will this work

[wanderingcwboy]

i'm new to the boat scene, and i have read page after page of to treat or not to treat marine or exterior. but one thing i did read is about a way to seal play with resin catlyst and acetone to soak it deep into the wood fibers i read that "the soup" as they call it will not only waterproof the ply but also add to the rigidity of the wood but still be somewhat flexible. But i would love to have your "all of you " thoughts on this process and the longivity of it thank you in advance

 

[tallcanadian]

Re: will this work

not sure about the soup, i've never used it. i used kiln dried 2x4 and 2x6 for my stringers, soaked them in resin, then installed and glassed them to the floor. for the deck i used marine grade 3/4" plywood and soaked the underside in resin and and glassed the upper side. and the transom was used with marine grade plywood, 2 plys, one 5/8 and one 3/4 to make up the original thickness. just my two cents worth. good luck.

 

[drewpster]

Re: will this work

The mix you are referring to is Resin that is normally kicked with MEKP, then up to 10% acetone is added to it in order to thin the resin and help it penetrate the wood fiber. It is a good idea to coat any piece of wood with thinned resin prior to glassing over it. The thinned resin will do nothing by itself and should always be glassed over with resin and fiberglass. The main reason for pre-saturating the wood is to prevent the wood from soaking up resin. If you lay wet fiberglass cloth over dry wood there is a chance the resin will be soaked into the wood and out of the fiberglass. This will leave dry areas of fiberglass and a weak layup. If you pre-saturate the wood with thinned resin it will prevent the wood from soaking too much resin.
It is never a good idea to depend on polyester resin alone to seal the wood. The wood fiber may seem sealed well but polyester resin will crack and let water in unless fiberglass is used with it.
Epoxy resin is a completely different system. Epoxy can be used alone in some instances. However if epoxy resin is used with fiberglass cloth over wood it is still a good practice to pre-coat the wood before the glass goes on.
In either case I highly recommend at least a thin layer of cloth be used when trying to seal wood from water intrusion. The added insurance is well worth the cost of the fiberglass.

 

[wanderingcwboy]

Re: will this work

Thank you for the info. i'm sure i will have many more questions when i completely redeck my lil toy. and for those interested i just bought a '77 Baja Tri16 with a '77 140 johnson TL77 it has a pyle 4 speaker marine system and a three year old bimini top. The trailer is a taylormade with HD bearing and bearing buddies and all working lights. And all this said the price was probably wrong at $700

 

[freddyray21]

Re: will this work

on bare wood I lay down a wet layer of resin then put my mat down and wet it out then cover that with cloth and wet it out. Gives a nice smooth finish and I used a wallboard knife to smooth it all out and get the air out.