deck delamination

[AnneP]

I am in the process of restoring my 32' Choy Lee and one of the issues I have run across is delamination on the deck. I am told the only way to fix this is by drilling and injecting epoxy, however I don't know how deep to drill and how far to space the holes. I think that it has already been done once, but I am not for sure. I don't believe that my delamination is caused by freezeing as my boat has always been in the gulf of Mexico and Caribbean.
Any thoughts on this would be welcome.

Thanks Anne

 

[SBTOM]

Re: deck delamination

Well I'm not sure about injecting the epoxy, but in terms of finding getting to proper depth, you could try getting a 2$ stop collar from McMaster and just inching up to it.

http://www.mcmaster.com/#8865a13/=5xi3ff

I'm sure someone on the forum will know how to go about this. Good luck

 

[Bondo]

Re: deck delamination

I am told the only way to fix this is by drilling and injecting epoxy, however I don't know how deep to drill and how far to space the holes.

Ayuh,... 1st thing to do is, get under the decks,+ brace the supporting plywood up against the fiberglass skin...
Then, just drill through the skin, No more...
The houseboat I'm doing seems to be working out with 4" centers, though 6" centers might work....

 

[erikgreen]

Re: deck delamination

Fixing this depends on a few things:

1) What the structure of the deck is... what's the core, what shape is it in, etc (assuming it's a cored deck)

2) What caused the delamination


If the core has gotten soaked and is wet, it's going to be almost impossible to dry, and the preferred way to fix it is to replace the core. If it's dry fiberglass on a dry (eg) balsa core, then you can try flowing in epoxy to fix it, but there's no guarantee that you'll get it completely repaired. Really, the right way to fix it is to open up one side of the laminate, remove/expose the core as needed, replace it as needed, epoxy the core down, epoxy glass back over it, and fair it all.

I've seen only a couple examples of delaminated cores that were defective from the manufacturer or broken by intensive use and therefore could be fixed by flowing epoxy in... all the others I've seen were rotten/broken and needed replacement.

Erik