West System Fiberglass Boat Repair & Maintenance - West System [2014, PDF]

Contents

Table of contents
1 Introduction
1.1 Typical fiberglass boat construction . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 WEST SYSTEM Epoxy for fiberglass repair . . . . . . . . . . 4
2 Repairing Minor Cracks and Holes
2.1 Minor crack and abrasion repair . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
3 Repairing Stringers and Floors
3.1 Reinforcing to improve panel stiffness . . . . . . . . . . 8
3.2 Repairing local core damage . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
3.3 Stringer repair guidelines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
3.4 Replacing active core sections . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
3.5 Replacing stringers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
3.6 Reinforcing to improve panel stiffness . . . . . . . . . . 14
4 Repairing Damaged Skins
4.1 Assessing and preparing the damaged area . . . . . . . . 19
4.2 Backing a repair patch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
4.3 Laminating a repair patch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
5 Repairing Core Related Damage
5.1 Repairing skin delamination . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
5.2 Replacing damaged cores . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
5.3 Repairing transom delamination . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
5.4 Repairing holed panels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
6 Repairing and Upgrading Soles and Decks
6.1 Repairing delaminated soles and decks . . . . . . . . . . 40
6.2 Installing a teak deck . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
7 Installing Hardware
7.1 Bonding fasteners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
7.2 Bonding fasteners and hardware . . . . . . . . . . . 46
7.3 Casting epoxy bases for hardware . . . . . . . . . . . 50
7.4 Making fasteners removable . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
7.5 Removing bonded hardware . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
8 Repairing Keels and Rudders
8.1 Repairing internal ballast keels . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
8.2 Repairing external ballast keels . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
8.3 Repairing a keel hull joint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
8.4 Repairing worn rudder bearings . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
9 The Problem of Gelcoat Blisters in Fiberglass Boats
9.1 Factors affecting blister formation . . . . . . . . . . . 58
9.2 WEST SYSTEM Epoxy for repair and coating . . . . . . . . . 61
9.3 Recommendations for the repair and prevention of gelcoat blisters . . 63
10 Hull Preparation
10.1 Evaluating blister damage . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
10.2 Minor isolated blister damage . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
10.4 Exposing and removing interlaminate damage . . . . . . . . 67
10.5 Special preparations for new boats . . . . . . . . . . . 68
11 Drying the Laminate
11.1 How dry is dry? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
11.2 Passive drying . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
11.3 Active drying . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
12 Repairing Blister Damage
12.1 Minor isolated blister damage . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
12.2 Extensive blister damage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
12.3 Interlaminate damage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
13 Barrier Coating
13.1 Preparation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
13.2 Applying the barrier coat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
13.3 Bottom paint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
13.4 Recommendations for blister prevention . . . . . . . . . 81
14 Final Fairing
14.1 Establishing a fair level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
14.2 Removing high areas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
14.3 Filling low areas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
14.4 Local fairing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
15 Finishing
15.1 Epoxy barrier coating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
15.2 Final surface preparation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
15.3 Finish coatings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
16 Using WEST SYSTEM Epoxy
16.1 Epoxy safety . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
16.2 Epoxy products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
16.3 Handling epoxy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
16.4 Basic techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Appendix A
Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Lofting foil shapes for rudders and keels . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Cold temperature bonding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Additional reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Appendix B
Estimating guides for WEST SYSTEM products . . . . . . . . . . 130
Epoxy handling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Appendix C
Applying fiberglass overhead . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Appendix D
Repairing machined holes in fiberglass laminate . . . . . . . . . 135
Appendix E
Problem solving guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Problem solving notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143