many questions about repairing/replacing stringers

[Liam]

Originally Posted by phatdaddy

when i cut out & replaced my deck, i bonded a 1/2 wooden tab to the underside of the lip like a shelf around the cavity. i then cut out a piece of 1/2 ply to fit the hole, then glassed over & faired to the original edge. this left the everything flush on the deck.

I considered this teqnique,but it seems the underside of the remaining perimeter is very uneven. How did you seal your tabs,did you just soak them in resin and then screw them from the top with thickened resin? thanks

[phatdaddy]

had to do some grinding on bottom side. the tabs were soaked with epoxy & then bonded to the lip with slightly thickened epoxy(to cut down on the dripping). held in place with c clamps until cured. no mechanical fasteners. i used epoxy only, not polyester. i think it has a stronger bond & is easier to work with. more consistent pot life & work time. the down side is you are then forced to paint deck, can't gel coat.

[bradford]

I wouldn't put in any foam. You have the right idea about letting everything drain well and get air to it to dry out. I think it's a good idea if you park her indoors to open the hatches to let air circulate, if not at least the ones inside the cuddy if you have a cuddy model. Interestingly mine didn't have any foam except for around the rotted out fuel tank.

When reinstalling the deck you should add additional hatches where available. My cuddy had a huge void forward of the fish box that I opened up and installed my batteries and an additional bilge pump. Also you should add hinges to your fuel tank hatch to make it easier to inspect or remove if necessary.

Great hearing everyone's progress!

[phatdaddy]

i also added a compartment forward of the fish box, not sure if it's doable on a center console





also agree with bradford on the air circulation, this is what i do when parking mine

[cterrebonne]

you can do it on a Center console. I am going to do it on mine. There is a lot of storage down there. I am going to put in a false bottom. That way I have room to mount the trolling motors.

[tartuffe]

Man oh man, been where you are:
http://wellcraftv20.com/community/sh...center+console

All in all good advice you are getting. I would plan to tab in with more than 1 layer of tape. You will find that a layer of 1708 cured out is flexible, around 3 layers you get rid of most of the flex. Your peanut butter should have schopped strand in it as well. Straight resin and cabosil mixed is pretty brittle even though epoxy resin has more flex than polyester.

Make sure before you get started you have lots of acetone, rags, a box of those medical gloves (nitrile/latex) lots of measuring cups and stir sticks

You asked about original glass prep; I used a 4" grinder with 60 grit disks.Scuffed an area about 1' wide the entire length of the stringer, followed by vacuum then wipe down with alcohol. Alcohol evaporates much quicker than acetone. Acetone leaves behind a bit more residue so I wouldn't recommend it for prep work.

When putting in your fillets on your stringers, it works well to put your PB mix in a 1 gal. ziplock bag with the corner cut out to use like a cake decorating bag. Lay the bead and use the end of a spoon give you a nice uniform radius.

Do at least your first layer of tabbing when you do your fillets.

Do not try to do any fiberglass wet-out without a resin roller. I bought several but my favorite by far was my 2.5" length and 3/8 diameter roller, used it almost exclusively.

Also as far as 1708, I liked the 45/45 thread. As far as laying out the glass and wetting out, the direction of the stiching is everything. Stiching running parallel to the bend work much better than perpendicular.

[cterrebonne]

Originally Posted by tartuffe

Man oh man, been where you are:
http://wellcraftv20.com/community/sh...center+console

All in all good advice you are getting. I would plan to tab in with more than 1 layer of tape. You will find that a layer of 1708 cured out is flexible, around 3 layers you get rid of most of the flex. Your peanut butter should have schopped strand in it as well. Straight resin and cabosil mixed is pretty brittle even though epoxy resin has more flex than polyester.

Make sure before you get started you have lots of acetone, rags, a box of those medical gloves (nitrile/latex) lots of measuring cups and stir sticks

You asked about original glass prep; I used a 4" grinder with 60 grit disks.Scuffed an area about 1' wide the entire length of the stringer, followed by vacuum then wipe down with alcohol. Alcohol evaporates much quicker than acetone. Acetone leaves behind a bit more residue so I wouldn't recommend it for prep work.

When putting in your fillets on your stringers, it works well to put your PB mix in a 1 gal. ziplock bag with the corner cut out to use like a cake decorating bag. Lay the bead and use the end of a spoon give you a nice uniform radius.

Do at least your first layer of tabbing when you do your fillets.

Do not try to do any fiberglass wet-out without a resin roller. I bought several but my favorite by far was my 2.5" length and 3/8 diameter roller, used it almost exclusively.

Also as far as 1708, I liked the 45/45 thread. As far as laying out the glass and wetting out, the direction of the stiching is everything. Stiching running parallel to the bend work much better than perpendicular.

Tartuffe, Do you know about how many hours it took you to put in the stringers and bulkheads?