fiberglass cloth?

[jasono2l]

What weight of fiberglass cloth should I use to repair the stringers and the floor in my boat? Is it ok to use the 4oz. stuff? Or should i use at least the 6 oz or 12 0z stuff? Please let me know the iboats store has alot of options and I don't know which I need.
Thanks,
Jason

 

[salty87]

Re: fiberglass cloth?

i'm not sure what you're repairing vs replacing, this is what i'm using replacing mine...

you're going to want a bunch of mat. mat goes down before cloth (or roven) does, everywhere cloth goes. you should cover the cloth with more mat too.

for the stringers and/or transom, your boat probably had thicker woven roving. it's more like 24 oz, there are lighter and heavier though. it will also get sandwiched by mat. its thicker and builds up quicker for structural areas.

lighter cloth, i'm using 8 oz, goes on the deck. don't forget the mat. the mat kinda works like a sponge absorbing resin so the roven or cloth can get properly saturated. it also seems to create a better shell as the last layer since the matting surface is more dense than the cloth, esp roven.

can you tell what came out of the boat? i can see where the builder used roven or cloth on mine.

 

[jcsercsa]

Re: fiberglass cloth?

On my stringers all they had was matt two layers, I am going to use matt, 8.5 oz twill weave , matt, 16 oz glass. matt, and I also am useing epoxy !! John

 

[Coors]

Re: fiberglass cloth?

biax is good.

 

[ondarvr]

Re: fiberglass cloth?

Are you using epoxy or polyester resin? It makes a difference in how you do it, but not much of a difference in the final out come. With Polyester you need to use mat, with epoxy mat is sort of a waste of effort and money.

Cloth is expensive for what you get, roving (16oz or 24oz) and mat are much better options for doing a stringer with polyester, with epoxy skip the mat.

Biax is good too, just a little more difficult to find.

 

[qaztwo]

Re: fiberglass cloth?

I personally started with 24oz roving then switch to 8oz. 24oz was just to hard to get to bend for some of the tight radius. 8oz was used until area was built up enough to switch to a few layers of 24oz.

On a side note entire floor is covered in 24oz roving, tough as nails.

 

[jasono2l]

Re: fiberglass cloth?

I guess I should have said I am going to replace the stringers and the floor. I bought my 17 foot Rinker from my brother-in-law . He bought it from a guy at his work 3 years ago. For the 3 years my brother in law has owned it, it has sat outside with no cover at all, so I am sure the stringers and the floor are shot, praying that the transom is ok, but I will know soon enough. Doesn't really matter much I got a good deal for the boat, the trailer, and the 135 HP Johnson.
If the boat is a wash I can my money back from the motor and the trailer, and then find another boat. But anyway I should use heavy weight mat or roven, followed by cloth. I will probably use epoxy. Thanks for the help.
Jason

 

[jcsercsa]

Re: fiberglass cloth?

[ with epoxy mat is sort of a waste of effort and money.

HI all hay ondarvr, can I ask why ??

 

[ondarvr]

Re: fiberglass cloth?

The typical mat you can buy is not really designed to be compatible with epoxy and epoxy doesn't need the help with bonding like polyester does. This is due to the epoxy being stronger, so the resin rich layer between each layer of glass fabric and/or the substrate tends not to fail in the same way (there's a resin rich layer, or resin only layer, when mat is not used). Mat has the least strength of the types of glass and the highest resin content, so you're spending money on epoxy and mat that doesn't gain you much in strength.

 

[jasono2l]

Re: fiberglass cloth?

so I should use a polyester resin with mat then or just use the epoxy by itself, but not epoxy with mat?

 

[jcsercsa]

Re: fiberglass cloth?

The typical mat you can buy is not really designed to be compatible with epoxy and epoxy doesn't need the help with bonding like polyester does. This is due to the epoxy being stronger, so the resin rich layer between each layer of glass fabric and/or the substrate tends not to fail in the same way (there's a resin rich layer, or resin only layer, when mat is not used). Mat has the least strength of the types of glass and the highest resin content, so you're spending money on epoxy and mat that doesn't gain you much in strength.

OK thanks ondarvr, you just saved me 48 bucks !!! 15 yards of matt !!! thanks John