Delamination

[EchoPilot1975]

I've got a 31' Westerly that I am restoring. This is my first boat and have had no experience with repairing delamination but I do have composite experience.

My question is, what's the best way to go about making the repair? It is two relatively small (8x8in.) spots on the fore deck where the bow railing beds into the deck. The hardware and base of the railing weren't bedded properly and from the looks of it has been leaking for a while since before I bought it this past winter.

From my research I hear its pretty intense to repair with cored decks but I haven't found anything on a fiberglass hull with a pressed fiberglass core rather than wood.

I'm hoping that since my core is just more fiberglass rather than some type of wood that it will be easier (and I use that term loosely) to fix.

Any suggestions, hints, or past experiences is greatly welcomed!!!

Thanks!

[AbaftAndBaffled]

Grind til' it ain't delaminated anymore and apply new glass! Even If it WAS cored, there's no saying it has to be again. We tend to replace those areas with solid glass whenever we do a repair like that.

The only problem that I can think of is that if it is delaminated, you might end up chasing the damage quite a ways. Might make for a whole lot of grinding and glassing.

[EchoPilot1975]

Thanks for the relief. I appreciate the help.

One more question though. Should the delamination be all the way through and I end up having to grind through the deck into the forecabin, how should I go about glassing a hole? Do I need to make a form with wood to put on the underside in the forecabin to have a foundation to glass up from?

[AbaftAndBaffled]

Originally Posted by EchoPilot1975

Thanks for the relief. I appreciate the help.

One more question though. Should the delamination be all the way through and I end up having to grind through the deck into the forecabin, how should I go about glassing a hole? Do I need to make a form with wood to put on the underside in the forecabin to have a foundation to glass up from?

You should be able to salvage at least the last layer of glass and the grinding should rough it up enough for the new stuff to adhere to. You probably won't need support to glass any small holes but if you're having trouble you could just tape some cardboard to it from the inside, glass on it and remove the cardboard once it kicks.

[roverhi]

These are very small sections. You could just drill holes in the deck on about a one inch grid, apply a heat source like an electric heater underneath and dry out the core. Once dry, inject epoxy into the holes and Bob's your uncle. I'm assuming that your core is rot proof, otherwise not balsa or plywood, and the frp deck laminate has just detached from the core.

I would also rout out the core around the fasteners for the pulpit and any other hardware in the area. Use a Dremel 199 bit in a Dremel tool to rout out the core then fill with epoxy thickened with West Systems 404 or other non compressible filler. This will keep the fasteners from compressing the core and seal out any possibility of water intrusion.

[AbaftAndBaffled]

Originally Posted by roverhi

These are very small sections. You could just drill holes in the deck on about a one inch grid, apply a heat source like an electric heater underneath and dry out the core. Once dry, inject epoxy into the holes and Bob's your uncle. I'm assuming that your core is rot proof, otherwise not balsa or plywood, and the frp deck laminate has just detached from the core.

I would also rout out the core around the fasteners for the pulpit and any other hardware in the area. Use a Dremel 199 bit in a Dremel tool to rout out the core then fill with epoxy thickened with West Systems 404 or other non compressible filler. This will keep the fasteners from compressing the core and seal out any possibility of water intrusion.

I don't recommend that at all.. I see these sorts of patchwork repairs all the time. You might save a little time and effort but you're not doing your boat any favors. For the cost of the epoxy you can just as easily get glass and resin and gelcoat and do the job right.

[EchoPilot1975]

I'm kinda leaning toward taking the time to do it right just to make sure that I don't have these issues coming back up. I actually have a good amount of 105 and 206 West system so completely sanding the areas and rebuilding the delaminated spots won't be a big deal.

Do either of you have any experience with doing osmosis repairs? If you do, I wouldn't mind picking your brain about that.