Fairing compounds filling the nooks and cranny's?

[Camlee98]

I was wondering what everyone is using to fill the nicks, scratches, gouges, dents and dings on there hulls? I was thinking of using poly resin and 3m bubbles mix to do this job. Is this ok or do you reccomend something else?
As always thanks for the help!!

 

[thrillhouse700]

Re: Fairing compounds filling the nooks and cranny's?

I used oops peanut butter. Except I used poly resin, cabosil, 3m glass bubbles or q-cell. and milled fibers. Stuff is strong and somewhat of a paint to sand.

 

[Camlee98]

Re: Fairing compounds filling the nooks and cranny's?

I wonder if I used just poly resin, cabosil, 3m glass bubbles and skipped the milled fibers if that would be good enough and easier to sand?

 

[thrillhouse700]

Re: Fairing compounds filling the nooks and cranny's?

Probably wouldn't be a big deal. I think we did a mix up of that once because we ran out of milled fibers. We mostly use it to fillet and we used it on our prep for paint.

 

[allpoints360]

Re: Fairing compounds filling the nooks and cranny's?

Do you have to color match, or are you going to do some type of topcoat?

 

[thrillhouse700]

Re: Fairing compounds filling the nooks and cranny's?

Oh yeah forgot to mention that< we are going to paint it. So far we have used a 2 part epoxy primer by DuPont, you can't even see the fairing compound. Some of the tiny scratches you can't even see anymore. Still deciding on the paint. The paint guy showed us pictures of the dupont 2 part paint and boy does it look great. At the same time, I have seen pictures of peoples roll and tip paint jobs here with Interlux and they look great and are cheaper than Dupont.

 

[Camlee98]

Re: Fairing compounds filling the nooks and cranny's?

Yes I planned on priming and painting the hull after making the repairs. No need for color match. Also the boat will be pulled after each use and brought home.

 

[thrillhouse700]

Re: Fairing compounds filling the nooks and cranny's?

You can check out my thread here if you want to see what it looked like after sanded down, page 3 http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=341563

 

[ondarvr]

Re: Fairing compounds filling the nooks and cranny's?

For small amounts of filler it may be easier to buy some, look for a marine filler, it should be easy to sand plus hold up well.

If you want to make it, then silica will thicken it, bubbles will make it easier to sand and fibers will make it stronger. You most likely won't need the strength, so just use some silica and bubbles. The mix will be different for every resin, so there's not really a formula, the more bubbles you use...the easier it will sand, the more silica...the less it will sag. You can use some talc also, but it may be a little tougher to find.

 

[Camlee98]

Re: Fairing compounds filling the nooks and cranny's?

Thanks thrillhouse and ondarvr just what I needed to hear!
I would be using poly resin to make up the filler. I have cabosil, 3m glass bubbles and 1/4 Chopped CSM on hand. Will making my own be an issue below the waterline? Will store bought be better vs making your own?
I have spots that will be going over the rollers should I use csm in the mix on those sections?

 

[thrillhouse700]

Re: Fairing compounds filling the nooks and cranny's?

My thought on this and I could be wrong, since this is my first boat restore, I would think that if your cracks are deep enough to need a layer of mat then why not put a layer of csm in the hole? As long as the structure is sound (no cracks or holes all the way through)

We had 2-3 spots where we had to grind more than a normal amount to get rid of the cracks in the gel coat, for these we did lay in ONE layer of csm then filler over it.

If you looked at my thread it shows one of the holes in our hull that went all the way through, that had 1 layer of csm on the botton and 3-4 layers on the inside, plus filler to reshape the hull.

 

[Camlee98]

Re: Fairing compounds filling the nooks and cranny's?

I only have one spot where I cut a 1/2 inch hole thru the hull while removing the fiberglass deck. That spot will be repaired with mat on the inside. The other spot I was refering to is on the keel that runs thru the rollers on the bottom of the boat. I wasn't sure if instead of just cabosil and 3m bubbles only should I also add the chopped csm(I have a small tub I bought from us composites) to make it stronger? I did read your thread and your work looks very nice!! I can't wait to get my hull flipped over but I have to finish the transom first! Just trying to prepare myself for the filling stuff.

 

[thrillhouse700]

Re: Fairing compounds filling the nooks and cranny's?

Post a pic of the keel up if you can. Wait till one of the more senior guys that know more about fiberglass and whatnot post up. I will of course offer an opinion but mind you I am a noob as well, I have learned a ton from the guys here tho.

 

[redfury]

Re: Fairing compounds filling the nooks and cranny's?

If you put a hole through the hull below the waterline, your best bet is going to be to repair it, not fill it. If you have access from the inside, then put a layer of CSM over it, and then use filler on the outside to fair it. Just putting filler in a hole without anything but the edges of the hole to hold it is just a hole waiting to become a hole again.

 

[Camlee98]

Re: Fairing compounds filling the nooks and cranny's?

Thanks Redfury but I wasn't talking about the hole I put in the boat. I've read a bunch of threads on repairing that hole and even watched that video. So that shouldn't be a problem. Now that I think about it more mabey I should just buy a small container of something premade and save my resin for other things. Anyone have any suggestions on what brand and where to buy(best price)?

 

[redfury]

Re: Fairing compounds filling the nooks and cranny's?

I used filler from Adtech 14 ultra white filler ( polyester ) it was easy to use, came in a quart size for small work and sanded easily enough and is good for below the waterline. I get my stuff locally from Expresscomposites.com Great people that own/work the place ( dad and daughter mostly ).