1977 Starcraft restore

[rickryder]

Re: Floor fiberglass help.

Re: Floor fiberglass help.

Your doing fine don't freak out......Now you can PB the gaps along the gunwales and tab in the sole. Then you can lay up your biax on the sole. When you get to the gel coat just roll it out like paint.....you will use the guide that came with your gel for the mekp...it's double the amount you use for resin.....first coat no wax.....last coat use wax ... If ya get in a bind you have my number Zak!

 

[zopperman]

Re: Floor fiberglass help.

Re: Floor fiberglass help.

Thanks again and again Rick
It was just really really frustrating. The gunwales are all PB'd and the glass is cut and ready to go in! I have 3 sheets of glass to lay and then the floor is officially IN! Hopefully I'll be able to do that and lay out a coat of gelcoat tomorrow night!

 

[f4milym4n]

Re: Floor fiberglass help.

Re: Floor fiberglass help.

man your chuggin along. build looks great. what and when do you use the highly mentioned PB for thanks

 

[zopperman]

Re: Floor fiberglass help.

Re: Floor fiberglass help.

Thanks PB or peanut butter is a thickened resin. I mixed at about. 3:2 ratio of cabosil - poly resin. The cabosil is a thickening agent and it looks like anthrax. It's used for filling gaps... I used it all around the gunwales and the pieces of the deck. I can post some close ups if you want them

 

[f4milym4n]

Re: Floor fiberglass help.

Re: Floor fiberglass help.

so the pb mix would be good to use when joining to pieces of wood. flat or say 90 degree angles? and does it get rock hard?

 

[zopperman]

Re: Floor fiberglass help.

Re: Floor fiberglass help.

Yes, yes, and it gets pretty solid...

I'll be glassing the floor in shortly!

 

[zopperman]

Re: Floor fiberglass help.

Re: Floor fiberglass help.

Floor glassed in... 8 hours later
Definitely will need some grinding before th gelcoat... I hate grinding...
Here's the floor glassed in and waiting for grinding and gelcoat

Here's the dash cut out and glassed, waiting for gelcoat. The two big holes are for volt gauge and fuel gauge... rectangle is for VHF and little ones are for switches

 

[zopperman]

Re: Floor fiberglass help.

Re: Floor fiberglass help.

So, long story short, my buddy had to run and I didn't want to do the gelcoat alone, so hopefully he'll be able to come back later and roll it out wth me. We did do the dash panel though and it looks kind of.. well... like white bondo. Hope the second coat looks better!

 

[produceguy]

Re: Floor fiberglass help.

Re: Floor fiberglass help.

Lookin good zop.

 

[zopperman]

Re: Floor fiberglass help.

Re: Floor fiberglass help.

Thanks I'm anticipatin' a splash before I go back to school on the 30th!

 

[rickryder]

Re: Floor fiberglass help.

Re: Floor fiberglass help.

Still waiting to see a gel coated deck

 

[zopperman]

Re: Floor fiberglass help.

Re: Floor fiberglass help.

I PROMISE a gelcoated deck by Tuesday!! I'm playing electrician tomorrow...

 

[zopperman]

Re: Floor fiberglass help.

Re: Floor fiberglass help.

Made some progress today by myself.. mounted the windshield wiper, horn, bow, and nightmare of a stern light (I really had to jury rig this one with an o ring terminal and some electrical tape and a new 3/8" hole..) I wired the gauages (fuel and voltage) and I wired the horn and the wiper (which I woke up from the dead).. I still have to wire the lights and bilge pump and ground for the sending unit and for the deck fill tomorrow.

Does it make any difference if I go accessory - fuse - switch - circuit breaker - battery VS accessory - switch - fuse - circuit breaker - battery?? The latter seems redundant with the fuse and cricuit breaker doing the same job...

 

[oops!]

Re: Floor fiberglass help.

Re: Floor fiberglass help.

hi ..;....sorry it took me so long to get to this....

rolling on gellcoat is like painting a wall.....no different.

mix the gellcoat with mekp at 2%....exactaly like you did the fiberglass resin....but make sure your measurements are accurate.....i use the metric system....its super easy.

if you are mixing 100 ml of gellcoat.....add 2 ml of mekp....there is no measurement system easer.

mix up your gellcoat....and just pour it in a paint tray....use a roller with a handle.....and just roll it on....

the roller will want to slide as the gellcoat is very silppery....just keep at it.....its really easy...you dont need your friend there. it will only take 1/2 hour max.

 

[zopperman]

Re: Floor fiberglass help.

Re: Floor fiberglass help.

Thanks Oops! How much surfacing wax should I add to the final layer?

 

[oops!]

Re: Floor fiberglass help.

Re: Floor fiberglass help.

3% of the gellcoat.

for the final layer...wait till the gellcoat tacks off.....then re gell it...

dont walk on the new gell.....you will have to paint the final layer from out side the boat

 

[zopperman]

Re: Floor fiberglass help.

Re: Floor fiberglass help.

So I'm doing the first layer tomorrow, no wax. Then wednesday, final layer with wax at 3% and mekp at 2%, right?

 

[zopperman]

Re: Floor fiberglass help.

Re: Floor fiberglass help.

So this was just too cool. I spent the last few hours doing pretty much all the electrical for the boat... from scratch.. I finished the sending unit, did the bilge pump and stern light, bow light.. I just need to get a + bus bar and I'm all set. I cheaped out a bit and didn't get a good fuse holder with a built in bus bar... which probably cost me the same in wire. BUt, I ran every single accessory and they all worked perfectly. I just need to wire the VHF (which has an inline fuse and built in switch and then really nothing else needed) and then the cigarette lighter plug and ground the deck fill with the remaining wire. I can't believe everything worked. I might need to tighten a few connections with some e tape... but

 

[oops!]

Re: Floor fiberglass help.

Re: Floor fiberglass help.

So I'm doing the first layer tomorrow, no wax. Then wednesday, final layer with wax at 3% and mekp at 2%, right?

yuppers

 

[zopperman]

Re: Floor fiberglass help.

Re: Floor fiberglass help.

I think we're going to do 3 coats of gel.. The first coat came out OK.. you can see the seams and some bumps, but it's not a showboat.. It was thinner than expected... can we thicken it with cabosil or is that a terrible idea? We can't step on teh gelcoat now, right? any other suggestions are welcomed... A little underwhelmed with how this layer turned out