hole in bottom patch didnt work

[jnylund]

Hi, I have a small hole in the bottom of my 96 gti seadoo, we patched it over the winter using fiberglass, and it looked really nice. Today I took it out for a short run to test it out and the patch seems to have completely fallen off. Any tricks, suggestions, what I could have done wrong?

thanks
Joel

 

[pickle8486]

did you grind out the old spot past the gel coat into the fiber glass? prep work is everything for fiberglass. plus for structure work dont use gel coat, use epoxy or polyester resin and a little matting.. i prefer west system epoxy but its more expensive. epoxy resin will stick to polyester and epoxy resin but polyester will not stick to epoxy, just polyester. thats why i like epoxy.

 

[jnylund]

Hi thanks for the info, I didnt grind it out, but the hole was down the stuff under the gel coat already.

We just used regular fiberglass and hardener and some of the fiberglass mesh cloth stuff, we dipped the cloth in the solution and laid it on the boat, we did several layers of this, then waited about 4 days and sanded with 80 grit sand paper. Felt hard as a rock with my knuckles. (my friend that fixes corvettes helped me, this is how he does cars, maybe this is not the right stuff for boats, but he says fiberglass is fiberglass)

So now I guess I will try again. Im a beginner at this stuff can you explain where I get the stuff you are talking about. I have seen lots of people talk about marine-tex, I ordered this a couple days ago: http://www.buzzillions.com/reviews/marine-tex-mighty-repair-kit-reviews. What is this in relation to expoxy resin, gelcote and fiberglass?

So what is epoxy resin and where do I get it?
(is this the right thing? http://www.jamestowndistributors.co...d=3760&familyName=WEST+System+105+Epoxy+Resin)

Should I put that into the hole first, make it smooth, then do what I did above after that? What will prevent it from falling off again?

Are there any books or videos out there for dummies like me that I could follow? (boat hull repair for dummies)

I live in northern va, also if there is any suggestions on where I could take this also to get fixed, maybe im in over my head....at this point, I love working on it, but its summertime and I want to ride this baby!

thanks
Joel

 

[ski-d00]

Where is your hole?

Holes in the hull where it flexes alot are very difficult to patch. On difficult holes, it will take lots of reinforcing to essentially keep the patch from flexing. Preparation is very important and matting on both sides of the hole as well so that the patch is trapped. Many times it will be a noticeable patch from the outside but is necessary.

Fiberglas is fiberglas but boats are way different than cars, but I guess you found that out.

 

[jnylund]

Attached is the picture of the hole its on the bottom side almost to the bottom, in the middle of the boat. I dont know how I would get to the other side on this one.

 

[pickle8486]

yeah thats a pretty sensitive area there, it will be always recieving contact from sand, or the bunks on the trailer. grind down the edges, if you can reach the inside grind there also and bevel the edges both inside and outside to form a slight "v". use a disposable paint brush to spread the resin lay on the first layer of cloth over the patch, spread more resin over the cloth and so forth. this might take a couple applications and curing times, always, always remember to rough up/grind the surface. plus if there is delamination in that area(seperation of layers of the original fiber glass), choose which section would be easier to cut out, grind out and layer that aswell, if the delamination isnt taken care of, this will reoccur again and again.

the west systems items you showed is what i was refering to. if you are unfirmilar with the amounts of resin versus activator the pumps dispense the correct amount in relation to one another. this will make it easier for you.