I bought a project. On purpose.

[bakerjw]

At least part of your boat will be fire retardant.

 

[PatinIdaho]

On my transom, there was no fillet seal between the wood and floor. It had a 1/4 inch gap where i would think a fillet could have been used.
Is there any reason not to add one on a new transom or should i put it back as Sea Ray had it?
Also i work with a guy that was a manager at Sea Ray in the late 80s up to the buyout.
I showed him pics of my bilge and he told me all the structure in the bilge was built outside of the boat.
Before the cap was put on the structure was installed and glued to the hull.

 

[MikeSchinlaub]

Probably just a way to save time. We usually like to fill the gaps with putty.

 

[bakerjw]

Personally, I do not like gaps.

 

[Scott Danforth]

regarding the fairing compound. I used long-strand fiberglass where there was a repair (tiger hair)

then a micro-glass bead filled filler from my local fiberglass shop for the final fairing. it had the consistency of drywall spackle.

they also have all the fixins needed to make your own filler. resin, cabosil, chopped fibers, fumed silica, glass micro-beads, etc.

the price was about 50% more than automotive filler. but from a whole restoration standpoint the fairing compound portion of the bill was less than 1%

 

[PatinIdaho]

Fillet seal it is! I did not know if there was a legitimate reason for not having one or if it was a cost cutting decission.
Using AdTech is not so much about saving money. More, it's available and free. Also, there is not a single piece of fiberglass available within 60 miles of me.
Now, if i could just get work to turn loose of about 5 gallons of Hydrex resin that would be great. Won't ever happen but a guy can daydream.

 

[PatinIdaho]

At work on all aircraft composite repairs,
When replacing plies, we always start small and work up in size, using a 1/2-inch overlap, with the final ply having a 1-inch overlap and usually vacuum bag it all down.
When watching videos, some people start with the large ply working to the smallest. That just seems so wrong to me.
I asked a couple of engineers at work, and they said largest to smallest is not the proper way to repair fiberglass.
One video from i think West Marine said to go from largest to smallest.
That is just so wrong from what i know and that's not much
Are boats really that different that most of my fiberglass knowledge does not apply?