Ain't it the pits in my fiberglas hull

[Jim Marshall]

I have an older Glastron boat. After I owned it for a few years it. Small bubbles started forming on the bottom. If you picked them out with a knife it looked like a bubble in the gel coat.

Any suggestions on how to fix this?

P.S. I saw a Glastron in this forum with extensive transom rot. Is that a common occurrence?

Jim

 

[erikgreen]

Re: Ain't it the pits in my fiberglas hull

Do a search on this board and online in general for "hull blisters". Usually they're related to the quality of the original layup of the hull. If it's too porous water sneaks in.

They can be fixed, but not easily.. essentially you'll let the hull dry a couple months, grind the hull out and re-fair, put a vinylester or epoxy barrier coat on, then paint the bottom, and they can still come back.

Alternatively grind all the gelcoat off the bottom down to good glass, patch as needed, re-spray new gelcoat, then spend a loooong time sanding and fairing.

Erik

 

[Bondo]

Re: Ain't it the pits in my fiberglas hull

P.S. I saw a Glastron in this forum with extensive transom rot. Is that a common occurrence?

Ayuh,..... Erik's got the blisters covered,.. So,...

Rotten transoms, stringers,+ anything else make of Wood is Extremely Common, in any abused boat that's 10 years old, or older...
Brand names has Very little to Nothing to do with it though....

 

[redfury]

Re: Ain't it the pits in my fiberglas hull

Who's Glastron you talkin' about Willis?

It depends on when your Glastron was built...I got mine when they were in their hayday, so production went above quality as far as long term what you don't see stuff went. But, my boat was abused, sat outside with the nose down in a culvert before I picked it up for too much money ( oh to be young and ignorant! )...oh, and apparently it was taken care of by cheeseheads at some point ( found wisconsin tags under the MN ones last year ).

The transom was in better shape than the floor and stringers actually, it had just delaminated from the hull and had the start of rotting, though it was mostly just wet...it was made of redwood plywood originally. I could have used the transom as it was if I had been able to dry the wood out and reglue it to the fiberglass skin. I opted for a full replacement since I was pulling the cap anyway.

I've got the blisters on my boat also, mostly along the sharp corners at the edges of the boat. I'll be grinding those out and filling them with Marine Tex when I get to that point.