Tips On Sanding, Crack and Hole Repair

[Squints]

Hey guys. New to the forum and whaler world. Bought a 13 to restore. Got the boat for $100, so--as you can imagine--it needs some work. At this point in the project i'm looking for tips and suggestions on sanding the boat down inside and out and fixing some cracks and holes in the hull. I'll attach some pictures of the boat for reference. Any suggestions or help is greatly appreciated. And I am also not sure how to flip the pictures. Thanks --Matt

[quickenberger]

From my limited experience with the whaler I have and from the composites experience from previous boats, the best thing to do is remove all of the stuff that can be removed from the boat. Usually involves removing fasteners. Then you have to scrub and clean real well to see what you are working with.

(Some mentioned before that) you never pressure wash over a hull with lots of holes in it. That is good advice. You don't want to inject high pressure water into a hole left by a fastener. It can lift and delaminate the glass-to-foam bond and you now have more water intrusion.

First thing is to strip and clean really well. That will determine if you can get away with re-applying gel coat, or if you need to sand and paint.

Check existing holes for rotten wood or wet wood.

The way I see: if you are going to do a project, do it right. That way you don't have to re-do it later.

Hope that gets you started.

[Squints]

Thank you for the reply. I started removing everything tonight. [There is] more damage than I originally thought. I've got my work cut out for me. I'm in no rush. I don't need it anytime soon.

[jimh]

OFF-TOPIC: Yes, there is a big problem with the aspect ratio orientation for in-line images in HTML. Images which are rotated 90-degrees from the actual camera normal retain that rotated view. This seems to be an epidemic with users of the Apple iPhone devices. They seem to shoot everything in the portrait orientation with a camera that is actually a landscape aspect ratio. There is no way in HTML in-line images to alter the image file aspect ratio. Now, curiously, the Apple SAFARI browser on the iPhone is the ONLY BROWSER that compensates for this, so these images look right if seen on an Apple iPhone. But everywhere else, on any other browser they appear as they should, rotated 90-degrees, just like the camera was held when the images were taken. The only solution seems to be to open the original images in a photo-editing application, correct the aspect ratio, and re-save the images. The simpler solution is to hold the camera correctly when shooting, although that seems to be something the iPhone user of today has almost no chance of learning. Note that most browsers will automatically fix the image if you open just the image in a new link where it is not wrapped into HTML. The problem occurs when trying to view an image as an HTML in-line image. The image orientation always goes back to the original file orientation as shot in the camera. There is no simple or consistent fix for this. If there were, I would have applied it already.

[jimh]

Advice on repair of cracks is found in the REFERENCE article at

http://continuouswave.com/whaler/refere ... tions.html

To repair cracks, it is often recommended to widen and deepen the crack intentionally using some sort of tool or abrasive in order to give more surface area for the repair media to adhere.

Boats with many cracks may not be repairable with the one-crack at at time method. Boats like that are often given completely new top coats to cover the original gel coat layer completely.

Many prior discussion are on this topic. See

https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&sou ... gle+Search

[jimh]

Also see

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1984

[jimh]

You may find watching this presentation on youTube to be informative:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tZDBOYqdfA

[Squints]

Thank you for the help. i will look at all of the attachments.

I stripped everything from the boat with exception of the wood support rails for the seats and console. How do you get them off? Mine have what looks like wood plugs. I don't want to drill them out and mess something up[.] Thanks --Matt

[jimh]

The wood plugs are just that, little wood plugs that cover the screw heads of the screw fasteners. Use a sharp tool like a dental pick to extract the plugs. If that won't get them out, you may have to drill a small hole in the plug, thread in a small wood screw, and yank them out. When the plug is removed, there should be a screw head exposed.

[Squints]

got it. i'll try that today. thank you