Pacemaker floor replacement

For small repairs epoxy is to be preferred, for its greater adhesion, strength and impermeability, but at around three times the price per unit of volume. a large repair like yours can become a bit uneconomic. And it can be a skin irritant of some note for many users, so greater care in skin exposure is required. It should be emphasised that the critical bond in encapsulation like this is with the existing hull proper, you need to pay attention to that part particulary with prep work, and more thoroughly with polyester than epoxy, in terms of abrading the surface.

 

Ah for 3x times the price i might reconsider.
Definitely will check it out at the fiberglass retailer in Perth

 

Look into BoteCoat if going with epoxy. Considerably less than the name brands and just as good.

 

The resin you use really won't make much of a difference, either will work very well, the one to use just depends the intended outcome and how it makes you "feel".

For a normal rebuild or repair like this the bond strength of a typical cheap polyester is more than sufficient, and it's what's used in 99.9% of all repairs on a polyester boat. The doom and gloom bond issues tend to come from poor prep work or a complete lack of understanding on how to use the products, if you plan on doing a poor job epoxy will help in getting a better result, and the correct prep work for both resins is the same.

If the goal was to have a very light high performance boat with mega HP bolted on the stern, then epoxy would help, but even new these boats are typically polyester or VE, and remember, you build to meet a certain level of performance and physical properties, either resin can be used to do this, it's just lighter with epoxy, which may mean faster, so if it can be worked into the budget it's a great option.

When using epoxy in a repair you reduce the amount of materials, so the weight is lower, but in a typical repair you aren't using enough materials to make much of a difference in the weight of the boat, so it doesn't matter much. Since less epoxy and glass is used, the cost difference of the completed repair with the two resins isn't as much as it may seem at first.

If even the low cost polyesters will work, then any epoxy will work, you just need to be able to laminate with it.

This is where the how it makes you "feel" part of it comes into play, some people won't be able to sleep at night if they don't use the most expensive epoxy they can find, others don't care and use the cheapest polyester, both end up with a useable boat that will last for many more decades.

 

There is an emotional element for sure as to how thorough a job you want to do, but realistically it is not a hard-nosed decision to rebuild an old boat like this anyway, unless the hull is of such repute as to be a valuable item when restored. Most boats of this (or any) vintage don't fit that criteria. Maybe 1 in 10 does.

 

I forgot to add, the final outcome depends more your skill and attention to detail than the resin choice.

 

Boats definitely not worth it to be doing a full restore but it did need some work under the floor and im glad i ripped it up and got that foam out.
We were lucky that it didn't cause the boat to take on more water.
Attached some pictures of the rear.

I have taken some days off work next week so i will be getting well into it.
More grinding and cleaning up the hull.

 

Hi all.

Now im still interested in removing the half cabin part and making a walk around console but im concerned about the structural reinforcement that needs to created.
Is there somewhere you could reference me tothat might help me better understand what im trying to achieve?

Current stringers and bulkhead are 1" wide so looking at adding another bulkhead where the original cabin started that is tabbed to the hull and down to the stringers. And then replacing the front bulkhead but making a larger size thats tabbed to the hull and supports the anchor cleat above as the support thats under has split on either side.

Will get some more pictures tomorrow.