Fiberglass Deck Repair Materials
This topic contains 1 reply, has 2 voices, and was last updated by 
-
Posts
-
Staring down at some deck repairs and seeking expert and experienced insight on a few items.
I appreciate deck repairs are described extensively elsewhere however I have very specific Olson 30 questions.
My initial plan is to repair using – to the extent possible – the original build materials and approach.
1. Any reason(s) to not do this?
2. Are current repair techniques and/or materials superior – in strength or durability – to the original build?
3. Original build is described as “final layers of mat and woven roving are then applied“. Does anyone know:
a. What kind of mat was used? CSM or another?
b. What orientation(s) were used for the woven roving? For example, I can observe the top layer – are the underlying layers (if any) rotated 90° or some other?
c. How many layers of mat and woven roving were used, and what thicknesses?
d. What type of resin(s) were used?1. No reason not to use the original materials. Depending on how much core you are replacing, using West System can be easier to work with but polyester resin is fine to use and in my opinion balsa makes the most sense for repairs since it’s what is there already.
2. The boat is well built and you will be hard pressed to improve on it. One obvious improvement is to pot any and all holes in the deck, to prevent water intrusion to the core. The boats were not assembled this way and they should have been.
3a,b,c. I don’t know
The laminate is about 3/32″. The deck is a bit under 3/4″ in most places, 1/2″ core and laminate top & bottom. It’s hard to duplicate this unless you are vacuum bagging the repairs, and if you can bag them, do.
3d. It’s polyester resin but beyond that, don’t know.
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.