Bass boat keel crack, need help

[Eddie1920]

I have a late 80s or early 90s sprint bass boat that the previous owner had cracked the keel about 3 feet down from the tip of the bow. He had previously had a repair of glass Matt over it however it has let go and now takes on water from this point. Not sure how I should repair it i know the basics of fiber glass, I have not sanded the area yet but I'm estimating the crack to be about 8 inchs long, as well as there is quite a thick chunk of the laminate that is loose and half way separated from the haul. I'm in need of direction on how to go about this repair I have bondo long hair strand filler resin and cloth Matt as well as the hair Matt. I'm not looking to go full pro repair on this if its gonna be highly costly it's an old boat and no means worth more then $4k CAD boat motor and trailer package. Info post would be highly appreciated, thanks. (I can take pictures if needed)

 

[gm280]

Yes, do post a few pictures. I think that fact that you say it is taking on water make this a little more repair then you may have first thought. That means you allowed water into the structure of the hull. If that has been going on for any length if time, you may have more repairs to fix. Get some pictures and let us see what you are talking about.

 

[Eddie1920]

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[Eddie1920]

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[Redtruck12]

I think you’re kind of lucky that you can access both inside and out.
is your centre bilge channel the full length of the boat?
A proper repair will likely include grinding out the damaged area and taper grinding the thickness roughly 3-4” beyond the damaged area, building up in layers both inside and out with 1708 (biaxial cloth with chop strand mat backing, grinding roughly to contour and flatness, fairing with thickened resin and then applying gel coat or bottom side paint (or possibly tractor paint-depends on your boats usage).
i have tried to use simple terminology. If you have difficulty figuring out what is being mentioned then you likely need to read the how to sticky’s at the top of the restoration forum.

probably a good idea to core drill and evaluate your stringers and transom too.

 

[Eddie1920]

There seems to be like a inner and outer shell and the crack/broke open spot is in the outer shell (water side of the hull) and the inner sell seen from the floor vent looking down is a thin sell and feels like about 3/16 inch gap between the too, this kinda confusing me a bit.

 

[Redtruck12]

What is 3/16”?
As usual pictures will help
have you checked transom and stringers yet?

 

[Scott Danforth]

most likely you have a cored boat hull

if so, repairing a cored hull is difficult (about twice the work)

 

[Eddie1920]

What is 3/16”?
As usual pictures will help
have you checked transom and stringers yet?

 

[Redtruck12]

Are these all bottom side/outside pictures? Or are they from the inside?
Definitely need to grind out all the bad crap, beveled out probably about 4” each side of the middle of the crack building it up in gradually larger pieces of CLOTH -
not filler not thickened resin CLOTH.
preferably from inside and out but doable from outside only IF you cannot access inside.

as for the water that’s already inside and the damage it has done.... hopefully minimal

 

[Eddie1920]

all the pictures are from the outside of the hull, when you look up into the crack you can see a layer of looks like chopped matt(undamaged) and that is what you see/feel when you look down from the top, only way I could repair this from the top would be to cut that layer out, you can see in the previous picture where I have light shining up from the crack underside and it's making the inner skin of the floor from the top view down glow, I think that's just part of the top cap/floor and its undamaged in that area. just the hull/lower tub of the boat is the damaged part. if I cut that layer out id be bonding the upper cap to the hull making difficult to remove ever in the future, also looks like the previous owner had tried to repair this with Bondo body filler reinforced with fiberglass hair.

 

[Redtruck12]

Layers of cloth is the way to go

 

[Eddie1920]

Will do

 

[Woodonglass]

Do you have access to the damage from the inside? You REALLY need to do this on both sides.. Start with two layers of CSM and resin on the outside. 3" and 6" overlap. then Go on inside and fill the void with Peanut Butter and two layer of 1708 Then go back to the outside and use a Layer of 1708 with 8" overlap and then finish off with 2 layers of CSM. Do final sanding an feathering fill any imperfections with fairing material final sand and then primer and paint.

I think you'll find this informative

 

[steve_h7]

I damaged my hull during my rebuild and I found this video series really useful:

https://youtu.be/i9hfpOCnzEs