fiber/wood restoration project

[irishbailey86]

I have a 13 ft deep v fiber with wood skeleton beam and framework and wood transom...small trailer boat. too big to be a cartopper in my opinion....mid 50's or 60's i think transition period from wood to fiber....only one sticker is visible and it reads three of the letters in large writing..PEN . rest is faded....either penn yan or PENSYLTUCKY i fear...lol j-k. long story short got it cheip with an evinrude 9.9 on it . I want to make a full restore on it for pulling copper on Seneca . I want to re-fare the hull and fix some holes and dings and weak spots that a dumass' filled with epoxy and made a mess of it.System two or three quick fare is what i want to use but i need help to clean and prep the hull first....what steps should i take to clean it and prime it for application....other than obvious pressure washing and geting it down to clean fiberglass?.....thanks for any input

[Trap Jaw]

cleaning the big chunks with a pressure washer is a good start. Then you need to wipe down any areas that need work with acetone.

[irishbailey86]

acetone!....thanks guy....might seem like simple B.S. but ive never done a boat restore before and this is my learning curve....last thing i want to do is spend alot of money on finishing products only to waste it because i didnt prep the surface right.....thannks. my next phase will be to chose a paint and clearcoat product to have sprayed on with an HVLP gun by one of my buddys that paints cars. another area i have no experience in, chosing the right kind of hull paint and clearcoat to finish a thirteen foot boat with without breaking the bank...

[Knotlost]

First before you do anything access the water content of the existing fiberglass. You need to be brutaly honest here. With a glass boat of that age, normaly they absorb water, once that happens then you cannot stop the impending destruction without drying it out, and thats almost impossable.

If its just a cheap im going to fix it any way, the best solution is to sand down to the glass and use an epoxy resin and cloth and make the tradition repairs. Epoxy will over come most problems with "sticking" . Sand to glass and whipe it down with alcohol or acitone and then use epoxy. Urathane resins will not work anywhere as reliable on this project.

Do not use car urathane clear coat! It will come off in sheets if you do! Go and buy the paint (its a one part urathane) made for boat hulls below the water line. You cannot cut the corners and come away unscathed. I know a guy who repainted a jet ski at an auto body shop, and the first time out the whole clear coat came right off in a sheet! It works above the deck but not submerged, it needs to dry off occationaly and can not be left under water for hours at a time. You can use the role and tip method of painting these paints and it will look very professional and you will save alot of money in paint as it will all go on the hull.

US composits can help with the "stuff" and you can talk to there tec guy he is a real expert on these things.

[irishbailey86]

ive gotten two other good reports on us composites....gona callemup. thanks!