Center console deck repair

[ahmincha]

Re: Center console deck repair

Last of todays pictures

 

[ahmincha]

Re: Center console deck repair

I will do that

 

[Yacht Dr.]

Re: Center console deck repair

The weather didn't have much to do with it, the gel coat was applied incorrectly, the crazing is just the result of a poor cure, it has nothing to do with anything structural.

Yuppers. Poor application of the gelcoat to skin coat.

I have heard but never done it .. but some have coated the crazing with an epoxy instead of removing it all back down to gel. Then Primed and painted the boat.

Removing All of the coatings down to gel is going to take a very long time as there isnt really a good stripper to use.

If there is a coating of paint on there that some one put on .. your going to need to remove it back down to its gel at least.

As far as taking a foam core sample .. you could try using a 1/4" wood dowel and start prodding around. You should be able to tell if you have wet foam with this.

YD.

 

[ahmincha]

Re: Center console deck repair

I would like to hear more about the epoxy I am not looking to do a complete perfect restore I just want a safe boat that looks decent.

 

[ondarvr]

Re: Center console deck repair

I haven't seen a finished epoxy job with my own eyes, there is a chance it could work, but it's still a bit iffy.

The gel coat crazes like that because it is very weak due to the poor cure, so you are depending on a very weak layer as the tie between the laminate and the epoxy top coat. If the weak layer fails then the epoxy has nothing connecting it to the laminate.

Knowing how bad the gel coat is is the tough part, it may hold up looking like it does now for many years, or it could continue to deteriorate rapidly and flake off, you just can't know what will happen.

If the epoxy doesn?t cost much and is easy to apply, then it may be worth it even if it doesn?t last that long. You will still need to do some sanding to get the epoxy to look good, so it won?t be super easy, like YD said, sanding the gel coat off completely is a nasty job, but it is a 100% fix.

 

[Yacht Dr.]

Re: Center console deck repair

Sanding off an entire gelcoat layer across your boat is more then a nasty job .. it gonna cost you some bucks !

Fairing and whatnot it is gonna give you a headache.

Bye all means .. learn and research what you can do with that crazing thing.

YD.

 

[ahmincha]

Re: Center console deck repair

The more I look at the boat the majority of the crazing is on the top cap. The bottom of the boat has some sort of paint that is not original and seems to come off fairly easy sides of the hull are not all that bad basically the top of the cap is what is nasty as seen in pics. That is why I thought it was due to weather the side of boat that was exposed to the weather seems much worse off.

Not that I am questioning anyone's expertise but it seems to me if it was a poor job done at the factory 40 years ago it would be the same on entire boat. But that's probably due to my inexperience

 

[jigngrub]

Re: Center console deck repair

Like I said earlier, it looks like a bad second paint job to hide the crazing of the first coat... and if a cheap paint was used for the bad second paint job you could get UV break down with cracking, peeling, and flaking.

Of course sanding paint and gel coat is hard and nasty work, sanding any large surface is hard and nasty work... removing the rotten guts from a boat is hard and nasty work too, then grinding the inside fiberglass is hard and nasty as well. If restoring boats was easy we'd have a lot more women and children doing it.

What it all boils down to is if it's worth it to you in the end, if you want to turn that boat into something nice you're going to have to work hard and get dirty unless you hire someone else to do it.

 

[ahmincha]

Re: Center console deck repair

Well while I decide how I want to go about this boat fix I have a ? about the engine.
The engine would turn over by hand so nothing frozen I spayed a little oil in the cyls and turned it over with starter first reading
1 90
2 130
3 130
4 130
5 130
6 130
So I sprayed some more oil and turned it over with starter I did this a few times new readings

1 140
2 155
3 160
4 155
5 155
6 150

The engine is a 1971 mercury 1150 according to my compression tests is there anything I should worry about

 

[bear_69cuda]

Re: Center console deck repair

looks like good 2-stroke numbers to me! I bet if she was warmed up % difference would drop even lower...

 

[jigngrub]

Re: Center console deck repair

Yup^^^^

Warm compression check is the way to go if you can get her running.

 

[ahmincha]

Re: Center console deck repair

The engine sat for approx. 6 yrs in indoor storage My plan was to replace fuel pump lines plus carb rebuild
bear am I to assume you have a 69 barracuda

 

[ahmincha]

Re: Center console deck repair

Well after pressure cleaning the boat and taking a good look at it appears that the crazing is mainly on the cap. So I guess I will sand that down to glass at that point what would be the best thing to put on it

 

[ondarvr]

Re: Center console deck repair

Sand a small area to make sure the crazing is in the gel coat and not just in the paint. The first pics of the crazing are the only ones you can see anything in, the rest are too blurry to tell.

 

[ahmincha]

Re: Center console deck repair

Yes that makes sense I will take some better pic today

 

[ahmincha]

Re: Center console deck repair

I was wondering has anyone heard of fleetwing boats. It was built in Cocoa Florida. Just curious if anyone heard of them or know anything about them were theyvwell built boats or run of the mill thanks in advance

 

[ahmincha]

Re: Center console deck repair

I have already cut out the bad section of floor what I am wondering is I cut to the first stringer from the hull on both sides approx 4 inches from hull. Floor is solid in these areas can I leave this 4 inch section on both sides of the hull or do I need to remove floor all away to the hull

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: Center console deck repair

You can leave it if you want. How much of the floor did you remove. PICS would really help us to help you.

 

[ahmincha]

Re: Center console deck repair

Here is some more pics

 

[ahmincha]

Re: Center console deck repair

Some of the hull