Need fiberglass information

[starcrafttom]

As many of you know I had a deck installed on my 05 22 cruiser. This was a molded deck I got from the factory. I had Lake union Searay do the install. I did this to have my 05 match the raised floor of the new boats coming from the factory. I really do like the deck and it allows my feet to stay dry while I fish,crab,shrimp,etc.

While I like the deck I was not always happy with the install. The floor flexed at the cabin wall and the joint was covered with a badly applied caulking of I think 4200. Well today I finally found the time to remove the caulking and expose the joint. What I found was a gap between the rear cabin wall and the new floor that was partly filled with glass resin ( I think) but was not even with the deck. The glass that connected the wall and the deck was a 1/4 inch shy of being even with the deck. The 1/4 inch space was filled with calking. The glass was also cracked across most of the width of the floor, thus allowing the flex that I was worried about. I hope I am making this clear.

So after cleaning out all the caulking and sanding the edges I mixed up some West marine Structural filler. Now this stuff is full of glass fibers. Looks like a lion throw up a hair ball in a can and they closed the lid before it could run away. I back filled the gap with the filler to just shy of even with the deck and waited for it to harden. Which it did in short order. This stuff really sets up fast. It bonded the crack and floor to the cab so well there is not longer any flex in the floor at all.

So now I am ready to top the gap off with a bead of 5200 fast cure and shape it like I would a bath tub caulking. But then I got to thinking about how well the structural filler did and it being sand able. So my question is can I color this stuff to match my deck or can I cover it with gel coat and do any of you think that the gel coat would last. i would not have thought of it this way but after seeing all the flex go away I got to thinking and that can be a hazard. So any advice???

 

[Sea Wolf]

Tom-

That filler sounds like nasty stuff that may be hard to work with in a finish application, and I think you'd do better to fill the gap with Marinetex instead. It can be tinted with a universal tinting kit compatible with epoxy resins.

No need to use a flexible filler/bonder like 4200 or 5200 if the joint is rigid. They can't be sanded or made to look "flat" and as finished as other products.

Marinetex is an epoxy product,similar to Bondo, but for marine use and made with an epoxy resin. It's filled with glass fibers, very strong structurally, comes snow white in color, and will accept the tint kit, though you'll have to experiment with getting the amount of the various tint colors right to match the tint of the off-white CD hull.

You can fill it slightly over level, then sand it down and buff it up and polish it out, and it will look almost as good as if you re-gel coated it, which is a more complex process.

At least that's how I'd do it, given the situation you've described.

Good Luck, and when you're done, go catch some fish, bud!

Joe. :teeth :thup

 

[starcrafttom]

Well I got the job done and it looks good. I used a different product then marine x based on advice from west marine empolyee ( they sell both) Can't remember name of the product I used but its very similar to the marinex just with more flex. I was told that marine x is very brittle. I did not color the mix to match but will do so later after I see how well it holds up. Or i may gel coat the whole thing and sand it in. should be able to spot chips with the grey color against the white floor.. Fishing tomorrow so will see if it holds up.

 

[thataway]

Time will tell if your filler will continue to work. The floor should not have flexed in the first place. The proper way to secure it to the bulkhead, was to run glass tape over both the bulkhead and the floor, there would have been several layers, blended into the bulkhead and deck and then gel coated. There may or may not be perment adhesion between the filler you used and the bulkhead (depending on how well it was cleaned, and roughened. Secondary fiberglass bonds are no where as good as primary bonds, even using tape. I would not gel coat it currently, since it may crack down the line.

One of the problems with Marine Tex, is that it will yellow (change color) with the UV light. It is an epoxy and eventually there will be some degrigation from the UV.