Refurbish Question

[Ed Ekers]

Well you guys have shamed me into doing some needed refurbishment on our hard sailed boat. I have started refinishing the wood on Pathfinder and need a little advise from the pros. We removed the wood and when we did we found that everything was bedded with a putty substance. To my surprise it was still pliable after all these years.

My question is when you reseat your wood what have you used as a bedding agent? I assume there should be something between the wood and the fiberglass?.....ed

[ebb]

Ed
Could that 'putty' have been Dolphinite? Probably the perfect stuff for that application. Used to be two kinds: one loaded with poison, kind of greenish - and 'natural', brownish. Much better than rubber for take-aparts.

[Mike Goodwin]

You can use 3M 101 or 4200 ,but not 3M 5200 as you will never get it apart again with 3M-5200 . SikaFlex also makes a bedding compound , 291 ? .
Dolfinite is still available at West Marine in pints or quarts .

[Bill]

In my experience, untreated wood against a sealant = the sealant entering the wood. For that reason, I use multiple coatings of (in my case) Cetol before applying the bedding compound. A "real" varnish should work even better. Sikaflex, Boat Life, or any modern sealant should be just fine. Not, as noted, 3M 5200. That stuff never lets go.:mad:

[Mike Goodwin]

Right Bill,
If you dont seal all the wood evenly , that is where rot is most likely to start or moisture can enter and pop your varnish off from the inside out .
Always use the same finish and the same number of coats on all surfaces even if they are unseen .

[Ed Ekers]

Ok Guys, I have a couple of ways to go.......thanks.

Second question. The chunk of wood at the forward end of the combing has some rot on the bottom. I have carved it out to solid wood but now have an opening about an inch deep. This might have been one of those areas that did not get the proper seal treatment. If there a product that I should use to fill this hole? Also will there be any issues that I should pay special attention to making sure that everything is sealed, remembering that it will be out of sight....ed

[ebb]

well, let's see.... one way:
Dress the hole by carving it into a shape you can plug with a new piece of the same wood - the grain going in the same direction. If you have flat chisels square the hole and slant the edges so that it gets smaller going in. Juice the hole with plain epoxy. You've already stuck a bib of blue tape over your nice paint job. Fill any void with thickened epoxy, tap in the plug, which you have already acertained by trial and error will fit snug and bristol in the hole. You've left it a little proud so you can easily trim the excess when it's set - and sand it flush.

It doesn't matter if the plug doesn't go all trhe way into the hole, just as long as you don;t leave a hollow in there. You shouldn't have to use a clamp - or any fastening. So slant the hole pretty lean. To match the plug. It is much easier to trim the plug than the hole - if you mess up, make a new plug.

After it's put together and there's fresh epoxy globs on the work, I pinch off the worst with shop paper rags and clean it up with alcohol. Haven't tried ale - yet.

Of course you know rot is by fresh water and that must be thoroughly addressed.:rolleyes:

[Ed Ekers]

Ebb= Very good. I will go to work on the plug. The hole is prepped as you described. The one question I have is given that it is out of sight is there a need to match the woods or is there a preferred type of wood for the plug?.....ed

[commanderpete]

My friend had a problem with one of the Boat Life products. I can't recall if it was Life Caulk or Life Seal. It turned from white to brown very quickly.

Also, you might only want to seal the seam between the coaming board and the deck. If you smear a bunch of sealant on the back of the coaming board, it may be difficult to remove the wood in the future.

I found this out the hard way. I had to spend about an hour on each board carefully prying them off using some very thin putty knives.

This is Cetol on the wood.

[ebb]

No need to match the wood if out of sight and hole is pretty small, Even close grain fir IMCO would be ok if you coat it well with epoxy. Of course epoxy needs to be protected, so what ever is used on the coamings will protect the repair. If you do use some blond dunnage for the plug and can't stand the color, an artist's paint store will have a close enuf match in a tube of acrylic to disguise the patch to near the old work.

I think it is worth considering Dolphinite for bedding the coamings, After all, what are you waterproofing here? If the dark line at the coaming and deck doesn't look good, you could, after the installation, dig out some of the bedding compound, clean the crack with paint thinner, tape off the coaming and the deck, squirt in yer favorite rubber compound. If I HAD to do this I'd choose a polysulfide.

Some guys (was it here?) consider getting the coamings off the boat a good thing for maintenance. Take them back to the shop for prep and varnish. And varnish all over same number of coats - a very good idea!

You must use fresh unopened Dolphinite. Because it's soft and will squeeze out nice when you are refastening. The surface in a crack will crust up nicely after awhile, but you will always be able to get the wood off again. Clean up is a cinch, much much easier than the rubbers.

D. comes from the days when boats smelled of good things like Stockholm tar.