Preserving new wood in old Starcraft

[neebishis05]

I have an old starcraft 16' Jupiter. I'm replacing ALL the wood in this boat. My question is preserving this wood. I read threads about penetrating epoxy, painting the epoxy, fiberglassing etc. I'm not interested in spending hundreds.......I just want to give it a good protective coating, and put it together. I'm using ACX plywood for the transom, dash, and floor. Any advice on a good product for less than $50.00. Somewhere I read of someone using a penetrating polyurathene..Valspar makes one available from Menards for $40 bucks?? Any help will be appreciated!!<br /><br /> Ken

 

[EZLoader]

Re: Preserving new wood in old Starcraft

Many on this forum have recommendedthis product and I think their site gives you good step by step repair examples and good suggestions on how to avoid future wood rot damage by pre-treating new wood with penetrating sealer:<br /><br />Treatment of New Wood: <br />After the wood is cut, trimmed, drilled and ready to install, it needs to be treated to prevent deterioration and delamination. The product of choice here is CPES™ (Clear Penetrating Epoxy Sealer). The CPES™ will penetrate deeply, especially on cut edges, and prevent the wood from absorbing enough moisture to support fungal and bacterial activity. We recommend at least two generous coatings on all cut edges, and three coatings is better. The flat bottom of the sections should receive two coatings, and the top one coating. All drilled screw/bolt holes should also be treated with CPES™, and if you are applying self-tapping screws a puddle of CPES™ should be put on the wood before the screw is drilled in. The threads will drag the CPES™ into the wood as they penetrate. On new wood you can figure coverage will be about 250 sq. ft. per gallon of CPES™.<br /><br />This a link to that site: http://www.rotdoctor.com/glass/GLrotrepair.html#stringers <br /><br /><br />Here are some past Iboat forum postings:<br /><br /> http://www.iboats.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=26;t=003838#000000 <br /><br /> http://www.iboats.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=26;t=003664#000005

 

[swimmin' for shore]

Re: Preserving new wood in old Starcraft

That 1st link that ezloader posted above is fantastic. It's a lot of reading, but it'll teach you a lot and it's bound to save you some money.<br />If you are just going to seal the wood without fiberglassing(which is resin+cloth), I'd use epoxy. The epoxy vs. Polyester question is huge here, and it's been argued for as long as I've been aboard, and a long time before that, certainly. We'll probably still be arguing it out in years to come. Epoxy is the best sealer out there. It's more expensive. It's stronger, though, and generally considered waterproof. I buy my epoxy on ebay. It's cheaper there. By a 2 gallon kit on ebay for 70 bucks. If it isn't a "penetrating" epoxy, that link that you were referenced to will tell you how to "thin" it to better penetrate the wood. If you use at least 2 thin coats, you should have a stringer that will stand up to a lot of years of use.

 

[neebishis05]

Re: Preserving new wood in old Starcraft

EZ Loader and Swimmin for Shore.........thanks for your consistant advice on my wood question! You've convinced me that epoxy is the way to go. I wound up ordering my material from Clarkcraft.com. Their price was good, and they've been around for a long time. Thanks again guys for taking the time to steer me in the right direction.......much appreciated!!<br /><br /> Ken