1972 Glassmaster questions

[Travis798]

Hi everyone. I bought a boat a couple of years ago and I'm finally getting around to doing a little bit of work on it, and have a few questions. I'm not very familiar with the "boat lingo" so I'll just try to explain everything as best I can.

The fiberglass floor had some soft spots when I got the boat, but I used the boat without problems after I purchased it for one season. I was on the road working last year, so the boat never hit the water.

Most of the soft spots/cracks are towards the front of the boat. The back end of the boat is solid, and the transom seems as solid as it can be. At the front of the boat, there was one area probably 8" x 8" or so that was pretty bad, so I broke it out to take a look at underneath the floor.

There is no foam in this boat. I can only see the middle stringer from the one area I took out, but it looks good and walking it out seems to be solid. The edges of the floor are as solid as a rock as well. Most of the damage is confined to 2 small area's, along with the wood the seats were attached to. It looks to me as if someone has stored the boat with the nose down so that all the water pooled toward the front of the boat instead of draining out the bilge.

I have taken the seats out and am planning on simply repairing the cracks in the fiberglass and getting it sealed off, then gluing plywood down to it and carpet over it. Would this be sufficient or is it just asking for problems?

As far as the fiberglass, I don't know anything about it but my stepdad has done a fair amount of fiberglass repair so I'll be learning off him. My only problem with that is that in order to save some money, he is thinking that can get a roll of fiberglass air filter material and use it with resin to seal off the floor. Would this work, or should I be buying the cloth that is made for this? I'm guessing the smart play would be to spend the money and buy the material that should be used, but you guys know more than me in these areas, so I will defer to those with more knowledge than I.

 

[BansheeVision]

Re: 1972 Glassmaster questions

Just overlaying the floor is a bad idea unless you have already placed an ad in the paper to sell it or plan to do so near mid-season.
There are numerous good threads here with detailed procedures on how to repair/replace a section of the floor, and replacing just the bad section would be easier and cheaper than overlaying the entire deck anyway. If you are looking to just stiffen her up for another 5 or more good years then beware the temptation of tearing out everything that is not perfect. (Yes people, some boats do not live forever). The fiberglass floor you are talking about is most likely a glass skin over 1/2" plywood. You can get a sheet of exterior plywood(don't feel obligated to use every bit of it, just what is needed), a tube of PL, some exterior zinc plated(galvanized) screws, and the glass materials to do the job for well under $150. Carpet and glue depending on the size of your boat can be done for around $75.

By air filter material I assume you mean the stuff furnace filters are made from? I have never heard of using this for what you are wanting to do, but I suppose it could be used for doing stuff like forming speaker enclosures and other things when used with regular glass material. I think the stuff is actually some kind of polymer(synthetic plastics). And all this time I have just been throwing them away when I could have been making some cool stuff!

 

[jbcurt00]

Re: 1972 Glassmaster questions

Burying a known problem and selling it on to someone else, in less then safe condition is not sound advice.

Some boats don't last forever, but that doesn't make it safe or sound to hide known defects and knowingly sell those defects as a water safe boat.

[EDIT: removed un-necessary info]

The likelihood of minimally invasive rot, localized to just the bow is unlikely, but its possible. You might try & find the dry weight of the boat, and see if you can determine how water logged it is before proceeding w/ any repair work.

Using air filter media instead of glass cloth & mat intended for epoxy or polyester resin, sounds like a great way to ruin a project, waste some time & waste quite a bit of poly resin or epoxy. The chopped strand mat intended for these purposes are coated w/ binders that dissolve in the resin & relax the glass fibers so that they follow the contours of material it is applied to. See West Systems CSM info page

Best of luck with your project, and everyone should spend a good bit of time going through some of the more helpful threads on repair & restoration.

oop's hull extension project thread has an index on page 1, helps find info you may be looking for.

Don S compiled some helpful info here

 

[Travis798]

Re: 1972 Glassmaster questions

Thanks for the replies guys. I have no intention of selling the boat. It's just a little 14'er that I bought on a whim a couple of years ago. The price was right even though it needed some work, and I'm just now getting into doing some of the repair work.

I did the engine work a couple of years ago, and did get one season out of the boat as it. The boat is solid, minus the cracks in the floor and the couple of weak spots.For the past couple of years it has spent it's life under a carport and out of the weather. My original intention was to seal off the floor and then plywood it, but I'm wondering if it would be better to simply lay new fiberglass over what is there right now. I mentioned the fiberglass filter stuff only because my stepdad was looking at it, but I was already pretty much set on the chopped strand mat.



This boat should really only be used to trotline with, with 90-100% of it's time being spent on a small lake where only trolling motors are allowed. I have another 16' boat to use for my other time on the bigger lake.

Basically I'm going to be lazy and run under the assumption that the stringers are solid and I just need to keep from falling through the floor. Would a new layer of fiberglass do that? If the stringers end up rotting out and I fall through the hull, I won't be in any mortal danger considering the size/depth of water I will be in, and this floor repair will be the bulk of the money that I have into the boat, so if everything goes horribly wrong, I still won't be too upset. Of course, if the runners are as solid as I think they are, I want to make sure that the floor will hold up for a long time. I'm just looking for the best way to accomplish a solid floor, with the assumption that everything else is good.

Yes, I'm looking to half-*** it due to laziness, but I'm wanting to half-*** it right. What I mean is I'm only going to fix one thing and assume the rest is good, but I want to fix the one thing in the best way. That just leaves me wondering if I should fiberglass/plywood/carpet, or if just fiberglass would be sufficient?.

 

[jbcurt00]

Re: 1972 Glassmaster questions

My advise above stands

 

[oops!]

Re: 1972 Glassmaster questions

notice something missing from this thread ?....
that will be the end of that conversation.

 

[oops!]

Re: 1972 Glassmaster questions

it is not uncommon to dig up a rotted deck and find more rot ...like stringers and wet foam...

here at iboats...we are all restoration junkins....thats why we say replace it all....lol

however...the statement above that we will advise a full guy and dump 2k into the boat is just not correct.

i would just cut the deck out where it is rotten...and replace it.

glass beneath it....and on top of it......done in a day.....no worries.

when using fiberglass......use the proper components....like csm an resin....or csm and roving.
make sure its fiber glass.....and not some furnace filter....that is just someone trying to re invent the wheel that has been time tested and is already cheap.

by the way....the filter will not work due to the amount of resin you will need to put in the filter to make it a solid panel...you would come away with a 99 percent resin ans 1 % glass ratio....

resin is very brittle on its own....the correct ratio is any where form 50/50 to 35%resin ans 65% glass

dont leave the old rotted deck in the boat...remove it....this is because the trapped "old deck" will rot 5 times faster, and you will condemn every piece of wood in the boat in just a few seasons.

cut out the rot.....glass in new stuff....

jb has given you some links to really food info....(most has been taken and condensed form the hull extension thread) but the first link willbe all you need to learn how to glass you boat properly....

here is another link, that can help you......it is about replacing a whole deck......but some of the procedures are the same as what you will be running into.

http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=522237

 

[rickryder]

Re: 1972 Glassmaster questions

notice something missing from this thread ?....
that will be the end of that conversation.

Thank you oops! It was givin me a migraine