Stringers finerglass strong wood gone

[31scorpion]

Hi,<br />My Stringers are now totally hollow (stronge fiberglass, but no wood left)I got all the rotted wood (wet mulch) out with an electricians drill bit, now they are totally clean and hollow and ready for??(most of the floor is still in the boat). maybe a few gallons of resin and resin filler reinforcement (glass powder) or some kind of mix?? 25' of stringers. one crazy idea I had was fiberglass rebar(20' sections) soaked in resin and slip them into each stringer end, and keep adding until nice and tight and full of resin and fiberglass rebar.<br />Thanks for any HELP

 

[jfholijr]

Re: Stringers finerglass strong wood gone

www.transomrepair.com<br /><br />This stuff can be used in stringers also.

 

[31scorpion]

Re: Stringers finerglass strong wood gone

Yep<br />i talked to transom repair.com and they said it's pretty "thick" stuff and it might not go down and fill it totally, the stringers were 3/4" ply, and 1 foot tall and 25' long. The resin seemed "thinner" and would flow into the cavity with some help though, thats why the idea about the rebar,how about cloth mixed with the resin and jamed down with a long rod? sounds bad.

 

[wallbanger2]

Re: Stringers finerglass strong wood gone

I would go with the Seacast. If you don't feel secure with that then I would cut out the existing stringers after making a pattern of each one. You could then cut new stringers out of the same 3/4 ply and reglass them in. Good as new this way.

 

[Bondo]

Re: Stringers finerglass strong wood gone

Well,<br />Unsupported Resin, Polyester, or Epoxy provides absolutely No Strength.... So That's Out....<br />The Fiberglass Rebar sounds Interesting......<br />I haven't come accross that before..... Is it an extruded fiberglass bar ???<br />How Much would enough to do your boat Weigh ????<br />If that Is what they Are... I see Many possibilities, with some thickened Epoxy....

 

[jfholijr]

Re: Stringers finerglass strong wood gone

you are probably going to have to totally remove the floor to do a decent job of repairing your stringers. Then it will be easy to use the transom cast for your stringers.

 

[crab bait]

Re: Stringers finerglass strong wood gone

i'm with you BONDO... <br /><br />it tweeked my curiousity...<br /><br />but still mite risky as per flaws that can't be seen..in the pack & stuff.. <br /><br />but interestin' none-the-less..

 

[JasonJ]

Re: Stringers finerglass strong wood gone

Since the floor is still in, is there any way the boat could be tilted up on one end, and the Seacast poured? I would think it would fill the stringers in that manner, but thats a lot of Seacast. You could have replaced the entire floor and stringers twice for the cost of enough Seacast to do the job. The rebar thing sounds interesting, but I would think the same challange of getting resin down the entire 25 feet would still exist. In the end ripping it all out and glassing from scratch would be the sure bet. Good luck....

 

[31scorpion]

Re: Stringers finerglass strong wood gone

Thanks for all of your suggestions,<br />OK<br />Because i am the king of the "cart before the horse" theory i just "foamed in" the boats liner on the walls to give it some stiffness THEN found the bad stringers.(yes sad day) floor is in for good.(sorry for me)<br />remember they are nice and clean cavities.<br /><br />My original crazy idea (no rebar envolved) was to cut 1/2" ply in 3ft x 11 3/4" tall like chicklets, with a few layers of 24oz. roving soaked in resin and hammer them down the wetted pipe, then fiberglass a new 1/2" plywood piece saddled along the side of the stinger that i can see.(then cover with 24oz.) <br /><br />I have used a hole saw to cut 21/2" holes along the top part of the sringers about 6 inches apart. The rebar is 1/2" dia. extruded fiberglass rebar. the only reason i like the rebar idea is that I am sure i can get it down the pipe the ply might get stuck then the nightmare will never end. oh i can say that if i started jamming cloth and resin in the holes i pretty sure i can get good consistancy of fill, but if no stength then i won't do it.<br /><br />I feel i am getting to the best way out of this trouble, thanks for helping.<br /><br />The guys at Transom repair told me that the product is a polyester resin as well with pink hardener (colored for mixing consistancy) with glass additives and is a slow curing mix.<br /><br />thanks for your help again!

 

[JasonJ]

Re: Stringers finerglass strong wood gone

It sound to me like as long as you can put plenty of rebar in, and you have all those holes along the stringer tops, that you should be able to ensure the stringer voids are full. I do know that if you went the Seacast route and poured through all the holes that you would definately have a good result. Don't know how the rebar/ resin pour would go. I don't like the thought of the chicklet idea, they could get stuck, and you also wouldn't have nearly the strength of whole ply sections or Seacast. How many stringers are there?

 

[Boilermaker]

Re: Stringers finerglass strong wood gone

I may be WAY off base here>>>BUT what about a heavy weight closed cell foam??? Isn't that what they use in the new boats>>>Fiberglas Stringers filled with Foam????

 

[31scorpion]

Re: Stringers finerglass strong wood gone

Yes,<br />I was thinking about the Foam option. I even found 16lb.foam,(hard as a ROCK) and I talked to U.S. composits.com they said it would be an option. There would be no problem filling it up with pour foam. "Stiffness" over a long span seems to be the difference from a Resin product and Foam.<br />"Man oh man" i took a look at the Transomrepair.com site they have a video that is so funny... 2 farm boys working with the polyester Resin product no gloves no respirators, so crazy. The Transomrepair.com seems to be useing a 50-50 mix of long fibers, some filler powder and a slow cure resin mix. I reason i can't use there product is that i have 20 gallons of Resin sitting in my warehouse, just waiting to be used. The long fibers mixed in to the resin look incredibly strong.<br />thanks for the help again.<br />Hey jason, i saw your boat. nice pics

 

[SCO]

Re: Stringers finerglass strong wood gone

I had the same empty fiberglass stringers, and cut off the tops of the fiberglass stringers leaving vertical slots. Then I epoxied new stringers into the slots and screwed the sides of the fiberglass stringers to the new wood. That part may have been overkill(the screws) and I had to drill pilot holes through the fiberglass to get the screws through on much of it. It came out real solid, and did a good job of attaching the stringer wood to the hull which is the goal of encapsulating the wooden stringer. If designed for wood stringer, the fiberglass by itself may not be strong enough to fill with foam. Than again , maybe it would work.

 

[alloffroad]

Re: Stringers finerglass strong wood gone

I was thinking you could cut the top off of the hollow stringers and them fill them with seacast. You could then glass over the top and be done. This would also let you remove any bits of wood that might be left over.

 

[redfury]

Re: Stringers finerglass strong wood gone

Seacast would work, but would be messy trying to get it into the void for the length of it. Pourable foam ( 16lb ) would be easier, and if you cap off the stringers with a decent strip of fiberglass, all should be good.

The idea behind the stringer height is only for floor support for the most part. The length and number of them is for linear support to keep the fiberglass hull from flexing and cracking. If your stringers are fiberglassed all the way down the length hull, not just tabbed in, then the strength is in the fiberglass more than the wood..the wood was there to form the fiberglass over when they built the boat...you just can't take the wood back out.

That's my knowledge of stringers up to this point from the research I've put into them over the last year.

 

[arty007]

Re: Stringers finerglass strong wood gone

found this on a diferenr site this guy is bad... im gonna try to do my stringers this way fiberglass and foam means no rot.. takes a while to load lots of pics and reading..enjoy

http://www.bloodydecks.com/forums/check-out-my-boat/119625-22-5ft-complete-restoration-8.html