Crazing around stanchion support

[carl170]

I have a GRP boat, which I am trying to restore.

There is a lot of crazing around the stanchion supports. If you flex them, you can see moisture coming out.

I am assuming I need to fibreglass underneath the support (once I have removed the stanchion and backing plate).

Is there a special way to do this? Do I use CSM or woven?

How do you get rid of the crazing? Is there a product which will fill in the gaps once I have cleaned them out.

Also, I am not too sure if the deck actually has a gelcoat, as it just looks like plastic to me!. Is there anyway to find out?

Sorry if this sound a bit amateurish!

Thanks for any Help

Carl

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[surekandoo]

Did a similar job myself last year & it was first time for me too!

I used a proprietory repair kit from a mail order chandler's catalogue. I ground all the damaged area out with electric drill and burr wheel, did a coarse fill with epoxy/chopped strand/silica mix. Then finished off with the gel coat.

Mine was particularly difficult because the gel coat was pale blue, and I had great difficulty matching the colour exactly. I used thin acetate sheets held down with masking tape to get the smooth gloss finish on the gel coat.

Cosmetically the repair's not dead perfect but I was satisfied with the result.

If you make a cock up you can always grind it out & start again! Remember as Del Boy says "Who dares, wins!"

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[jleaworthy]

You might have quite a problem here. If your decks are of sandwich construction with a balsa core (the water coming out suggests this might be the case) you probably have severe delamination. If your boat is a Westerly that's almost certainly the case. If so you will need to remove the sodden balsa core from around the stanchion base by cutting out the underside grp layer of the sandwich and replacing the core either with marine ply or with a solid layer of reinforced epoxy. It's a big job - I hope I'm wrong.

<hr width=100% size=1><P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by jleaworthy on 11/02/2004 17:34 (server time).</FONT></P>

 

[carl170]

This sounds just the job!. Where did you get the kit from? Do you really have to grind the whole lot away?

I have had a look under the stanchion support and assume I just dry them out, then epoxy some support underneath (from the inside of the boat!) to stop the flexing. I then intended to just fill over the top with some type of fillerand replace the rubber under the stanchion.

I was then going to drill out the holes through the new fibreglass and put the whole lot back together.

How can I tell if it is gel coat? The deck seems a solid layer of plastic to me. I have had a look at the sides of the cabin (it is all one piece), and it seems to be made of two layers of plastic (with nothing in between).

Does this sound right?

Thanks again for your comments! Keep 'em coming!

Carl


<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by carl170 on 11/02/2004 17:53 (server time).</FONT></P>

 

[StugeronSteve]

What's the boat? I had a similar problem with my last boat (Dehler) because the stanchions were set directly into a moulded toe rail. Any slight flexing of the stanchion would cause some gel crazing and, as she was a trailer sailer, people would hold onto them as they climbed up. There was no lamination failure, it was simply a matter of gel coat coming tight up to the posts.

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[Mhvoiceuk]

I'd be interested in the name of this kit too, or the name of the supplier. I have to do this for the first time to my "new" boat (new in 1972 that is). Someone suggested carefully using a hacksaw blade to open up the crazing for filling rather a grinder (or Dremmel type thingy) as an electric grinder can easily skitter about and make a mess. Depends on how confident you are feeling I suppose.

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[JimMcMillan]

Plastic Padding do Marine Filler and Gelcoat Filler and resin which can be mixed with chopped mat etc. Both fillers are obtainable from chandlers and for this area are much easier to work than gelcoat. Resin and glass are obtainable at Halfords who also do fillers but they are not waterproof..

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[surekandoo]

I think I used West Marine epoxy repair kit which I purchased from Force 4 by mail order. Might be worth looking for the West Marine web site.

It sounds as though you've got some sort of sandwich construction - can't you find an area of the hull somewhere out of sight and non critical, cut a lump off and examine it carefully?



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