I would like to get some opinions on. The keel, if you can call it that, where the prop strut and rudder mount is rotted. I'm planning on cutting the glass mat out and removing what's left of the wood and then installing some new material. First question, what to replace it with? It was probably white oak when built but I'm wondering if maybe Koosa board or something might work better. Second question, how to bond the new material to the existing hull? I'm doing stringers in polyester or possibly vinylester but might consider epoxy for bonding in the keel sections. Opinions please?
 

froggy1150

Master Chief Petty Officer
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Nov 3, 2017
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843
Here is how I got around the "poly not bonding to epoxy" issue. There was a repair made on my boat with epoxy and if I had ground it all out I might have had some hull gel coat left.... maybe. It was bilge/motor mounts area. what I did was completely wrap transition wood in poly, glued down with epoxy, tied all of the poly deck glass to the transition piece then finally went back over all of it with epoxy. What I was left with was a deck I could gelcoat with a super strong bilge that I painted. If you think 3 steps ahead most things are possible
 

Scott Danforth

Grumpy Vintage Moderator still playing with boats
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I would just do everything in poly if that is what the hull was done in originally
 

fibersport

Petty Officer 2nd Class
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Jul 18, 2010
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Here is an update on my dilema. The wood was bedded in with some type of compound that I can't identify. It's black and sort of crystalline and rock hard. It looks like they layed a bunch down and set the wood into it. There is also a lifting ring assembly that has a small piece of angle which is also bedded with this stuff. The water intake has a backing board bedded with it and a small piece of plywood that I think was for a bilge pump is also bedded in with it. Not sure if anyone would know what it is but I'm looking at ideas of what to use. I've given thought to Loctite PL, thickened epoxy, thickened polyester resin and as crazy as it seems some sort of grout used for installing havey machinery. Any thoughts or experiences out there?
 

Scott Danforth

Grumpy Vintage Moderator still playing with boats
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most likely it is what ever resin the boat company used. most likely poly
 

cyclops222

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Mar 21, 2024
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Some epoxy layers can cure with a coating of wax on the surface. Other epoxy company layers have no wax surface coatings.
 

froggy1150

Master Chief Petty Officer
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Nov 3, 2017
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843
It's like concrete. I don't remember exactly what it is. I had a bunch in my boat. I played hell removing it all. I chiseled alot and ground with a diamond disk for a 4" grinder.
 

fibersport

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Jul 18, 2010
Messages
103
Froggy1150 - you seem to have had the same stuff I did. What did you replace it with? I doubt it's polyester resin, it smelled different when I was griding it off. It also had no wax surface to it, it felt like rock.
 

froggy1150

Master Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Nov 3, 2017
Messages
843
They had bed the stringers in that stuff. My build also had been repaired in the bilge with epoxy. So I had to get creative to transition from epoxy to poly but 98% of the boat went back together with poly.the remaining 2% was epoxy.I had seen something that described what that stuff was somewhere when perusing this forum but I don't remember now.
 
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