Hello iboats.com!
I hate to be the guy whose first post is a question so I thought I would make my first post about the spring repairs and upgrades I am doing to my Dolphin boats 20' bay. This way when I ask a question I will not feel so guilty :lol:
First a tad about the project, the boat was rebuilt by a good friend from the stringers up in 2006 and sat until 2009 virtually unused when I took ownership of her. I mainly use the boat for fishing near shore waters here in Ft Lauderdale 95% of the time and its been very solid and dependable. Its stored in a dry rack facility year round so that helps greatly. After almost 4 seasons of use the bumps and bruises to the hull and gel coat are starting to add up with one major hull issue being found this January thats had me out of the water for too long.
How she normally looks:
The primary hull issue, no clue what caused it. Have been told anything from submerged debris to bad patch work prior:
I have done as much research on this as possible via the web and talking to glass guys and suppliers. I was able to visit Fiberglass coatings inc. www.fgci.com at their showroom and one of the reps walked me through what was needed for the repair. Basically I will be using a gp polyester resin with 3 layers of chopped glass mat finished with new gel coat, hopefully this is as easy as the youtube videos make it look
A secondary job I will start to tackle this weekend are some older spots where the gel coat busted and chasing a few spider cracks.
Some of the projects that I have been tinkering on while getting up the nerve to do the hull work include removing the old electronics, installing a new Lowrance elite7 HDS system, new splashwell cover and lighting and a new audio system, the sounds of 2 strokin were getting a bit old.. Pictures to come of those installs.
Sanding on the repair starts tomorrow after work, I will post up pictures as I go for any other first timers to learn from my inevitable mistakes. Feel free to point and laugh as you see fit all I ask is that if you do at least point me in the right direction if you see a mistake in the works.
I hate to be the guy whose first post is a question so I thought I would make my first post about the spring repairs and upgrades I am doing to my Dolphin boats 20' bay. This way when I ask a question I will not feel so guilty :lol:
First a tad about the project, the boat was rebuilt by a good friend from the stringers up in 2006 and sat until 2009 virtually unused when I took ownership of her. I mainly use the boat for fishing near shore waters here in Ft Lauderdale 95% of the time and its been very solid and dependable. Its stored in a dry rack facility year round so that helps greatly. After almost 4 seasons of use the bumps and bruises to the hull and gel coat are starting to add up with one major hull issue being found this January thats had me out of the water for too long.
How she normally looks:
The primary hull issue, no clue what caused it. Have been told anything from submerged debris to bad patch work prior:
I have done as much research on this as possible via the web and talking to glass guys and suppliers. I was able to visit Fiberglass coatings inc. www.fgci.com at their showroom and one of the reps walked me through what was needed for the repair. Basically I will be using a gp polyester resin with 3 layers of chopped glass mat finished with new gel coat, hopefully this is as easy as the youtube videos make it look
A secondary job I will start to tackle this weekend are some older spots where the gel coat busted and chasing a few spider cracks.
Some of the projects that I have been tinkering on while getting up the nerve to do the hull work include removing the old electronics, installing a new Lowrance elite7 HDS system, new splashwell cover and lighting and a new audio system, the sounds of 2 strokin were getting a bit old.. Pictures to come of those installs.
Sanding on the repair starts tomorrow after work, I will post up pictures as I go for any other first timers to learn from my inevitable mistakes. Feel free to point and laugh as you see fit all I ask is that if you do at least point me in the right direction if you see a mistake in the works.