I am Back With Wet Foam

[Outback Jack]

Re: I am Back With Wet Foam

Hello Everyone, just got a couple questions.
When cutting out the deck I cut back the edge to the angle of the hull.
What is the recommended distance to leave the plywood back from the hull ?
Do I just want to leave enough room for a little bit of PB?
Going to cut out the cleats tomorrow , then get everything sanded up and ready for my new shipment of supplies. I got all my fiberglass mat and biax rough cut and ready to put down when everything arrives. Hopefully by next weekend we might have a deck down.


Cheers Jack

 

[oops!]

Re: I am Back With Wet Foam

hi jack.......less tha 1.8th inch....ok.....16th....

you can sand off the underside of the edge to meet the transom angle is fyou want....it will save you pb.

get as close as you can but dont loose sleep over it.....the pb and tabbing will take up any slack

 

[kpiazzisi]

Re: I am Back With Wet Foam

Jack,

As far as making your PB goes, you have several options depending on how dense it needs to be. I used wood flour (different then saw dust). Saw dust is very course compared to wood flour. I tried regular saw dust and could not get good results either. The Wood flour is actually milled for the purpose of being a filler. It is not simply a by product from a cabnet shop or saw...etc. I think if you tried some would flour, you would be pleasantly surprised. A place called www.raka.com sells it. You can also use milled fiber, mixed with cabosil to make PB. Another option is to add Micro Ballons with either cabosil and wood flour. The micorballons will make a lower density fillet, so be careful. If you are going to use wood, I would definetly recomend woof Flour as opposed to saw dust.

I agree with everyone else on the deck not having to match the sides exactly.

 

[Outback Jack]

Re: I am Back With Wet Foam

Thanks for the replies oops and kpiazzisi. I got my wood cut out for the gas tank compartment and ski locker. It was in good shape but I figured I went this far no since in keeping any old wood in the boat. I could also inspect the keel, and it looks good .As for the deck , it all cut out and angled for the hull. Fits nice.

The wood sawdust was a pain, I had it for awhile it was actually pretty fine, can't remember what it come out of but it would not set up. I just used it for one of the stringers when I run out of cabisol. I have my order arriving some time this week, so I will have everything to finish up. I will go over my pb with just a skim to make sure it is as smooth as possible.

Yesterday I grabbed my good old grinder and 120 grit and went over the whole boat again to get rid of any resin rich areas and other imperfections before I start with my 1708. A wipe down with acetone when I am ready and I will be good to go. I hope this weekend and next weekend will be very productive.

Cheers Jack

 

[kpiazzisi]

Re: I am Back With Wet Foam

Great job so far. I can't believe how fast you work! Do you have any PICs of the outside of the boat? So once you tab in the floor/sole you are going to Gel coat or paint the floor? I would almost recomend Gel Coat for what it's worth. If I am hearing you correctly and from the post you made on my project, you intend to paint the outside of the hull? Let's see some PICs. Maybe we can lend some pointers. I can tell you what not to do now...lol

 

[Outback Jack]

Re: I am Back With Wet Foam

Thanks kpiazzisi, I am not ready for paint anytime soon and could be the spring time here. Last time I had camera in the garage it landed on the concrete floor. I will be taking more pictures after I get the floor down. I am doing a barrier coat with ip 2000 on the bottom with a roller and will be painting from the water line up in the spring with a spray gun.I might tackle it or some painters I know . It might end up on a trailer then sprayed . Have not decided yet. Fall will be hitting hard end of September, so I have to get done what I can until then and I have seen snow here in October . Most days are fine here then but our nights get cool. After then probaly not much work going on other then vinyl and other things.

As far as the floor I am tossing around gelcoat and snap in carpet...then I thought I might as well go with original carpet and glue it down. The thing is the ski locker section is removable as a one piece center section up to the bow. The piece over the gas tank is also one piece and removable too .So basically the center section of my boat is removable from the engine to the bow. I don't really want to glass these sections together. You never know when something is going to fail and I don't want to seal the gas tank in. So it is still up in the air as to what I do.

