deck coring

[67hat34c]

i have some hollow spots in my gunnel, also the rear pillar going from gunnel to bridge has lost its coring. was considering drilling hole and pumping in plain old boat yard polyester resin. any thoughts?

 

[Trojan]

If you really wanted to do it that way. I would use that new version of get-rot. It has a type of water dispersant in it that will make it flow and go where the other stuff will not. There is a thread on here on the stuff from about a year ago. It also has another name. Maybe another member will remember the name.


BILL

 

[REBrueckner]

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but unless others can post some easier secrets here is what you face. Any voids I have ever found have had water intrusion and worst of all, dirt. Any dirt prevents a good bond and further water can enter any voids.
The only solution I have found is to cut the void open, perhaps with a dremel and clean the interior. Then rinse with a solvent like acetone to aid subsequent adhesion.
Further, git rot and equivalents are epoxy and should not be mixed with polyester. In general, epoxy has far suiperior adhesion characteristics as long as dirt is removed. I'd use epxoy of any type, not polyester. If required you can thicken it with fillers. Coating old surfaces with liquid epoxy mix, then completing the void fill with thickened epoxy (before the liquid coat drys) maximizes adhesion.

 

[Akyla]

Bruecker is correct.

Your gunnels that are rotted need to be filled with something more than a lot of resin or there will be zero strength. I did mine last season and it really isn't that big a project, just takes some time over a few days to do it right.

You will have to cut the top out of the area that is rotted. Use a router with a very narrow bit and you can take the top layer of glass off in the area you want to fix in a few minutes . Dig out all the rotted /water soaked balsa and clean the area up, rough sanding or grinding the backsides of the glass if needed. I used cousa panel and some glass as the new core, but you can use balsa again if you want. Using west sytem or any other good epxoy, slap it all back together with the original glass back on top. Try and get it to be as flush as possible with the deck as it will save you some time fairing it. I used dive weights sitting on top of some release cloth to hold it all together until it set.

The comes the time consuming part of filling and fairing the top deck of the gunnel until it is smooth and true. This will take several passes to make it perfect and go a long way to the final finish looking it's best - a long board helps for the final sandings. Now just prime and paint it with your favorite color of awl grip (Hatteras White of course) and it will be as strong and good looking as new.

Now put the rod holders and hardware back on, properly bedded this time, and it will last another 25 years... Only problem is the freshly painted gunnels will make you want to do the whole boat.