North American Fireball Message Board: Re: Fibreglass repairs

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Re: Fibreglass repairs

Posted by Dean G on 2/6/2008, 11:32 pm, in reply to "Fibreglass repairs"
66.183.152.3

Hey Colin,
Is this on your Laser or Osprey? Both are built using Polyester resin. You could use cold cure, but you would have a hard time putting a gelcoat finish over epoxy. Pry open the joints, make sure they are good and clean and dry. You can pour a small amount of acetone into the joint to remove any residue, moisture, or dirt. There are formulations of bonding agents that come in the handy caulking gun tubes, or you can mix up some resin with some fillers (microballoons and/or short mat hairs), and squeeze it in. With polyester (or even if you can get some vinylester resin), you can speed up the reaction by adding a little bit more (up to 4% total) catalyst. Give me a shout if you want any more info.
Dean

--Previous Message--
: My deck mould is separating from the
: hull mould in a few places along the
: gunwhale. The deck mould is
: designee to wrap over and around the
: inverted "J" shape of the
: hull mould at the gunwhale. This
: joint has come adrift in a few
: places and it leaks through this
: seam. What is the best way to
: repair? Do I just force it apart a
: bit, pour in epoxy and let it dry,
: or should I thicken the epoxy with
: micro balloons etc, so it won't all
: pour out, or will this weaken the
: bond, or is their a special adhesive
: I should use that will do a better
: job? Also, I have an unheated
: garage to work in so would prefer to
: use polyester resin rather than
: epoxy because I can put a heat gun
: on it and set it rather than trying
: to cure the epoxy. I know I could
: use cold cure, but I assume the rest
: of the boat is polyester, so surely
: it won't matter. Anyways, anybody
: had any experience with this
: problem. Thx.
: