Restoring a hand built boat Questions. Please help!

[jonny2779]

Hello. I recently bought a 12' boat that I want to refinish. I planned on fiberglassing the seems and then painting it. I intend to use it to fish with a small outboard motor.

My question is this. Last night my dad tried to fiberglass the bottom and did not use very much hardener. He did use some but not enough. SOme parts are really hard today (16 hours later) but some still looks like liquid.

Will this ever harden? Should I just wait a few days in order for it to dry? DO I need to rip off the fiberglass and start over? It is 20* C here today so it should be drying.

Let me know if you have any advice.

Thanks,

Jon

[gonzo]

There are many variables. What kind of resin are you using? The wood should be cleaned and degreased before fiberglassing.

[jonny2779]

I am using a fiberglass resin the is used on cars. The can says it is supposed to harden in 70 mins. I was thinking about putting hardener on a paint brush and brushing it on to make it react. Not sure if this will work but I'm grasping at straws.

The wood was well cleaned before.

[gonzo]

It looks like either you didn't mix the resin well or there is something in the wood contaminating the resin. Polyester is usually forgiving of some contamination. I would mix resin with a lot of hardener and paint that over everything. It has solved similar problems for me in the past.

[jonny2779]

So a mix of resin and hardener to paint over it... good idea. I know we did not use enough hardener innitially. The can says use 2% hardener but the spots that turned out really good used about 15%. Ill try this tonight and hopefully it works out.

What ratio shoudl the resin/hardener mix that I paint over be?

Jon

[gonzo]

The ratio is usually from 1.5 to 3.0%. I would use 5% or so. It makes the resin more brittle, but it shouldn't be an issue for painting over.

[jonny2779]

Ok. I applied the new layer on last night and it dried perfectly. Thanks so much for the help and I will post more wuestions soon I'm sure.

[Zed]

2% hardener should have been good, if not a little too much @ 20c in my experience! I dunno what you did but 5% is a pretty hot brew, should have gone off like a rocket!

[GG]

Originally Posted by gonzo

It looks like either you didn't mix the resin well or there is something in the wood contaminating the resin. Polyester is usually forgiving of some contamination. I would mix resin with a lot of hardener and paint that over everything. It has solved similar problems for me in the past.

very good idea and you have nothing to loose and by the way this methiod is called hot toping .

[jonny2779]

Just to update, this process worked very well. Everything is ship shape and I just put the last coat of enamel on it. Tomorrow will be a day to paint blue decals on the boat and the lettering arrives in a few days.

I'm going to cal it the blue heron and will post pictures of her when she's done.

Thanks so much for all the advice.