My classic has two livewells and last trip I noticed that I was getting a bit of leakage from the front livewell. I decided to check it out and the placement is horrible. I am contemplating taking the livewell drain out of the front completly and making it more dry storage. The only issues with glassing over this spot is access and the hull is kevlar. What do you all think? Re-do the livewell hole or glass over?
Your correct, the pic is after I took the sealant out already. Whoever did the install picked a spot in the hull where there is a curve. I think this is a big part of the problem.
you can either goomm a new thruhull in there with 5200 b/c it has good adhesion or, grind the inside and the outside around the hole, just a little being carefull not to get into the kevlar, just thru the gelcoat layer , (if you go too deep the kevlar will turn to a fuzzy material and really suck to glass over). On a peice of cardboard wet out 1peice of chopped fiberglass let it soak in then apply it to the bottom of the boat working out all air bubbles. when it hardens cut a lot of small circles (probably 1'' thruhull size)out of glass to fill the hole , wet one out ,apply it in the hole work out bubbles , do this untill the hole is filled flush with the insde of the hull , then apply 2 or three more peices of glass to overlap the 1'' hole , probably a 3'' circle let dry . you can then grind the bottom flat and gelcoat. Be careful not to get into the kevlar you will know bc it will start to furr up , use a small sander and 80 grit and take your time
Karl, good input! Do everything that he said to do, except skip the first step of grinding the bottom of the hull. Instead, take a piece of thin wood, like luan or door skin, and over it in mold release, then screw it to the bottom of the boat so it covers the hole. Use small screws into pre-drilled holes in the hull so you dont crack the gel coat. This is where the thin wood part comes into play. It seams yo have a bit of a curve where the thru hull is located and the thin wood will bend some to conform to it. *** NOTE, you can also just hot glue the wood to the bottom of the boat as well, this way there is no holes to fill latter on.**** Once the wood is in place then fill the hole like he said to do. After the glass cures, pull off the wood on the bottom. Now you are just left with two small screw holes to fill. Or if you used the hot glue, all you have to do is sand that area and then blend in some more gel coat and you are good to go! This way you dont have to worry about gong to deep into the kevlar, plus there is less work on the bottom side to make it pretty again where you would have ground away all the gel coat. Remember that it is just something temporary to hold the glass from sagging. I have even seen people use a piece of duct tape just stuck to the hull, then filled the glass form the other side. Let it dry, pull it off and then dremal (sp) where the tape stuck to the new glass they laid. Saves allot of work on the bottom side! I hope this helps you! Lets see some pics of the progress!!
Snookn - the mass of the pressure is coming from the outside of the hull, if you do not reinforce from the outside as well, my worry is the plug will push through.
Gramps, I agree with your logic, and cause for concern. But to me, it is the same effect as the other method. Why? because if you simply grind the gel back and lay a single layer of glass over the hole and do the repair from the inside, what are you left with on the out side? A single layer of glass that has to be ground away to get back to the original "height" of glass so the gel coat all blends in. If you were to grind down into the existing glass, or kevlar, then yes it would add strength, but if you grind the piece of glass away, you are stuck with the same story? I have a feeling that I am missing something here and could be wrong, please let me know if that is the case
Bevel the inside, bevel the outside glass the outside, glass the inside sand smooth, paint. The hour glass shaped fiberglass plug goes nowhere.
Thanks for all the input! I am almost thinking I might put the livewell drain back in after hearing what I need to do. There is no way to access the bottom of the hull from the inside since the livewell is raised on the inside of the hull by about a 1/4". I'm thinking scuff up the gelcoat where the drain will sit, 5200 back into place. Then I will cap the top of the livewell, put a quarter turn valve in on the pump side of things(That way I can use the back livewell still) and call it good.
well yea, but I thought it wasn't an option BC the Kevlar. I have no experience with that, maybe you could fill us in?
I use a half-round mill file to bevel the edges back. Removing gel coat and resin until the kevlar layer just begins to fuzz. Then sand those areas filed back with 100 grit, but not the kevlar fuzz. Epoxy and 6 oz tooling cloth to make the patch layers. Tape on the back side of the hole, epoxy small circles of fabric building up with slightly larger circles of fabric until the width and level of the bevel is acheived. Let harden, peel off the inner tape, sand interior bevel, repeat glass layup inside. Let harden, finish sand, paint. The kevlar fuzz becomes part of the epoxy bond. Forgot something, excess kevlar fuzz can be shaved off using a double bladed bic razor. Talk about redneck tech...
