I am really horrible at fiberglass repair. Need some advice.

[Mattlikesbikes]

This is the last little bit I need to repair before I run a bead of 5200 over the deck/hull joint and put the boat in the water.   This was my second time using fiber glass cloth. The first was on the other side and it went fairly smooth. But this time was bad. Basically I used 206 hardener and the temperature did not get above 60. I had a hard time wetting the cloth out and had air pockets.  I ended up ripping every thing off and sanding what I could not get up down.  

I am thinking at this point just use some thickened epoxy and just filling it in. I pretty much used this method for all the other bad areas but they where not as bad as here.  

I have 405,406 and  407 filler's I also have Marine-Tex which I am gong to use in the area above the joint.  What do you guys think will filler be sufficient to repair this ?

[MacGyver]

That top part just needs some gelkote to be honest, you could use the marine tex on that (My PO had done that one mine in a spot and it seemed to hold up fine in the UV so you should be fine for a while on that)

The seal should have some pieces cut to fit in there, and then wet each piece on a piece of plastic then lay them in there. sand and fill with filler agent of choice (407 would sand better by hand.)

I wish I had some videos I made uploaded for you, but my internet upload sucks and normally during the uploads they closed out incomplete and frankly I got pissed off big time trying.......
I made the vids to try to help you all on the forum here using jobs I got at work as examples (my co workers thought it was really odd me video taping my work, LOL)

Anyway, the air bubbles can happen even to the best of us. Drill and fill with filler and they will be fine since the mains structure is there. At 60 degrees you have a outrageous amount of time to work with 206, unless you mix outrageous batches of the stuff....

IF YOU NEED: store the resin and hardener in a cooler, lined with plastic maybe just in case you get drips, or use a cooler you dont care about, and put in a treble light (the old 60 watt bulb kind) and the heat will warm up the resin and hardner to a more easily pumped and wetting liquid. it also mixes with fillers easier.
You could even warm in a oven, at like 90 to 100 degrees...... I have never done that because I did the cooler with bulb trick. and at my work that is what I have setup to warm mine through the winter, and to be honest it gets pretty hot sometimes.....

They say you can heat the 105 in the microwave short 5 second burst..... but my wife would kill me if I did that, and I never did that at work because that is where my food goes.......

To also help with keeping things in place during cure, use 2 inch masking tape to cover it all up, when it is cured, peel off the tape and your repair is where you want it. I do that all the time on filling through hulls, and big patches, or helping to form curves to reduce sanding......

I hope some of the above helps you, It is all stuff I have picked up over the years. I keep video taping work I do in hopes to upload it all and give you all something to check out........ You will see it on the forum when it happens.

Keep up the good work!
Mac

[Mattlikesbikes]

Hey Mac thanks for the info.  Do you think mat would be better then cloth for this? I don't have any but can get some before the weekend. I also really like the idea of wetting the cloth out on some plastic first I am going to try that.   With the 206 if the temp drops below 50 at night will I still be ok. I have been working on the boat after work so I only have about 3 hours of daylight. What I was reading is the curing will stall until the temp comes back up and then finish is this correct?

To be honest I made a mess the last few weekends figuring out what do with the epoxy.   Between using marine-tex in the cockpit for filling screw holes and figuring out how much filler to use in the epoxy for the seam repair it was not pretty and not level (sagging)  But by the second go around I added enough filler so it would not start to run/droop and was able to level everything off which really does not matter since the rub rail will be covering it anyway


Thanks again

[MacGyver]

Do you think mat would be better then cloth for this? No, cloth is fine, just cut it down to smaller size
I don't have any but can get some before the weekend. I also really like the idea of wetting the cloth out on some plastic first I am going to try that. The plastic can also be used to set the patch, you can then still see somewhat where it is positioned and such. it will peel off after the cure due to plastic mold release agents, and such. I use heavy mil plastic at work constantly with that 2 inch tape   
With the 206 if the temp drops below 50 at night will I still be ok. Yes, it isnt a issue, only a problem if it gets wet because water will remove some hardener (water soluble) from the mix which affects the mix. It can only be fixed by wiping with Acetone several times to remove the uncured resin, then sanded and some new applied
I have been working on the boat after work so I only have about 3 hours of daylight. What I was reading is the curing will stall until the temp comes back up and then finish is this correct? That sounds right to me, I will use it in a lot of temps at home, but never at work like that because I have a reputation to uphold at work, and dont want to chance it there. At home I do tests and screw around, and have filled as low as 40 degrees in the shop, and it worked.... took a lonnnnnngggggg time though.

To be honest I made a mess the last few weekends figuring out what do with the epoxy.   Between using marine-tex in the cockpit for filling screw holes and figuring out how much filler to use in the epoxy for the seam repair it was not pretty and not level (sagging)  But by the second go around I added enough filler so it would not start to run/droop and was able to level everything off which really does not matter since the rub rail will be covering it anyway It can always be sanded off, and only in time will you grow to know what it needs to achieve a certain thickness. you can use sticks to dose out amounts into your mix, that helps, also test after thourough mixing by holding the stick up with a large glob on the stick, it will immediately show you how it is going to act. This will train your eye to how it will respond.

I hope the glow is helpful..... I havent used it before I dont think.....

ALso here is a web link to help you out with some articles if you havent checked them out already.
http://www.westsystem.com/ss/how-to-use/

And this place has good PDFs for some things, great explanations.
http://www.clcboats.com/shoptips/epoxy_and_fiberglass/

Mac

[Mattlikesbikes]

My second attempt did not go so well. It is just a bad area for me to get all the air pockets out. I ended up pulling the cloth off.   I did get a few tiny bits of cloth to go in the low spot where the 5200 is poking through.
I think I am just going to fill it in and revisit it next year if there any issues.