Cheers Jack

 

[Outback Jack]

Re: I am Back With Wet Foam

Today I am jumping around ,I went out and took a picture of her. I am working on taking the upholstery apart today and inspecting the plywood. All looks pretty good . I am going to change the colours to what I did in the seats. I never upholstered before so I thought when I did it a first I would tackle the hardest parts ,the seats hehehehe. I figure after I get everything done if I want to do the seats again I had lot's of practice. But I doubt I will, if anything I would update to a nicer style seat. But for now we are happy with the seats and would like to keep the style original. I am going to change the colours a bit too. the dark blue will be darker and the light blue will go to a light grey and the white stay white. The upholstery will get put on hold again this week when the fiberglass comes in. Leaving upholstery for the winter. here is a picture of her as she sits

 

[Outback Jack]

Re: I am Back With Wet Foam

I just thought I would make a post to show people that are new to fiberglass , that it is actually not real hard.
First thing is make sure you have the right tools and supplies

I usually get my piece ready that I want to fiberglass and cut out the csm to fit
Then I take my chip brush and wet down the piece of plywood with a little resin, just a light coat
Then I lay my csm on the plywood and pour my resin onto the csm and plywood.
Then I work the resin over the plywood with my bubble buster
I take my chipbrush and spread more resin or pour it in areas that are dry.
The biggest mistake people make is getting it to dry.
You can always squeeze the excess resin out of your work by using you bubble buster and pushing it off into your bucket of product you have mixed up. The biggest thing is not to let excessive resin just sit there.
Also some people like to cut their csm to size but I like to leave it a little bigger and cut it off after or just after it starts to set up you can take a razor blade and cut it off. I later coat my edges with a little csm before I carry on with other coats of fiberglass material . because if you try to bend the fiberglass over the edge you get to many air bubbles and really you only want something there to seal.

Here are some picture of what it should look like , you should have a texture to the finish of the csm, not puddles of resin laying around and no dry spots. In this picture you get the glare from the sun but can see the texture and there is no air bubbles or dry spots .The next 2 pictures show this better.

 

[Outback Jack]

Re: I am Back With Wet Foam

Hello Iboaters,
Well I had a pretty productive weekend , I ended up getting my stringers tabbed in and one layer of 1708 down. I then took my old grinder out and sanded everything all over again. Then I washed everything down with acetone. In the picture you will notice I have my 2nd set of tabs in place, then I will follow that with a second layer of 1708.

I will start working on the cleats this week as I would like to hide my screws that hold the cleats down with my second layer of 1708. I will seal the screws with 5200 before hand.

How long do I have to wait before I can fiberglass over 5200?

I want to seal my cleats with csm if I can then after they are attached to the stringers I am going to cap the stringer right over the cleat. any thoughts to this idea?

Anyhow got lot's to do but it is getting done. Here is a picture of where I am at Hope to have second layer down and ready for the deck by the end of this week if all goes well.

 

[ezmobee]

Re: I am Back With Wet Foam

Everything is looking extremely solid and well built.

 

[Outback Jack]

Re: I am Back With Wet Foam

Everything is looking extremely solid and well built.

Thanks ezmobee, it has been alot of work . With all the great help and posts on this forum it has made it much more easier. I keep telling myslef it is all worth it in the end. I decided to do this after looking at a few boats up my way for sale ..The problem is the boats up this way sell for alot more then other places..seems they are around 2-4 grand more then south of the border and they all have issues that I could see under inspection, and mine didn't have them but they were there hiding. I didn't feel like paying 5-6 grand for a boat with issues that needed to be fixed.

I am under the impression now that boats need to be kept under cover, not parked at the marina in the weather for 15 years or in their back yard trying to keep the water out of it. Most of them boats have issues somewhere. Mostly because the owners do not know how the manufacturer put these boats together. If they knew they would not be keeping them out in the elements.

Also I am lucky because the Boss is keeping me motivated, because she really misses the enjoyment of being on the water. Before I run this boat for 1 season she never thought she liked them because she can't swim. But after being on the boat all last season 4-5 times a week and seeing how relaxing it was , she wants it fixed for us to enjoy next year.

My next challenge now is to work with the weather ..we were down to low 50,s last night and I don't want to start to run the furnace. It was just a taste of weather to come. I should be good to go until the end of september with the weather.

Hopefully by then I will be ready to paint the hull from the water line down.

