Herter's Yukon Rebuild

[thinepa]

I'll start with the fact that I'm a newbie to the boat build and glasswork world, but I've been doing quite a bit of research and am beginning my first rebuild project.
I was given this fiberglass Herter's Yukon - it's about 15' LOA with a 55" beam. I noticed the boat always seemed to have just a little bit of water in the bottom and have decided that I'm up for some fiberglass work, so here it goes!
The boat will be used mostly for fishing on inland lakes and near short excursions in northern Lake Michigan, and I'd like to have it for years to come - something I'll be able to take my son out on as he grows up.

Here's my gameplan:
First: remove the rotted wood seats and open the bases to get whatever is in there, out. I'm a little curious to see what's in there. Whatever it is, I'm guessing it's pretty waterlogged.
I'm thinking of putting some flotation foam into the bow and 3 underseat compartments (a total of about 18cu ft) - maybe with a combination of chopped up pool noodles and urethane pour foam, then glassing the entire thing in to help prevent even the potential of waterlogging the foam.

I know I'll need to re-glass some areas below the waterline and am planning on using epoxy resin with a 7.5oz glass mat. I've also considered using 1708 glass mat, but am wondering if the CSM layer would be affected by use of epoxy - I understand CSM and epoxy don't mix too well, but I really don't want to get into multiple resins if possible, and I'm not planning to gel-coat the boat.

My paint plans:
I know that's a long way off, but as of now, I'm thinking about using herculiner (gray) for the inside of the boat and painting the outside with a rust-oleum bottom side marine paint. Something like this: https://www.rustoleum.com/product-ca...ifouling-paint - in black.

In the end, I'd like to put a couple of removable raised platforms in for casting - something like this would be ideal:
http://www.listedbypete.com/boat.htm
I'm not planning on doing the whole console thing - just the platform. Thanks Pete (whomever you may be) for that idea.

I'm looking for any advice you may have if you've gone through a similar build. What type of products would be ideal, keeping in mind that I'm not trying to spend a fortune - I know I'll never recoup what i put into the boat, but I'd like to keep my house too.
Is 1708 fiberglass cloth overkill?
I've also considered completely removing the sidewalls of the seats to make it a bit easier for me to re-glass the entire interior of the boat, but is that overkill? Should I just re-glass the soft/cracked spots?

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[thinepa]

Well, I cut off the tops of the seats, and found a bunch of waterlogged cardboard and cotton-like fabric. It seems that they used corrugated cardboard to make the forms for the fiberglass seats, then used the wood seats on top for support. Unfortunately, there were no Honus Wagner baseball cards or copies of the Declaration of Independence in there...

Here's what it looked like inside:

 

[ondarvr]

So that everyone is on the same page terms wise, the 7.5 oz glass isn't mat, it's cloth, the 1708 isn't refered to as mat either (although one component of it is), CSM is mat. These are very common terms that get intermixed and confused at times, not a slam on you.

Epoxy will work with mat, especially on the 1708, the issue is it's not needed, so you end up using more epoxy to wet it out, which will drive the cost up dramatically.


Yes, use only one resin, whichever one you go with won't make huge difference in the final product.

Some of these types of boats were made very thin and can benefit from an additional layer of glass, but for us there's no way to tell from a pic.

You could use some type of bed liner for the interior, but the good ones are very heavy and costly, the cheap ones aren't any better than paint, but cost more.

You don't need any special paint for the outside of the hull, just some plain old rustoleum will work fine, adding hardener makes it better.

 

[thinepa]

Thanks ondarvr! My concern with using a non-epoxy resin is the need to seal it in order to achieve a full cure. I'd think the hill paint should allow for full cure, but am not 100% sure on that.
As for the mat/cloth terminology - like I said, I'm a newbie. Thanks for your clarification.

 

[ondarvr]

It will all cure fine no matter what you do, don't let that part of it concern you

 

[thinepa]

I'm pretty sure I'm overthinking this, but now I'm rethinking just what fiberglass to use. There are some structural hull cracks, which I'd like to repair, then I'm planning re-glossing the entire interior.
Any suggestions for repair fabrics - Is a layer of 1708 adequate for repairs? The repair thickness is about 1/8-3/16 in.
As for the re-classing of the interior, I'm thinking a layer of 18oz woven roving - just to give a little more strength.

 

[Woodonglass]

1708 with polyester resin would be more than adequate to reinforce your hull.

 

[DeepBlue2010]

No need for woven, go with 1708 in both cases, repair and reinforcements.

 

[thinepa]

Excellent. 1708 it will be. I have a world of sanding ahead of me first. I'm working on cutting down on fiberglass dust in my garage and am using the shopvac hose next to my sanders/grinder, but I've seen attachable dust shrouds - mainly for use when grinding concrete. Wondering if anybody has any experience with using these on fiberglass boats? Seems like it's really make my life easier.

 

[Woodonglass]

You can get filter bags for your shop vac

http://www.lowes.com/pd_33192-20097-9067311_1z0x55i__?productId=1083199&pl=1

and you can make a 12" x 24" cardboard dust collection box and put the end of your hose in it to enlarge the capture area. Set the box on the discharge side of the grinder and most of the dust will be sucked into the box and the vac hose. The bag inside of the shop vac really helps save the vac and the filter. Also taping an AC Filter to the back of a couple of box fans can help hold down on the dust too.

 

[thinepa]

I'm about to start sanding and I'm noticing that there is water (I'm assuming) in the bottom of the boat, and my boat has been in my garage the entire time. I first assumed there was a leak in my roof (though I've never seen one), so I dried up all of the water, then put a box down inside my boat. To my surprise, the top of the boxes remained dry, but there was water under the boxes again! I really am not sure how this can happen. The boat is 100% fiberglass and there was no water in the boat when I left it. The only thing I can think of is that if there's water between layers of fiberglass on the bottom of the boat, or the skeg is somehow full of water. Any thoughts on what might be happening?
If it is coming from the skeg, am I looking at cutting it all open to dry it out completely, then re-glassing that too?

 

[thinepa]

Sanding/grinding has begun, and I found that at least some of the water was trapped in a crack in the fiberglass - it was sealed in with flex-seal from the outside.

 

[thinepa]

I decided to strip the boat down to bare hull and really start from scratch.
I'll be using a 24 grit "red resin" fiber disc on my 4 1/2" angle grinder to grind down material and get as smooth a start as possible. I'm thinking this'll give enough purchase for epoxy to adhere.
Once I'm there, it'll be time to fill holes and cracks in the hull. The holes I've cut were to remove already cracked fiberglass. I'm guessing I'll have to cut these out further to form some sort of an oval with tapered edges, then apply layers of fiberglass & resin to rebuild.
I'm wondering if it'd be any better or worse to just fill the cracks with thickened epoxy (cabosil), then overlay with fiberglass cloth before sanding smooth and re-glassing the entire hull.

Any thoughts on these 2 options? Most of the hull repair videos I've seen are on oval-shaped, and I have a decent understanding on how to tackle them, but I've never seen repairs on cracks in fiberglass.

 

[thinepa]

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