Hairline cracks in fiberglass hull

[swimmin' for shore]

OK. I'm in the middle of my resto, and I've come across what I thought was just craze cracking. There are hairline cracks all over the place on the boat hull. Most are fairly small, and like craze cracking, they go in all kinds of directions. Some of them seem to have spread a little bit and are somewhat wider. <br />I knew when I bought this that the boat would need sanding and repainting. I started sanding the hull in a few spots, specifically on these cracks. I figured that they might actually sand down just through the old gelcoat and then clear up by the time I reached the fiberglass. They seem to extend a little deeper, though. First of all, is this still craze cracking that I'm looking at? Second of all, and most importantly, how do I fix it right before repainting???

 

[cc lancer]

Re: Hairline cracks in fiberglass hull

Is this the Mark Twain listed in your profile?

 

[swimmin' for shore]

Re: Hairline cracks in fiberglass hull

Indeed it is. Have one? Tell me about the 160 hp merc that's in it, too.

 

[cc lancer]

Re: Hairline cracks in fiberglass hull

My friend, Mine has the 200HP straight six, what a sound when that thing is running. Now for the bad news, M/T used some poor quality gel-coat during their production run, and I have seen 5 where the entire hull had the cracks. I am waiting till I pick up another boat to put the engine and O/D in.<br />Your entire boat will have to be sanded down till you get near the glass, or have sanded out all the cracks. I hope you have a good compressor and D/A sander, and air file.<br />Next several coats of good primer, and D/A with 220, then paint with a good quality paint.<br />There is nothing bad I can say about the boat, it is a strong well built boat, but all I have seen has the gelcoat cracks.

 

[swimmin' for shore]

Re: Hairline cracks in fiberglass hull

Thanks, CC. I knew about the gelcoat, even before buying it. Honestly, I paid 300 bucks for the boat. There's 70 original hours on the 160 hp straight 6. It's gorgeous. The guy didn't even know if it was running so I purchased it for his minimum price(ebay) and flew out to Illinois and moved it to my dad's place. I just brought it back to Washington, after buying a dodge in IL, also. When we'd gotten it down to my dad's, though, we turned that motor over and it started up without a flaw. Started, and idled. It really purrs. The floor was out, and I've redone it already. I glass it in today. As for the paint, I'm looking at Imron, but I can't deny that the price is a bear. I have the sander and compressor, and had already bought a load of sandpaper, so I was prepared for this. Thanks for the info., though. I generally spend a lot of time studying each boat out, and even more time learning about them after the fact. I've learned the history of the boat, ownership, how to repair them myself, etc...All said and done, I'm having the time of my life-whether I can still afford to eat or not.

 

[tengals123]

Re: Hairline cracks in fiberglass hull

swimmin, that's the spirt and i bet you do a good job too.<br /><br />cheers

 

[Boatdrinks]

Re: Hairline cracks in fiberglass hull

Yeppers...food is a luxury not a necessity! Now boating projects...THERE is the necessity!

 

[swimmin' for shore]

Re: Hairline cracks in fiberglass hull

There have been a few days when I really could have given up on it...the day I cut through the hull with my rotozip diamond blade.....finding out that the gelcoat was cracked all the way through and not just on the surface....breaking off the bolt in the steering wheel and then boring out the hole when I went to drill another hole for a screw extractor...I'm still sticking with it. The floor is down and seamed, the upholstery is down to about 3 pieces to rebuild. We did the engine cover last night. I've replaced all of the wood backings for the upholstery, changed the colors from blue to burgundy and Ivory cream, and epoxied all of the backing pieces before upholstering. Thank God for a roommate who can sew. I'll figure out how to post pictures when it's done, although I'm already beyond the point where I can take pics as it was originally. Another month or so of 8 hour nights, and it's going to be perfect. I'm going to put up another post to ask a couple of questions here and try to find out some information. Thanks, guys, for the answers about the crazing.

 

[tengals123]

Re: Hairline cracks in fiberglass hull

swimmin, i did the same thing with the cut hull.<br />cheers