Repair Advice

Repair or modification of Boston Whaler boats, their engines, trailers, and gear
TommyWhaler
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Repair Advice

Postby TommyWhaler » Tue Dec 24, 2019 3:59 pm

[Separated from a thread begun 15 months ago on a completely different topic. Do not revive old threads and then change the topic. Just post a new topic—jimh]


[Seeks advice] in replacing some of the wood on the underside of the deck plate covering the fuel tank cavity of 1973 21' Outrage.

[Seeks advice about] Smith and Company's penetrating epoxy sealer.

Thanks
Tommy

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Don McIntyre - MI
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Re: Advice

Postby Don McIntyre - MI » Tue Dec 24, 2019 4:25 pm

Q1: What area of the tank cavity lid are you concerned about?

Q2: The edge where the mounting screws are located?

Q3: The fuel gauge area?

Q4: The area where the fuel hoses (both the fill hose and the hose for the engine) exit the tank cavity?

Regards - Don

TommyWhaler
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Re: Repair Advice

Postby TommyWhaler » Thu Dec 26, 2019 2:54 pm

Don--

[Apparently in reply to Q1: The area of the tank cavity lid that I am concerned about is] on the underside of the [tank] cavity [lid]. There is an approximately 4-inch lip around the entire [lid].

[The lid] is glass over the visible plywood. I removed most of the glass, but some of the plywood is splintered from water damage.

I want to repair and re-glass that wood.

Q5: How can I make sure the area is level before I [apply a resin or] glass?

Q6: Can I remove all of the loose wood, then add some sort of filler to even out?

Q7: Would penetrating epoxy work?

Thanks,

Tommy

NLA01
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Re: Repair Advice

Postby NLA01 » Thu Dec 26, 2019 3:17 pm

[Recommends to] remove the wood and fill in the area and level using epoxy with cabosil or silica.

Clean [the area] the best you can and remove all bad wood.

Sand [the area] all with course grit sand paper.

Make the filler like peanut butter thickness, level out the best you can, sand down, and glass over with epoxy. As long as you are not replacing too much wood and not too much filler is used. [the repair] should be fine.

If you [intend to use] a lot of filler, then other [repair] methods are better.

Use slow cure to help [the resin] penetrate the wood and surrounding area. Penetrating epoxy is not meant to be thickened; it is for sealing not structural repair.

If you have [the area] level and you're trying to raise [the level], it would better to add fiberglass layers. [A repair like that] would be much stronger than filler, which does not have very much structural strength for its weight.

Filler is just that, a filler. Even small pieces of glass would be better than filler.

If you are sealing bare wood, penetrating epoxy is the way to go.

Q8: Is this for the underside of the deck ?

Q9: Or the deck support on the boat?

--Archie

TommyWhaler
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Re: Repair Advice

Postby TommyWhaler » Thu Dec 26, 2019 3:48 pm

Archie. thanks for the reply.

[Apparently in reply to Q8, the repair is for] the underside of the deck.

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Phil T
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Re: Repair Advice

Postby Phil T » Fri Dec 27, 2019 11:01 am

Tommy - Keep in mind there are many members that frequent more than one Boston Whaler owner site. Dual threads often result in less advice.
1992 Outrage 17
2019 E-TEC 90
2018 LoadRite 18280096VT
Member since 2003

jimh
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Re: Repair Advice

Postby jimh » Fri Dec 27, 2019 11:59 am

TommyWhaler wrote:[Seeks advice about] Smith and Company's penetrating epoxy sealer.

Your mention of this product is the first time I have heard that product name. Based on the sole-source retailing of the product, the prices are quite high. The developer seems to be extremely proud of his product.

I can understand using a boutique product to preserve some wooden and decaying architectural pediment that is historically significant, but to seal a random piece of plywood used as underlayment on a boat deck, a boutique epoxy product seems a bit expensive.

Wooden boats built with WEST System epoxy have survived for 50-years of immersion in water, so I don't think there is any reasonable basis to consider that WEST System epoxy won't seal wood from ingress of water. WEST System has product application engineers that can answer any question about using their epoxy resins. If it is sufficient to build million-dollar yachts, I would expect it will be workable for a small piece of plywood.

