- Joined
- Sep 7, 2010
- Messages
- 11
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 1
What hatch are you referring to?I understand 95 Grady Whites have hatch issues. Looking for suggestions on repair.
Yes, fish box and anchor covers. I’ll try to repair myself or find someone here in s jersey. I can understand sealing the bottom edge is most important. Thanks for the quick response.Above assumes a fish box, rigging station or livewell hatch cover (gelcoated).
Sounds familiar. This is my winter project... A little bit of epoxy and gelcoat work, and after looking at it, I'm planning on thinning out the epoxy to seal around the edge.
View attachment 18253
I suggest just the opposite. Sand/grind out the spots until you get a clean stable base. Them mix epoxy with a filler like cabosil to make a thick paste like stiff peanut butter. Apply to prepped areas. Don't try to make the surface smooth, leave a little mound. When set up, sand starting at 80 grit and then progressively finer depending on how much you care about the finished look. The patch will not be a color match and may be a bit rough but it won't absorb water.Sounds familiar. This is my winter project... A little bit of epoxy and gelcoat work, and after looking at it, I'm planning on thinning out the epoxy to seal around the edge.
View attachment 18253
View attachment 18255
I suggest just the opposite. Sand/grind out the spots until you get a clean stable base. Them mix epoxy with a filler like cabosil to make a thick paste like stiff peanut butter. Apply to prepped areas. Don't try to make the surface smooth, leave a little mound. When set up, sand starting at 80 grit and then progressively finer depending on how much you care about the finished look. The patch will not be a color match and may be a bit rough but it won't absorb water.
Option 2 is to buy some gelcoat repair past from Spectrum color and use that to patch. There are plenty of videos online. I think Spectrum has their own videos. (up side to Spectrum is that you can get pretty close on color.
The paste is expensive, last time I looked it ran about 40 bucks for two ounces.
The actual edge can be sealed as you mention but exactly what would you thin epoxy with? Out of the can and mixed with hardener may work OK.
Add some stiffeners to the underside. I always felt a little more support was a good idea as it tends to take a lot of weight as people load onto the vessel. Looks like that is just solid glass.
I just don't feel comfortable thinning epoxy with acetone but I could be wrong. The lid is cored as you suspect.
Let us know how the Spectrum works out on those edges. I have used the Spectrum for gouges and it is pretty thick.
That's an interesting idea about heating but I wonder if that might affect the curing of the epoxy. At a minimum the curing time might shorten I guessBe careful with gelcoat - the thicker it is applied, the more brittle it becomes. However, you could tint the epoxy or poly resin.
Heat the hatch up in the oven or with a heat gun. When the resin is applied, it will thin out and be absorbed further into the core. But if you're digging out the bad core and filling with structural epoxy/poly resin, that will be more than sufficient as is.
Yeah, that's about all that would happen - it'll just start to kick sooner. Truth is, epoxy or poly will wick into wood just fine the way it is without doing anything special.That's an interesting idea about heating but I wonder if that might affect the curing of the epoxy. At a minimum the curing time might shorten I guess
Be careful with gelcoat - the thicker it is applied, the more brittle it becomes. However, you could tint the epoxy or poly resin.
Heat the hatch up in the oven or with a heat gun. When the resin is applied, it will thin out and be absorbed further into the core. But if you're digging out the bad core and filling with structural epoxy/poly resin, that will be more than sufficient as is.