Pilot House Delamination Fixes

[Sprig1]

Looks like you are coming along. What is snow bowling?

[rnummi]

There is a product out there called "sno bowl" obviously designed to keep toilet bowls all spiffy. I read something about it on this board (I think) and my cleaning lady won't use anything else.... so, to make a long story short, a little pour on the sponge, a direct application onto the water stains, and voila.... literally 2 minutes later, the waterline stains are gone. I'll probably get cancer, but the stuff works miraculously. So, in my popeye voice, "If it works on the water stains, it'll work on the grungy deck.... sure enough, a little sponge and application and 2 minutes later, new looking deck. Like I said, better living through chemistry.

Someone will probably say, you just ruined your gelcoat...but I figure, the grunge, staining, ground in dirt comes off in 2 minutes or so..... I'll live with the consequences. Besides, I didn't have any gloves on and my fingers are still attached.

Im back to the boat today to start excavating. The depressing part of yesterdays evolution was seeing the panel delamination on the two central window supports (either side of the main pilothouse windows). Any ideas? jus spit balling here, perhaps epoxied solid wood replacements to the core? Obviously you can't pour onto a vertical surface....

I'm digging out rotten pilot house core like a badger.... Oh yeah, a little whining: when you build an Albin 27, you cant take the time to miter the pilothouse bulkhead to deck edge? literally, it is cut at a 90 degree angle then leaned back to form the pilothouse front angle. I can see the screws coming through the lower edge of pilothouse bulkhead to deck. What keeps the damn pilothouse on the boat when the lower core disintegrates? I'm just saying.....

[Sprig1]

Hi thanks for the tip on sno bowl. Go to the post " center window Albin 27" 2nd page you will see what mine looked like after I fixed it. Yes those are all separate pieces. Epoxy is amazing stuff. I did it in 90 degree heat. Put the epoxy in ice water it worked great. Buy your self a 3 m full face respirator about $150.00 best investment you can make. Go to harbor freight and get there heavy duty nitril gloves. Sometimes you have to where two pairs.
No I don't think there is anything holding the cabin top on. Vic and Don have been a great help to me they have done all the projects we are working on.
Iam going to do down the sides as well. I am to the point where I get my four inch angle grinder out with flexible sanding pad and just start grinding. Hope this helps chris

[smacksman]

I got my ' sno bowl' loo cleaner equivalent from the Dollar Store. Can'r remember what the trade name is but it is basically mild hydrochloric acid. Two bottles for under ten bucks and did the whole boat inside and out and still some left to clean the brown 'moustache' off in New Orleans. More powerful acid is sold by builders merchants to clean mortar off bricks and slabs. That stuff really smokes and cleans under your finger nails!

[Beta Don]

Cruising the Gulf Coast ICW where we have lots of brown water from all the rivers dumping into the Gulf, everyone swears by 'On & Off Hull Cleaner' - Nothing else comes close to removing those brown stains. It's available at most marine chandleries

http://www.westmarine.com/buy/marikate- ... 29_002_512

Don

[rnummi]

So removed all the caulking today....

[Sprig1]

Welcome to the club! Now where do you stop. I had a leak on the starboard side some where. When I was removing the waste tank to paint the bilge water poured out of the platform from under neath when I removed the screws. Good luck

[rnummi]

I know what you mean. I figure I'll keep working on the exterior and move inwards. This is a marvelously designed boat, great hull lines, perfect interior design, etc. That being said, It reminds me of the "Shuanghuan CEO". The Chinese made a clone of the BMW X5, until you see what's inside. Now I get the A25 folks. They actually bought an X5. We bought Shuanghuans. This boat "could have" been built absolutely perfect. Ah, well then it would have cost 90k and I wouldn't have had it. Make no mistake, I have fun doing it, I just saw the gap like the above pic and scratched my head thinking who would build it like that.... enough whining.

