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[kiwi]

I haven't really wished the transom height was taller in all the time I've had this boat, so I decided to stay with 20" transom, to avoid making a motor project out of my transom repair. Also went with polyester resin, after talking to a few more guys I know that have done this. I'll let you know later if I regret it!

Anyway, I know this will fall short of the works of art I've learned so much from on this forum, but I'm itching to get the boat back in the water. Here's what I got done so far.

I made a cardboard template from an old freezer box.

Bought 2 shts of 3/4" AB marine grade plywood from SPS in Jensen Beach (thanks, fdheld34), cut to size, dry fit, and laminated them together.

Also against the advise of many on this forum, I got advice from others I know and I decided to use polyester resin. I can feel the spears already!

Coated the surface of the core to be laminated to the transom with resin, layed a layer of 1 1/2 mat on transom skin, troweled some thickened resin on the transom skin with a tile trowel, and clamped the core to the transom. I didn't have enough thickener to make a bed all around the core, so I had to add that later. I would have liked to have had more putty on the transom, too. I miscalculated on the short side.


After loading up on cabosil and glass balloons, I made some more putty and stuffed it in the gaps around the core, and dragged a fillet in it for the inner skin glass to lay down nicely. I was kinda surprised how much cabosil was needed to get a decent putty consistency. I used about 1 1/2 cup cabosil and 1 cup glass bubbles to 16 oz of resin to get a good thickness.


Did some grinding/sanding to prep for laminating inner transom skin. Was going to lay the glass today, but it looks like the weather is no cooperating. There's always Sunday

[kiwi]

My plan for laminating inner skin is a 1 1/2 oz mat, 1708, 1708. Should I did a layer of 1 1/2 oz mat between the two 1708 layers to build thickness?

Any recommendations for what to paint to use in the bilge?

[flyingfrizzle]

Lookin good! Far as the layers or glass, I would use another layer of 1708 if you got it to build thickness due to you will get much more strength out of it. I sometimes use matt to build up thickness but only on non-structural items due to it being cheaper than the high dollar 1708. The matt will add much more weight and lot less strength to the lay up per same thickness. The resin to cloth ratio is better with the 1708 by having more cloth and stronger cloth at that. The matt dose well up aginst the ply wood due to it holds a lot of resin for a good bond plus it fills any voids to the wood but that is the only place it is needed.

[kiwi]

FF- Thanks.

Got any advice on bilge paint?

[flyingfrizzle]

Originally Posted by kiwi

FF- Did you use epoxy or vinyl ester for your core laminate? Also, can you advise on quantities of resin, glass, thickeners needed for your scepter transom repair? (Hopefully not a 55 gal drum like you got!)

Just noticed this post, I used epoxy only for the bond to the old glass skin. I thickened it with cabosil and troweled it on with a notched spreader and bonded it in place. Quantity used was less than a gallon for that part. The core had 2 layers of Matt applied to it on the bench to fully sill it up before I bonded it to the hull. I also laid strips of matt at the base of the core to bed it in to the bottom of the hull. In between the plys I used 2 layers of Matt then 2 layers of thick roven with Matt stitched to the rear. (Simular to 1708) then 2 more layers of Matt. I used the roven due to It was free gIven to me, 1708 would be slightly stronger but I wanted to use the roven/Matt up. The Matt holds a lot of resin to fill voids and for the wood to soak up. Make sure the wood is pre coated with resin a few times before the layup. I use thin vocosiy resin so standard resin you might want to thin it so it will soak into the wood better. On the outter layers I would start with the Matt then several layers of 1708 after that. Also I filled any voids around the edges and bottom with a thickened paste to avoid air pockets before I started on the outter layers. I added lots of extra tabbing to the hull sides with each one slightly larger overlapping the last. I would say but not sure it took around 3 to 4 gallons maybe close to 5 time I filled the stringers back in.

Maybe this will help you out, I know you have got passed most of these points. Sorry to be late on the reply.

[strick]

Originally Posted by kiwi

Got any advice on bilge paint?

http://www.fibreglast.com/product/du...-coat-additive

Mix it with white gel coat. Roll it on.

strick

[flyingfrizzle]

Originally Posted by kiwi

FF- Thanks.

Got any advice on bilge paint?

I have been using interlux products and will be coating mine with their "bilgekote" product. A lot of people use this and love it and it will help prevent gas and chemical damage. Also I coated mine with vinylester resin to seal the polyester, water proof it better and smooth out the surfaces then will spray the bilgekote over this. If you use epoxy you must use epoxy barrier kote product first to make sure the bilgekote will bond well.

[flyingfrizzle]

Originally Posted by strick

http://www.fibreglast.com/product/du...-coat-additive

Mix it with white gel coat. Roll it on.

strick

I have noticed you use a lot of Duratec products and was looking in to their Vinyl-ester primers. I was wondering if you use their fairing primers before and how did you like them? I was thinking about getting a gallon of the VE primer to coat my hull with for block sanding and fairing. I would like to get something that I can spray on thick that will cover those pesky little pin holes. Also I think it would be good far as keeping all the chemicals VE based. I been using the 3m VE underwater line type puddy and been coating with a epoxy primer. My thoughts are that the more similar chemical make up I can keep the better. The epoxy primer might do better for water proofing but the duratec VE primer should do about as good as what Im using now. Also dose the duratec sand well and what do they recommend for thinning it?

[strick]

I have used their both their VE primer and polyester primer. It sands very easily and I usually thin with acetone after catalyzing it. Although they have a special thinner I have not used it. Duratec needs to be thinned as it is very viscous and hard to spray. I have sprayed awlgrip over it with good results. It has a fast cure rate so you cant let it sit like awlgrip primer. I mostly use duratec as the first layer on a new part in a mold. You can roll it on inside the mold. Let it cure and then start laying glass. So instead of gel coat I like duratec so I can then sand the part and spray with paint. It will cover pin holes easily.

strick

[kiwi]

Thanks for the bilge paint info. Got the stringers tabbed in, and getting close to putting the cap back on.


While it's all opened up, does anyone have advice on whether the thru hull drain features should be reinforced? If so, how?