How much Epoxy for 228 Tank Cover Repair

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GreenRoomSon

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Hello All,

I am going to be cutting the bottom fiberglass out of the rear tank cover with the plan to remove the wood core, replace with cell core and glass over.
Essentially, I will be doing what is shown on Born Again Boating video:

Was wondering for those who have done this how much epoxy I should anticipate on needing? Any input would be much appreciated.
 
I don't know how big your hatch is, but get yourself a gallon. You won't need that much, but you'll find many uses for it in the future. Besides, most people use too much the first few times they do something like this.
 
Pickup a gallon of 105 epoxy resin. I used West System products from my local shop. The are two hardeners - 205 fast and 206 slow. I would recommend using the 206 slow. Epoxy curing is an exothermic reaction. I have had large quantities of mixed epoxy in container almost catch fire! The slow helps with this as does where you are doing this (hot NJ summer, hot FL). Getting it spread out quickly helps too - doesn't run away from you. I would recommend buying 16 oz mixing cups and setting up several with 10 oz of resin before you start a large job. 5:1 ratio. Pump or pour 2 oz of the harder in and stir one at a time as needed maybe with helper.

This bundle is $200 with mixing pumps.


If using plywood for core (I used Coosa composite) cover the screw holes on theta side and overdrive the holes on the underside. Fill completely with epoxy and cloth and re-drill from the topside when complete. Leaking screws is what damages the core.
 
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Thanks, I was thinking about a gallon. I know that alot of the less expensive resins are poor quality for laminating but are there any decent mid price resins that are good enough for these kind of repairs?
 
I've used other brands and never had an issue. You can use polyester resin if you want to save even more money. Epoxy is easier to work with - especially indoors. West is more expensive - but they have the nice mixing pumps and very good customer support - which comes at a price.
 
For someone DIY stay with West System. They are an epoxy company with lots of related products. It's not really that expensive. You could do it quarts of 105 resin and return what you don't open. Same with smaller harder.

I would put a layer of loose fiberglass mat between the top and the core. For better adhesion and to fill voids. I also rigged up vacuum bagging setup using heavy plastic from Home Depot, mastic tape and my vacuum pump. This will apply about 15 lbs of pressure to the whole assembly while it cures.

Hatch 3.jpeg
 
To add onto what I just said... I suspect the poor results that you may have found on the internet are likely due to user error - possibly even using the wrong glass.

Oh... I repaired a hatch and use cheap foamboard insulation as an experiment. 7 years ago. :)
 
Get a gallon of epoxy and a quart of hardener and the pumps. Get some high densiity filler and some low density "fairing" filler.
You can't go wrong. You own a boat...you will use it....

Start buying Won Ton soup for lunch and save the containers. Cheaper than buying mixing containers.

You COULD use polyester and MEK but you will waste a lot and melt some containers...;)

See this thread

https://www.greatgrady.com/threads/deck-hatch-re-core-265.32638/
 
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Oh... I repaired a hatch and use cheap foamboard insulation as an experiment. 7 years ago​

Click to expand...

DennisG01, how has the foam core held up? Do you ave any flex? What glass did you use? How thick was the foamboard? ​

 
GreenRoomSon said:

DennisG01, how has the foam core held up? Do you ave any flex? What glass did you use? How thick was the foamboard? ​

Click to expand...
I want to mention right up front that I did that entirely as a "I wonder if it would work" thing. I was curious. I knew that I could re-do it in a few hours if need be so it wasn't a big deal if it turned out to be a flop. I also did quite a lot of experimenting before I did it for real.

Point is... if you've done a decent amount of work like this, you might consider it... but that's NOT a recommendation! :) Otherwise, I would recommend using wood or something like Coosa.

Still solid as a rock. The core, itself, has very little to do with strength. It's the solid separation of the two layers of glass that yields the strength.

The glass is no different than other epoxy-rated glass. Can't use poly with the foamboard, though.
 
DennisG01 said:
I don't know how big your hatch is, but get yourself a gallon. You won't need that much, but you'll find many uses for it in the future. Besides, most people use too much the first few times they do something like this.
Click to expand...
X2 I did this. Had some left over, but rather than being short.
 
GreenRoomSon said:

DennisG01, how has the foam core held up? Do you ave any flex? What glass did you use? How thick was the foamboard? ​

Click to expand...
Your time and materials are valuable. My attitude is "done right done once". Make your choice.

1 Rebuilt hatch.jpeg
 
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