Does Flex-Seal come in 55 gal drims?

[gm280]

Does anybody know if Flex-Seal comes in 55 gallon drums? :facepalm:

Hello again folks. It has been a very long time since I've been here on iboats forums. And I had some really good reasons for not being here as well. In May of this year (2014) my wife had a stroke in our front yard while we were out working in the yard! And that changed life as we know it for a long time! Without going into all the long details, she is near 905 to 95% back to normal now! So I decided that my old tri-haul boat needed to be completely now. So I got out my angle grinder and some 80 grit flapper disks started grinding out all the old fiberglass and rotted wood in prep for new glass and a complete new rebuild style. However, in doing my grinding, and that is a huge dirty long job for anybody that has never tried it before, I was doing pretty good until my first Uh-Oh came. Yes the Uh-Oh of grinding through the haul. I was initially worried and then thought that I've read so many others making Uh-Oh's with their grinding efforts, so it didn't worry me as bad. My Uh-Oh's did continue though! And while I was thinking a was getting better at grinding, it seems towards the end of that grinding effort (about 20 to 30 true man-hours involved over a week or so) I made more in the last few hours then in the beginning. Maybe grinder burn-out

 

[Bondo]

Does anybody know if Flex-Seal comes in 55 gallon drums? :facepalm:

Hello again folks. It has been a very long time since I've been here on iboats forums. And I had some really good reasons for not being here as well. In May of this year (2014) my wife had a stroke in our front yard while we were out working in the yard! And that changed life as we know it for a long time! Without going into all the long details, she is near 905 to 95% back to normal now! So I decided that my old tri-haul boat needed to be completely now. So I got out my angle grinder and some 80 grit flapper disks started grinding out all the old fiberglass and rotted wood in prep for new glass and a complete new rebuild style. However, in doing my grinding, and that is a huge dirty long job for anybody that has never tried it before, I was doing pretty good until my first Uh-Oh came. Yes the Uh-Oh of grinding through the haul. I was initially worried and then thought that I've read so many others making Uh-Oh's with their grinding efforts, so it didn't worry me as bad. My Uh-Oh's did continue though! And while I was thinking a was getting better at grinding, it seems towards the end of that grinding effort (about 20 to 30 true man-hours involved over a week or so) I made more in the last few hours then in the beginning. Maybe grinder burn-out

Ayuh,..... Glad to hear the Wife is doin' Ok,....

As for yer over grindin',....
Yer gonna be layin' glass, just cover yer mistakes alittle thicker,....

 

[Woodonglass]

Welcome Back!!!
Hope the Admiral keeps improving and I know your boat restoration skills will too!!!

 

[GT1000000]

Hello, gm,
Glad to see you back around these parts...
Thoughts and prayers for a full and complete recovery for your wife.

No worries on the grind through... I lost track of how many high speed water inlets I created when tackling my hull...by the time you get some glass laying going on, they will become nothing more than a distant memory.
All the best,
Gus

 

[gm280]

Ha Bondo, Woodonglass and GT1M. Thanks for your replies. I figured the refinishing fiberglass work would probably take care of all the Uh Oh's I made. Amazing how long it takes to grind such easy to grind material though. And I guess that IS the reason for the grind through's as well. I was equally amazed how sloppily they build that boat back in 1976. The amount of delamination was unbelievable. Looks like they allowed waxed polyester to cure and then tried to install the floor and deck material without sanding the dried surface to even try to remove the wax finish. So many areas were not attached but merely laid on top each other. Scary for sure after seeing it.

I do have another question for a memory refresher, been a while now. I know to use exterior grade plywoods for the rebuild efforts. After looking at the available plywood around my area. I see they are now selling a plywood called "White Board". It looks amazing with the number of plies and the smooth plug and void free surfaces. However, I can't find out of that white board is exterior grade or not. Do any of you know? Thanks for the replies and have a wonderful day. You just never know what can happen an any time... Hope to get rolling again now. Still taking everything a little slower now...

 

[Woodonglass]

Cheap, BAD STUFF. Delams bad, and does not use good glue. Stay AWAY!!!! That's my opinion!!!

 

[gm280]

Ha WOG, thanks for the info. I actually though t it was too good to be real. I guess I'll use their BC grade exterior stuff, being that is all they carry locally. Have the transom and two of the side stringers patterned out already with cardboard, waiting for the plywood to start making actual cuts... Have a wonderful day!

 

[gm280]

Does anybody know how far the polyester resin soaks into exterior plywood? I guess what I'm actually asking is, if I use 3/4" exterior grade plywood and cover it with polyester resin and of course the fiberglass clothes, has anybody actually cut through such and seen how far the resin soaks in? More curious then anything else. :decision:

 

[jbcurt00]

Does anybody know how far the polyester resin soaks into exterior plywood?

Not as far as you'd hope or expect........

There's more then 1 Topic that has this type of discussion in it. Usually comes up in Topics that start w/

Can I, or how much do I, thin poly/epoxy resin?

But to the best of my knowledge, nobody has done any destructive testing or micrometer measurements of absorption depth into plywood for poly or epoxy resins on iboats. I suspect the data may be out there on the net somewhere and Ondrvr could probably give you the info based on his professional experience. WOG too for that matter, so if he doesn't reply soon, hit WOG w/ a PM to reply to this Topic....

And, IMO, any posted 'tests' by iboater's won't be in strictly controlled environments w/ detailed parameters that would make the results repeatable nor that would yield results that would translate accurately to the real world where we're all working in widely varied environmental temperature/humidity conditions w/ various plywood from various sources.

 

[Rickmerrill]

I was thinking "not as far as you'd hope or expect" too. I just took a picture of the ski locker cut out and to my eye you can't tell but here us what it looks like. Also look at the glue joints, no "soaking in". But as long as long as it adheres...

 

[Woodonglass]

Here's the deal. The resin Can't penetrate the plywood on the Flats any further than the first layer of wood laminate due to the urea glue used. It's the Edges that are important and any voids on the flats. These areas are where the resin can and will penetrate the best and the most. It's also the area where water will try to penetrat too sooooo you should really pay attention to doing a good job there. But, applying a LOT of resin to the Flats of plywood for the purpose of saturating it is... Pointless. NOT gunna happen except for that first layer!!!

 

[gm280]

WOG, I am a bit slow...okay basically stupid. But your info about the polyester resin only soaking into the glue between the laminates in any plywood makes complete sense. Why I didn't think about that is anybody's guess. But thanks for the info as well.

Here is a few pictures of my grinding efforts along the way. It has since been finished but there are some as the work proceeded. The red circled areas are some of the early Uh Oh's I made. I know my new effort to polyester the haul will cover them, but would you go over them with little patch fiberglass before recovering the entire haul first? It sound like a plausible idea, but never having done this before, I want to get other opinions from others about how they did their projects.



One of the stringer areas I went through trying to get the delaminate out! Uh Oh!



The center picture here was a patch the previous owner had tried after what seems like he hit something really bad... Not good at all!



As you can see I was pretty far along at this stage. It is totally finsihed now. But you can see the Uh Oh's I made in the red circled areas.

I have a previous project listing for the entire boat, motor, trailer, and trolling motor rebuild. However I did each segment as a separate project listing while rework each part. Should I go back to that original project listing or leave this as is and work from this listing for the actual boat build...anybody?

 

[Woodonglass]

Personally, I'd go back to the original project.