Marine Tex/Fiberglass

[dk6164]

My 19' bowrider and I had an argument with a rock and lost. I ended up with stitches in my arm and the boat with a 2 ft. crack in the bottm keel right by the transom. I'll heal but I'm not sure about the hull! I know I need to repair the inside as well as out but I was wondering if I can use Marine-Tex to level out the inside (after cutting out the loose pieces) and then put cloth over it. I'm not too concerned with appearance in the bilge, but I want it to be watertight. I've read the old posts about Marine-Tex and it seems to be just what the doctor ordered.<br />Thanks<br />Any input would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Solittle]

Re: Marine Tex/Fiberglass

Marine Tex is great stuff and your plan should work. Remember though that with this type of crack the Marine Tex is a filler and does not eliminate the need for a good fiberglass repair.

 

[ondarvr]

Re: Marine Tex/Fiberglass

The Marine tex won't help or hurt the water tightness of the repair, the fiberglass repair is what's doing that job. Don't use cloth as the first layer of the repair if you are using polyester resin, cloth will give you a poor bond, use at least one layer of mat first.

 

[dk6164]

Re: Marine Tex/Fiberglass

Thanks guys-I'm really a rookie with this and the difference between cloth and mat escapes me. Looks like I'd better do some reading b-4 taking this on! I just wanted to get the inside done before we get any rain. It's nice and dry now and I understand it needs to be dry to get a good repair. So it's OK to use polyester resin over an epoxy filler like Marine-Tex?

 

[ondarvr]

Re: Marine Tex/Fiberglass

You don't need to use a filler, it would be stonger to just keep adding more glass until the repair is even with the area around it. Then glass an area a couple of inches larger than the low spot so it's tied in with the rest of the hull. <br />Mat is the fuzzy stuff, cloth is the woven glass that uses small fiber bundles, roving looks like cloth only it has larger fiber bundles.<br /><br />It realy doesn't matter how bad it looks when you finish with the glass work, just sand off anything that doesn't look like a boat. If it's real bad sand more off and then re-glass it.

 

[dk6164]

Re: Marine Tex/Fiberglass

ondarvar- Thank you VERY much. I'll stick with the fiberglass on the interior. Last question (yeah right) Should I do the same on the exterior? I'm more concerned with appearance and I thought of using epoxy to keep the repair smaller. Just cut out loose and fill-in gap.

 

[ondarvr]

Re: Marine Tex/Fiberglass

It will work with epoxy or polyester as long as you taper the edges of the area to be repaired so the new fiberglass has something to stick to. If you want keep the repair as small as possible on the outside, build it up more on the inside for added strength.

 

[dk6164]

Re: Marine Tex/Fiberglass

Thanks for all the help. I picked up some mat and resin today on the way home from work. Time to make a mess<br /><br />Thanks again!!