Generally epoxy resin is an adhesive. If an epoxy resin is formulated in a low viscosity mix, then by the nature of the lack of viscosity, it will flow into and penetrate into porous materials like wood. Epoxy forms such excellent bonds with wood that two pieces of wood joined and adhered with epoxy typically cannot be separated; the wood itself that is not part of the bond area will tear apart before the bond between the wood pieces will part.

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Re: Repair Advice

Postby jimh » Fri Dec 27, 2019 12:08 pm

So many questions--nine so far--are asked in this thread I have numbered them to help organize the answers. If you are replying to answer a specific question, please indicate the question you are answering with its number.

Please do not use "it" without first identifying exactly what "it" refers to.

Using "it" five or six times in a reply, often to mean different things, makes comprehension difficult and also significantly reduces the chance that a search would locate the information. No one searches for information on the term "it"; people search for specific nouns not generic pronouns. If you want your contribution to have information value, avoid using "it" excessively.

Thank you.
--jimh, Moderator

jimh
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Re: Repair Advice

Postby jimh » Fri Dec 27, 2019 12:14 pm

TommyWhaler wrote:[Seeks advice] in replacing some of the wood on the underside of the deck plate covering the fuel tank cavity of 1973 21' Outrage.


For a lengthy, detailed, profusely illustrated article on the topic of replacing the wood reinforcement in the fuel tank deck cover of a Boston Whaler boat, read the REFERENCE article on CONTINOUSWAVE at

Under-deck Repairs
On a 1985 OUTRAGE 22
by Jeff Rohlfing
PART ONE

http://continuouswave.com/whaler/reference/outrageRestore.html

and

OUTRAGE RESTORATION--PART TWO
by Jeff Rohlfing

http://continuouswave.com/whaler/reference/outrageRestore2.html

The detailed descriptions and illustration of the work done, using WEST System epoxy, should provide some of the advice you are seeking, and may also give you new ideas about what other projects to start while the fuel tank deck cover is not in place during its repair.

Good luck with your project.

jimh
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Re: Repair Advice

Postby jimh » Fri Dec 27, 2019 1:15 pm

TommyWhaler wrote:I want to repair and re-glass [some particular] wood.


Your use of "glass" may be from "fiberglass". You seem to use it as a noun and a verb.

"Fiberglass" as a noun is generally considered to be a plastic fiber laminate structure bound together with a resin. In fiberglass lamination, a polyester resin is often used as the adhesive for the materials in the initial lay-up and curing. But for repairs and for better water resistance, epoxy resin is a better choice because it is stronger, is completely water resistant, and will reliably cure to a hard finish with exposure to air, unlike polyester resin which will not cure well if exposed to air.

"Fiberglass" or "glass" as verb must mean using resin and plastic fibers. It would be helpful if you could be more specific about that you mean by "glass."

My inference from your use of "glass" as a verb is to mean that you want to seal some particular wood with a resin sealer. Epoxy resin is an excellent resin to use for sealing wood. It is extremely strong and is water proof. I recommend you learn more about epoxy by reading the literature from WEST Systems. See

WEST System Instruction Manuals
https://www.westsystem.com/instruction-manuals/

in particular see

Fiberglass Boat Repair
& Maintenance

https://www.westsystem.com/instruction-manuals/

WEST System and the Gougeon brothers pioneered the use of epoxy in boat building about 60-years ago. Their products are used in many boat repairs.

jimh
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Re: Repair Advice

Postby jimh » Fri Dec 27, 2019 1:22 pm

Regarding using epoxy to make repairs to boats (like a Boston Whaler boat) that was originally laminated with polyester resin, I recommend you listen to my interview with Jim Watson of WEST System which I recorded back in 2000--egads that is over 19 years ago. Visit the WHALER RADIO archives at

http://continuouswave.com/whaler/radio/

The interview is in two parts:

Part 1: http://continuouswave.com/whaler/radio/media/westPart1.mp3

Part: http://continuouswave.com/whaler/radio/media/westPart2.mp3

I think you will find very good information that is applicable for your request for repair advice.