1978 15' tir-hull hole in hull

[sandollar1978]

Hello, I hade a crack on my 1978 sandollar 15' tri-hull on the bottom of the hull. I fix it by sanding it a little bit and placing new fiber glass it work for about 3 months but know it crack even more. I think it crack because i did not sand it down to the fiber glass! So this time i sand it down to the fiber glass thats why the crack turn in to a whole know!! So my question is do i need to fix this problem inside the boat to? Our just place some tex foam and put new fiber glass?? I dont realy want to open up the inside of the boat to fix the out side the floor is realy strong and just installed new carpet. any help would be great!!

 

[tmcalavy]

Re: 1978 15' tir-hull hole in hull

Cut an access hole in the floor over the damage, sand it down inside and out, feathering out towards the edges. Fill with epoxy resin and cover inside and out with epoxy soaked cloth or mat. Sand that down and recoat with epoxy. Then sand and paint the outside. Oh yeah, you can stop a crack by drilling a small hole at the head and tail, where it starts and stops...or so I've heard. then install an access hole cover. Then you're good to go.

 

[Solittle]

Re: 1978 15' tir-hull hole in hull

Pictures would be a big help.

 

[JasonJ]

Re: 1978 15' tir-hull hole in hull

You do not have to go through the floor. It sounds like the hole is fairly small. I had a 1x8ish gash in my hull and here is how I fixed it:<br /><br />I got some epoxy and cloth, and thickener for the epoxy. I ground the damaged area out around two inches all around in a way to create a dished effect. I thickened some epoxy and applied it in the gash itself, then layered epoxy saturated cloth, each layer larger and larger to fill in the dished area until flush with surface. I did not care about appearance so that is where I left it. It has been very strong, and never leaked. Just make sure any areas you apply the epoxy is very clean, that is what makes it not stick is if it is dirty of dusty. You could probably get away with grinding your damage and applying Marine Tex. Good luck....

 

[sandollar1978]

Re: 1978 15' tir-hull hole in hull

Thanks for the help, what I did is I sand it down to the fiber glass and filled the hole with marine tex, then tomarrow I'm going to put fiber glass over the marine tex. I hope this will work this is my second time to fix this problem. Thanks again for the help!!!<br /><br />How can I upload pictures to this web site??