So compadres, do I fiberglass the gap, make some kind of cofferdam, tape and fill with epoxy (as planned), shoot 15 lbs of 5200 in there? I just read about West Six10 where you shoot two part thickened epoxy out of a caulking gun. What's the verdict. Any advice? I'm off to scrape and clean the edges. I saw the picture on here where someone lapped it w/ fiberglass that would be ideal but seems like an inordinate amount of labor. I was over at Don's Salvage and found the trailer thats full of teak battens so I can actually cover up the epoxy after I pour (or shoot).

[Jay Knoll]

I had the same situation, but no delamination on the forward part of the pilot house nor any leaks. It looked terrible but at that point I said if it ain't broke. I knocked down some of the high spots and filled the gap with HalfTime

http://www.autobodytoolmart.com/usc-hal ... 10968.aspx

I made new coverboards and laminated the curved pieces out of teak. I slapped them on but didn't varnish 'cause I wanted to use the boat. Now I'm thinking I'm going to paint the coverboards and the teak battens on the pilothouse sides to match the pilothouse sides.

You can really go down the rabbithole on repairs. I get "might as well" syndrome quite often when restoring this boat but sometimes I had to draw the line for my own sanity.

Jay

[rnummi]

Right you are.... Spent the entire day compounding hull. No closer to water as I'm now avoiding the pilot house. Need to take care of business for a few days then back to the pilot house fix.

[Sprig1]

I will have about three days in fixing mine. Then you have to figure out what you are going to paint it with. If you can get it cleaned out enough I guess pour epoxy in would be easy. I f you do that clamp,boards along the top of the crack so you keep it straight so your Windows will seat properly. Then just tape the bottom. I don't know if it will cep back in to the pilot house. I do know on my boat where it rounded from the front to the sides it was hollow. Does that go all the why to the bilge? I used thickened epoxy and filled the crack. Good luck what ever you do will probably be wrong and once you do it you will see a better easier way. A man that's been working with fiberglass and epoxy told me if you don't like it grind it out and start over.

[rnummi]

That's where I am now. We're sticking a bent saw blade up there to remove the detritus betwixt the skins of the forward pilot house. So far 6 inches of rotten balsa has come out. Step two is to drill holes every inch and a half or so to pour in the epoxy. That was a good call on the wood piece for stability. I think there is enough room to slide in a teak batten from below to get a little stability. I'm also going down about an inch all around the window openings. Hadn't thought of sliding teak or starboard pieces in there. Good call. PO had made some window frames out of starboard, I'm refinishing old frames and sticking w teak so I have the starboard frames to cannibalize for inserts after the pour. Read a little about heat buildup on west system, Q: what volume is each pour? i.e. Picture front of pilot house, I'm basically filling a 6 inch tall cavity across entire structure, all at once? Several one inch deep pours? I think I'm going to attempt a rough fair on lower end with "halftime" then tape and fill. Does west get hot enough to melt the pilot house skin?

[Sprig1]

If you are drilling that many holes you might as well cut it out and be done with it. You are going to have to paint it any how. Doing the job is just like taping sheet rock. Try to do it in as big a piece as you can. Save the bends don't cut on them. Then you can seal it properly and clean it out. Go look at the picture of mine I should of done bigger pieces. I never imagined it was that bad. You need lots of weight to hold it together

[rnummi]

Yep, I was thinking that yesterday while looking at it. Might as well just take out the balsa and slide in coosa. Makes sense to me. How long did it take to get the coosa after you ordered it? I'm thinking get the smallest thickness and fill void w epoxy? Or alternatively, thickest that will fit between the skin(s)?

[Beta Don]

Yep, I was thinking that yesterday while looking at it. Might as well just take out the balsa and slide in coosa. Makes sense to me.

I don't think you'll ever get the coosa glued to the inner and outer skins well enough to make it as structurally sound as you'll get just drilling the holes and filling everything with epoxy - Pouring in the epoxy, it goes everywhere and soaks into everything

But, I'm proven wrong all the time, so it will be interesting to follow your progress and see how things turn out!!

Don