Tri hull glass repair q ?

[twintrades]

OK so i still have yet to makeshure the motor works but i have a...

1987 OMC DELUXE inboard, Looks cool. Anywho it has a couple of scuffed up spots on the Leading edges of the tri hull. ONe has been patched before they used poly resin directly over the gelcoat. ( kinda just cut a patch and slaped er on there.) I was thinking about taking that one off and seeing how bad it is i doubt its verry bad.

The boat when made was totaly filled with foam underneeth. They claimed you could pull the plug when out on the lake and it would not sink. You just plug it back up and hit the bilge pumps and away you go.

I thought oh crap how do fix the hull sections without applying a backer to them ?? ( ive been watching the West System tutorials on youtube.) So how would you fix it?

So now hears my question's

1 Can i use bondoGlass if its not too bad? (holes dont go all the way through.) Will it hold up?

2 If i have to use fiberglass Is it hard to layup outside corners?

3 When it gets repaird Could i use white rustoleum ? Or do i have to use marine paint ? ( Poor man talking)

Thanks

 

[twintrades]

Re: Tri hull glass repair q ?

Pic might help sorry first time using paint shop.

 

[ondarvr]

Re: Tri hull glass repair q ?

You'll need to do some checking to see what conditon the boat is in before starting any repairs. Check the foam for water, check the transom and stringers for rot, do a search here for how to check these and then report back as to what you find.

 

[twintrades]

Re: Tri hull glass repair q ?

I was going to do that after the motor ran.

In the mean time hopefully someone will be able to answer my questions.

 

[jcsercsa]

Re: Tri hull glass repair q ?

Hi there twintrades

ondarvr Is right !!! as always !! LOL after you get the motor going youu need to check the stringers and transom !!

With them rub spots you just might need to glass from the inside and the out side !! kind of hard to tell in you pic, can you get a close up of them spots !! John

 

[redfury]

Re: Tri hull glass repair q ?

What a neat boat! If the boat is foam filled below the floor, then you will obviously need to do your repairs from the outside. If the hull is damaged lightly, you could use marine tex to repair it, and then paint over it with Rustoleum Marine paint ( yes, they make a marine paint...topside and bottomside...we can get you into what you need later...first gotta get the damaged area fixed ).

If those two areas have rubbed through a good deal of fiberglass, then you will want to build them up again so you don't rub back through them.

Obviously those areas are the primary contact points whenever the boat is beached. If you have light damage, I would personally 'tex' over them, paint them, and then get two keel guards for the boat and solve the problem altogether. The Keel guards aren't going to be "cheap", but they are a "cheap" long term solution compared to having to continue repairing the hull due to beaching, etc.

 

[ondarvr]

Re: Tri hull glass repair q ?

The reason I rersponded in the way I did was because the repairs you're asking about are easy and minor compaired to the other possible and common problems a boat of this age will have.

Make sure the motor and all related items are in working condition, but don't put a bunch of money into it, just make sure they will work. Then look at the hull, check the wood and foam, you don't want to spend a bunch of time and money on it if there's not much to work with.

 

[twintrades]

Re: Tri hull glass repair q ?

The spots on the hull have been patched allready They glassed over the gell coat to . Holds Pretty good to. I whacked it with my hand ( pretty damn hard) and nothin is crackin and loose seems tight....? Ill do some tests this weekend. Hope it dosnt rain.


When i cut out with the hole saw Can i get by with Bondo putty to reset it and fill the hole left by the cenerbit ? Then put a small polyresin patch over it?

I dont have acces to epoxy resin. They made glass outa poly before right? so my poly should stick if im neat and clean with it right?

And Yes its an awsome looking boat ! THats why i got it. And it was free. BUM Bum bum......

 

[redfury]

Re: Tri hull glass repair q ?

Hole saw?! What in tarnation are you using that on?

 

[danond]

Re: Tri hull glass repair q ?

Hitting it with your hand doesn't mean anything. When your boat hits a wave it'll flex that section a smidge more than your hand. Please skip that test altogether!

The damage you have is from the boat being beached regularly. It's common.

You need to look into proper fiberglass hull repairs. Assuming the hull has damage all the way through, the damaged section has to be cut out with a sawzall, recip saw or similar, sanded and feathered toward the opening, backed by something, then glassed over in subsequently larger layers until the proper level is achieved, sanded, then gelcoated or painted to match.

On the other hand if your keel(s) aren't rubbed through to the interior, you can sand them a bit to make them smooth again, clean them up, and put keel guards on both. They're made of kevlar and meant for beaching the boat.

Pretty much everyone has access to resin. It can be ordered and shipped to your door! Bondo body putty is not the solution for this problem. It's not a structural repair material; it's looks only. It will not hold up.

Also, almost all small boats are filled with foam. Pulling the plug and filling it with water will make it rot and sink once the foam is waterlogged. Water belongs OUTSIDE the boat; never inside, including rain. Rain = rot.

 

[twintrades]

Re: Tri hull glass repair q ?

So should i sand through the patch ? And see what the damage really was?

I dont want to do repairs that arent needed. I think its gelcoat cracks under there.

Guy said the boat Floats.

Can you do repairs on the trailer ? One spot is under the boat on a roller cant fully get to it. So how would i fix that? And can i Use Poly resin ??

 

[danond]

Re: Tri hull glass repair q ?

So should i sand through the patch ? And see what the damage really was?

Can you do repairs on the trailer ? One spot is under the boat on a roller cant fully get to it. So how would i fix that? And can i Use Poly resin ??

That's up to you, but were it me I'd fix it right. I'm not a fan of hoping. You can fix it on the trailer.

 

[ondarvr]

Re: Tri hull glass repair q ?

The problem with old repairs like these is there is no way of knowing how good of a job they did of prepping the surface. The typical DIY repair can be of very poor quality if the person didn't follow directions, or didn't have any to follow. It may go something like this, the boat leaks and they search for a crack, they find a place where it may be leaking and see it needs to be repaired with F/G, they pick up a repair kit of some type at the hardware store and head for the boat. It may say clean and sand the surface to be repaired, to the owner this means one swipe with a dry rag and and two swipes with an old piece of sandpaper, that is if they could find one. Now they mix the resin and catalyst per intructions, X number of drops per oz of resin or some formula like that. This turns into the glug glug method ( just pouring in a random amount of each product) and mixing is one circle around the container with the paint brush. Now they have a quart of resin and one 3" X 6" piece of cloth ready to go, they smear the surface (and a large area around it) with resin and put the cloth in place over the crack. Since there is only one small piece of cloth to wet out there is a bunch of resin left over, this extra resin is poured on the repair until it runs everywhere and starts to wash the cloth away. Now the owner looks for every crack and chip on the rest of the boat because he doens't want to waste the batch of resin, he finds spots all over the boat that look like they could use a little "extra strength", so the resin is dumped on these spots also, right over the dirt and gunk.

Now two days later he heads for the water with is freshly restored boat, the repairs almost last through the first 15 minutes on the lake before cracking and leaking. The conclusion the owner comes to is polyester resin doesn't stick to anything and is junk, or they never look at it and just continue to use the boat as is.

The repair on your hull looks to be only slightly better than the one I just decribed because it looks to be still in place, but you have no idea exactly what the original damge was and how good of a job they did in fixing it.

 

[twintrades]

Re: Tri hull glass repair q ?

OK you talked me into it ill get the patch off and see wahts really going on under there. After i get the motor running that is. ( no use wasting time and money on a raft. Hehe)

So when i go to fix the corners is it a pain in the *** to lay them up ?? How should i go about it to keep there shape ?? In the event that i have to do alot of grinding ?