what kind of material is under the headliner in the cabin?

[GrafLuckner]

I am repairing a 1981 C1; a branch punched through the cabin roof in 2008. The outer fiberglass is punctured, the headliner has been punched down and the whole cabin is full of the pinkish/white filler material that is between the headliner and the outer fiberglass skin.

I intend to restore it to the same way it was, rather than ripping out all headliners and all the filler. But I am not sure what that filler is. Is it merely epoxy with microballs? It feels somewhat like a hard foam. Or is it a sprayed on foam? Is it need for structural purposes? or for insulation?

any advice is appreciated,

DrD.

[GrafLuckner]

this a link to the images of the damaged cabin, clearly showing the pinkish filler material.

[skip1930]

Typically a plywood hard point glassed into the structure of the cabin top.

Looks like a mess. Gonna take some resign and clean wood to fix this.

skip.

[GrafLuckner]

Thanks for the suggestion skipper. The filler material does not seem like it has any plywood in it; it feels like a hard foam, or epoxy with a filler.

I was wondering if I could use the spray on foam you use around doors and windows in home construction to fill gaps; just to fill the space. But if the boat needs microballed epoxy to make the cabin roof structurally stronger, that idea would not work.

[skip1930]

To be honest I did not read your 'Help' post carefully enough. I mistakenly thought that the area of concern was simply the hard point for the tabernacle. My mistake. Looking at the picture it sure looks like one of the larger CP-offerings. Maybe a 27? Just a guess.

There is still a hard point to be dealt with after the headliner restoration. The damage may be fore or aft of this hard point.

DrD...What is a ---> "1981 C1;"  <---   A 'Mark I' what? "
Is it a Com-Pac 16, 19, 23, 25, 27, ect? The Boat Number embossed on the Transom might be helpful.
My number goes something like this;    HUTC  ABV 00588 B696    Is there a compression post under the tabernacle? Or is the mast supported with an arch, port to starboard, deck to deck?

1~Call the factory. Talk with Rich Hutchins. Have the boat VIN ready. If he is at a boat show call him on his cell. He makes himself very accessible.

2~This might be an 'XL' [but not if it's a MkI] with a one piece fiberglass cabin liner starting below the port hole windows with a horizontal flange, up over and back under the other side of the ports. This adds a bit of thickness to the cabin vertical bulkheads and there for the port holes are nearly flush with the outside of the cabin., and not sticking out and this construction has a decorative wood facade on the inside of the cabin. My CP-19 is an XL, no wood.  

3~Send off a couple of pictures to Rich, and post here too. Nothing like, "Holding it closer to the phone so he can look at it."  My guess is a factory slurry of microballons and an epoxy resign chop-gun sprayed on as the cabin sat, upside down in the mold after being hand lay-ed and manually rolled down into the female mold using 2-1/2 oz fiberglass woven glass cloth impregnated with an epoxy resign, this whole woven layer is over a sprayed on 'gel' coat and then the entire build is cured for three days in the mold. [I use to shoot Dune Buggy fiberglass bodies with a chop gun, not as strong as a hand lay-up job using woven cloth.]

4~I'm thinking that a slightly different look is going to happen during the repair stage, but the wooden battens shown in the picture can be re-manufactured reattached with screws, and finishing washers to carry on with the factory original intended look.

5~It's interesting that the fiberglass 'gel' coat outside on the cabin's top flexed enough to break these wooden battens, how come I don't see daylight through the 'hole'?

6~Preparation is everything. It's 90% of the job. Glassing it in is easy. I'd think about using a Milwaukee Saw-z-All and a few blades to cut out the offending section. A firm but flexible 1/16" plastic sheet material, cut to size, really well buttered up [waxed, waxed, waxed] on the repair side and screwed into the good part under the area of the removed battens and conformed to the inside of the cabin is sounding pretty good right now. Then a goop of rolled out epoxy resign, then the impregnated 2-1/2 oz woven glass cloth, and more epoxy mixed in with microballons to build up to the required thickness on top of the glass cloth and a good long cure. Microballons are used most as a core that will not absorb water, unlike other manufactures who use balsa-on-edge as a core with glass on both sides and once their 'gel' coat is cracked water is sucked up by the balsa filler. Not good.

7~What your going to end up after removing the plastic form with is a non-textured inside surface that you can't hide. So sand her down and spray the whole cabin inside with a automotive trunk textured medium grey using a few 'foo-foo' spray cans. I think that would be pretty close for the inside. Or glue on some carpet like on the inside of the hull's bulkhead like on my CP-19. And then screw on the wooden battens. My decorative horizontal battens on the inside of my hull, over the carpet, are fastened to vertical wooden battens fiberglassed onto the bare hull typically covered with carpet.

8~The repaired outside of the cabin must be sanded and painted down to some common, good looking stopping point. Maybe the deck. Sorry no existing 'gel' coat anymore.

skip.

[millsy]

Hello Graft,

From looking at the photos this looks like the inside laminate skin for the cabin top that has fractured away.  The green foam is a low density keligicell or similar.  The pinkish stuff is probably the spray-applied thickened polyester putty that they used to stiffen the cabin top in lieu of balsa core- which normally is an advantage because there is no wood to rot in the cabin top and decks (there is some stacked plywood in the cabin top below the mast step however).  You might want to think about using Keligicell throughout the repaired area of the cabin top.

This is not going to be an easy repair, what with grinding and fiberglassing overhead.  I suggest repairing the outside fiberglass first, and then to avoid having to fiberglass upside down, flip the boat over

Chris
C-23 Dolce

[GrafLuckner]

Thanks for the in depth advise gentlemen. The boat is a 1981 C-23 (I think it is the first generation so that would be "C23/I"? as they are currently on "C23/IV"?). Hull number is ABV00140M81H.
The tabernacle area is fine, it just has the darn hole in the roof. And I guess I just learned from you that I need to fill it with microbaloons since the roof needs that core for structural support - like when you stand on it.

thanks

Dr. D.