Holes in the hull

Bob's post mentions release fabric or Peel Ply. It appears to be regular nylon "parachute cloth" type of fabric, but maybe it is something special. Any store with fiberglass fabric should carry it. It can be used to smooth out the surface of the repair, whether mat or cloth (I'd recommend cloth for anything to do with the hull).

Surface smoothness is great, but it might not be the biggest benefit. If the Peel Ply doesn't leave as smooth of surface as you want, a second coat of pure epoxy should fix that. Because the Peel Ply rips off the surface of the epoxy, the amine blush is removed. If Peel Ply isn't used, you have to sand the surface to remove the amine blush and get another coat of epoxy to bond. I used it in my hull repair shown in my photo album under "Balsa Core Issues."

Anything that eliminates sanding during fiberglass repair is money well spent.

Mark


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I still wash the surface after using any of the surface smoothing agents. For small repairs, I got a artists book of mylar 10 x 12" sheets. As Mark noted there are other substitutes for "peel ply", but I would be careful, because some fabrics have sizing compound or surface coating--others may stick. If you want to use other material (such as dressmakers' liner), check it on a sample.

Not mentioned previously--but I often do small adhesion and lay up projects to see what exactly I'll get with the materials, and also to do destructive testing. When we were building a boat, I did that fairly often, just to be sure that my technique was going to work well...
 
...he does not wear gloves. This is very foolish...
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I would agree. He sometimes does, then other times he doesn’t. I have no explanation. He will advise to wear a respirator in some videos, especially when grinding or sanding, but admits he won’t so the audio of him speaking will be recorded. I’m all about PPE, whether it be gloves, respirators, eye pro, ear pro...once it’s gone, it’s gone. I had a piece of metal in my eye once, despite wearing safety glasses. Never again, I hope.
 
When doing serious grinding or sanding, I wear a Tyvek suit with hood, mask with filters, and eye protection. Some of my friends who do this full time, use positive pressure breathing units, with air intake outside of the area where resins are being used.

I took care of some of the early fiberglass boat builders, and there were several cases of various forms of blood dycrasias, similar to chronic leukemias. The solvents, and catalysts in both epoxy and polyester/vinyl ester resins are toxic to the skin and respiratory tracts.

Generally if you are using large amounts, and can smell the resin--the respirator is not doing its job. I'll admit I don't use all of the precautions for a very small repair. especially out in the open.

For the respiratory tree--3M has a complete line. Masks start with half face (nose and mouth) to full face with shield---and avoids getting involved with goggles. This latter is the best. You want a respirator cartridge with black label (vapors and fumes)--or yellow--(Vapors, fumes and acids). The cheapest half face masks start in the $30 range, on up. The cheapest full face run in the $60 range all up. I would stick with US made gear. You want as good a seal as you have with a faceplate when diving; no air leakage.

Be safe.
 
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I realized that my family commitments for the month of December combined with my lack of work space made it really challenging to do this project correctly. The guys at the NMI had some concerns with the amount of material that was going to come out and how I would cradle the hull. So I talked to a few pro's and got some quotes over 10K and one under 5K. It was hard to decide to use the least expensive but still 25% cost of boat option, but I think it was the right thing to do for the longevity of the boat. We definitely weren't going to put 10-15 into it and at some point soon the hull was going to start to delam and blister.

One shop next to NMI helped me remove a lot of material and the under 5K folks took out the rest and are doing the job with polyresin, balsa, and new kiwi grip. The core rot was mostly from the rivets holding the panel in place, the port side was especially bad. The original core is two pieces of balsa, one 1" and one 0.5" The shop is going to use 0.75" and 0.5" and mat in between. They also roll the balsa over a drum and then put the resin on so that it soaks around the squares. I guess this guy used to use core where each square was surrounded in epoxy from the manufacturer.

I should have the boat back in a few weeks and I'm really excited. Wife got us a shrimp pot and very nice mooching reel and rod for Christmas so I have some other things to learn.

Now I'm going to start planning the Alaska bulkhead and other repairs (bow hatch seal, rub rails) for the summer.

Thanks for all the advice from the community. The West System website has really good manuals and online help!
 
Wow, you are really doing a great job bringing your boat back to better than new!

I used Kiwi-grip on my steel sailboat deck years ago and it held up fantastically for many years in Mexico, one of the best products around.
 
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