Jack

 

[ezmobee]

Re: I am Back With Wet Foam

Yep. There's no question that you can re-build these much better than they were from new. And anything else you'd buy would probably have the same issues. If you like the hull and have a good (still supported) drivetrain, a rebuild is a pretty good idea! Also, you can work on it as the $$ allows. I doubt anyone would sell you a boat for $50-100 at a time

 

[Outback Jack]

Limber Holes

Limber Holes

Well I am at the point now that I have to install my cleats before i can proceed with 2nd layer of 1708 on the one side of the stringer to cover the screws. Other side is already done.

I am also looking at limber holes. When I did my stringers I put 1-1/4 inch abs pipe in there at the bulkheads draining to the bilge. My plan is to use the conduit in the picture and run from bulkhead to bulkhead sealing it inside each limber hole. I am going to drill into this conduit on the bottom edge of where it meets the hull and on the side where it meets the stringer.Have 2 rows of holes actaully one on the bottom and the other very close or maybe even 3 rows offset. I am hoping that with the channels in the conduit that the 2 part foam will expand and the cells will be to large to want to push into these channels all along the conduit. So when the foam is all set up and if it ever gets water intrusion the water can seep it's way down the sides of the conduit through the channels on the conduit and gradually find the rows of hole I drill along the bottom and sides. Hoping it will work like a weeping tile. Then there will be a nice channel of air running along the bottom edge of the stringer all the time and dry the foam if it gets wet.

Since the foam is suppose to take the path of least resistance , I really don't think it will push into these channels or holes I drill. I am actually thinking of doing like a 2 pour. First to just cover the pipe with foam and it will not try to force into the holes or channels. Let it set up then do a the second pour to fill the compartments up. Actually I might just put enough over the pipes before I screw the deck down and again then fill the compartment.

Here is the conduit I am going to try, it is a 3/4 in inside diameter.



What do you guys think or has anyone tried this.

Jack

 

[Outback Jack]

Re: Limber Holes

Re: Limber Holes

I might have a change in plans, how much would an 18ft hull weigh without the cap?
I am wondering if my rafters could handle a flip with some reinforcement. I know I have pulled out a big block 351 before . Since I am not going to make this year for a splash , I might as well go all out and do everything before it hit's the water next season. Going to strip it out I guess

 

[ezmobee]

Re: Limber Holes

Re: Limber Holes

Sounds do-able to me

 

[Outback Jack]

Re: Limber Holes

Re: Limber Holes

I am wondering too, should I finish my deck complete, tabbed in etc before I decide to take the cap off and do a flip. I am thinking I would have less distortion of the hull this way .

 

[archbuilder]

Re: Limber Holes

Re: Limber Holes

Nice thread.....just read all of it. I would call Aroemarine on foaming the floor. They are great people and the owner will call you if he isn't there. Foam is really messy stuff, but it will really stiffen your hull. It doesn't like cold temperatures by the way, so hurry up!

 

[Outback Jack]

Re: Limber Holes

Re: Limber Holes

Thanks archbuilder for checking out the restore and for the advice on the foam. I already picked up the 2 part from us composites. Most likely the same stuff. I have it sitting in my spare room keeping it warm. They tell me I can warm the containers up in warm water the day I am going to do it. Try to be around 80 degrees. I will fire up the furnace that day too and get the boat and garage good and warm. I am hoping we get our indian summer early september to help me out. Fall is in the air for sure up here.

Jack

 

[Outback Jack]

Re: Limber Holes

Re: Limber Holes

Well what do you guys think of my limber hole plan. I just can't see leaving the bulkhead holes there open if the foam is just going to plug them. I plan on putting the holes I drilled facing down to the hull and sealing it to each bulkhead . I will also attach it to the side of the stringer in a couple places with some 5200 just to hold it there.

I can't seem to find much on limber hole designs with a search but if you got some better ideas please let me know.
Thanks

here is a picture of the actual conduit

 

[kpiazzisi]

Re: Limber Holes

Re: Limber Holes

Outback Jack,

I had my cap supported by my rafters and did not have any issues. My boat is 18 ft also, and in the stripped down form (just hull, stringers and bulkhead) it was very light. I could pick up the stern of the boat to the point where it would lift off the back trailer bumpers. I know this isn't a great answer, but basically I think the 18 foot hull w/o cap would be less then the 500Lb engine and easily supported by reinforced rafters.

Good luck!