Pilot House Delamination Fixes

[Vic K]

Think I would have a heart to heart chap with the surveyor.

Vic

[rnummi]

Pretty dramatic damage. Thank God for fiberglass and epoxy.

[sail149]

Polyester vs epoxy resin. I spent 15 years in all aspects of the fiberglass industry. I have no fear of polyester resin.
But what you can buy at the auto store is quite reactive and, yes don, it will cure fast given a chance.
But there are many formulations of polyester resins and epoxy resins with a wide variety of cured properties and ease handling ( like thickness and cure time) and picking the right one for the application is a luxury most of us don't have. However, if I was fixing the sides of my pilot house I would not bother with expensive epoxy, it's 10 X the price of polyester. Also the structural requirements of a pilot house and cabin side is so low on the importance meter I would use a cheaper polyester resin and add fillers as required to get the effect I want. Save use of epoxy for where you need some of its special properties.....and as I've said before don't just do it the way it was do done before it was the cheapest way but maybe not the best way.
Warren

[rnummi]

Thanks Warren...since it's too late for me, is there a blend you would have recommend (either poly or epoxy) that I could have used? i.e. for gaps where you are just reattaching skin to balsa core, use XYZ and Filler ABC or pure XYZ. For filling non-structural voids (i.e. where balsa has mulched and dropped out just leaving the two skins, fill with ABC blended with XYZ, etc.

My (non-structural) problems were as follows:
1. Skin delamination with good core
2. Skin delamination with no core
3. Skin delamination on a twelve inch side panel with good core down 6 inches, then bottom 6 inches no core.
4. Skin delamination with dried mulch core.
5. General leakage through every hardware moon / gel coat puncture on every surface.

My structural problems are:
6. Aft Pilothouse deck (same as Chris) is crunchy but not soft (suspect age delamination w dried core).
7. Vertical plywood around all forward port lights severely degraded (but dry).
8. Aft cabin plywood around port lights no sign of water/mold, full (but uncoated) wood thickness present.
9. Apparent damage in former location of keel drain plug. Both sides. If I had to describe it, it looks like someone gouged out a 1 foot long beginning at 0 increasing to 4 inches then back to zero arced section of keel 12 inches forward of aft keel post (have not sanded/ground to assess yet).

Your fiberglass insight would be appreciated....

[rnummi]

Epoxy rides again! D lamination slowly disappearing.

[rnummi]

Delamination makes me crazy..... I've sealed, shimmed, poured, clamped.... Enough already. This boat drinks epoxy.

[rnummi]

With a modicum of modesty, my pilothouse woes are resolved. There is a 3 inch layer of epoxy around the entire base. The sides are completely encapsulated and there is a 1/2 inch deep channel of epoxy sealing the base of each window. Whew, that was most certainly not fun... But the Windows can now leak to their hearts content. It ain't going into the pilothouse. 1 1/2 gallon of West Epoxy. Pilothouse is now epoxied to the deck. Epoxy filled the former screw hole locations into deck. This is now armored like a Tiger tank. Next step, window insertion.

[sail149]

Hi
It looks like you have been doing a great job. As I said I would use polyester resin because for me it's much easier to work with and a whole lot cheaper. The cure time and properties can vary greatly and with the addition of filler , thickeners and other additives you can creat almost any type of product you want. Also with in reason it is much easier to adjust the cure or gel time. With epoxies you have fixed ratio mixes you must use or the properties will be severely compromised.
I would go to industrial sources for my polyester material. The epoxy resellers like West , and others have done a great job in marketing there products which do have many superior properties over polyester. However for the non structural applications you mentioned the polyester resins, properly handled will do a fine job. Also in the hands of a skilled worker familiar with the materials you can do very good structural repairs. The epoxies can be more forgiving for the amaturer so prehaps you are better off staying with what is working well for you. The cost is part of the price you pay for the more forgiving nature.
Remember to be very carful about the mix ratio with the epoxy, use the pumps for both parts do a great job, off ratio mix will cause all sorts of cure problems.
If you would like to discuss specific problems I would be happy to help . I have or will be doing many of the issues you are dealing with.

I posted some pics etc a while ago on one of JT's threads about fixing the rotted wood on the sides arround the opening ports.
viewtopic.php?f=28&t=6820&start=15#p46442
I used real BS1088 marine plywood , JT did a great job with the cossaboard. The most important thing is when you are done do NOT remount the ports the way Albin did them.
they must be thru bolted.
screws that come loose over time allow water in , leaks , rot etc. check the beckson site for how to install. Albin 'screwed' us all with their crappy install.
download/file.php?id=7024
Warren

[rnummi]

Warren, thanks for the info. The PH is actually complete w poured epoxy. Seems like a tank now. I guess we need to start another thread called painting your interior(s)... Epoxy or Poly! That's where I'm headed next I think. Thanks to all who assisted in my Pilot House reconstruction. Hopefully others can benefit from my initial ignorance and final understanding that the whole damn thing needs to be literally rebuilt. Thus Enders my Pilot House journey.

[rnummi]

Anyone ever explore/resolve/fix the interior junction between pilothouse roof and side panels? I have a roof that consists of two 1/4 inch molded fiberglass panels hollow between the two, glassed at the edges (I guess there must be a variety of roofs, cored, non-cored, solid etc. My roof has a fillet of glass on all exterior points of the junction. Wondering what "interior" of the junction looks like. I've got leakage from top overhead handrails "into" side panels.... Ergo, the core must be exposed inside the two roof panels right?