Fiberglass Work - river jons

[Phil Lilley]

Need some work done on the river jons... so it's not finesse work.  Slap it on and paint it.

Any suggestions?

[Daryk Campbell Sr]

Got started on my fiber glass canoe.   First stab at fiberglass.  Any tips/advice is welcome. 

[Flysmallie]

5 minutes ago, Daryk Campbell Sr said:

Got started on my fiber glass canoe.   First stab at fiberglass.  Any tips/advice is welcome. 

It's not as hard as you think. Prepping the area for repair is the single most important part. What kind of damage are you repairing?

[Daryk Campbell Sr]

The fro my center bottom.  I unloaded it into the creek, the nose smashed the trailer frame.  Cracked it about 4inches.  I have cleaned and sanded it very well, and have a hole about 2inches by 6 inches. I have to sand a bevel and support the "hole" for the first layer.  Boat is upside down,  and ready for final sanding.  I am buying a gallon of acetone to clean the whole boat,  and will be adding a layer of resin.  It is a Gheenoe,  kinda like a hybrid canoe/mini boat.   

[Flysmallie]

1 hour ago, Daryk Campbell Sr said:

It is a Gheenoe,  kinda like a hybrid canoe/mini boat.   

Those are cool little boats. Really for that all you should need is some resin and cloth. And of course that acetone for prep and cleanup. Get you some disposable gloves too. Resin is some nasty sticky stuff. 

[Stein]

Good prices and an excellent source of materials, epoxy, tools from http://duckworksbbs.com/

On my Ozarkian that I built I used the Marinepoxy resin.  It's the economy resin but it works well, very easy to mix and use, 2:1 ratio.  Order the pumps in the tools section.  I have found after three gallons that they are very accurate in maintaining ratio.  They gig you pretty good on shipping of epoxy so if you are on the fence between the 3 quart kit and 1.5 gallon kit go up.  It keeps a long time (years) so you will be set for the next season.  I oped for the 3 gallon kit and ended up having to order another 1.5 gallon kit and through in an extra jug of different rate hardener.

I bought everything there from the unwaxed paper cups to tongue depressors to the plastic bondo spreaders.  I bought 2" chip brushes and 5 mil gloves from Harbor Freight cheaper but again ordering it all at once at duckworks is easy-peasy.  The chip brushes are cheap so use to paint on epoxy and throw away.  Could be cheaper elsewhere but one box shows up with everything in it.  Get a roll of 6 oz or 10 oz cloth.  Note that if you get less than 10 yards they fold it instead of roll it.  Not a big deal but the weave separates where the creases are.  You can pay an extra $10 for rolled if less than 10 yards.  You can get fiberglass tape for seams or just cut strips from the cloth.  The good for tape is it is precut and stitched on the edges so it doesn't unravel.  The bad is the stitched edge of the tape doesn't flow out as well when glassing and leaves a ridge.  The bad on roll cloth is when you cut it the edges unravel and you have some strings that make wetting it out a bit messier, but they sand out when hard but you save the cost of adding a roll of tape to your order.  if you just need to do some patching you can buy fiberglass cloth from the auto parts store.  The Bondo brand is 6 oz cloth.  Not too expensive but just a 2x4 foot section of cloth.

For hardener just for patching you can go with the fast or medium.  Pot life will be short for the fast hardener in the heat - maybe 3-4 minutes from mixing to kicking off so you might go medium.

[Stein]

Phil,

Throw a pic up of the type of damage you need to fix.

[duckydoty]

Separation between bench seat and sidewall

 

small areas of transom repair

 

Front corner repair

 

[Flysmallie]

You can also get everything you need from any O'Reilly Auto Parts store and save on shipping. Anytime you are shipping haz mat is going to be expensive. If they don't have it in their store they can easily get it shipped out of there warehouse. 

Not knocking what Stein is saying but if you just need a small amount for a repair there are easier and cheaper options. 

[buckwhisperer]

I gotta say, I repaired my jet ski(entire front was smashed onto a gravel bar) with a kit from Napa and it repaired it all very well. It was all there, resin, hardener, cloth, etc. in a box ready to go.