rod holder rot

[harborguy]

ill jump in with a small project one of many. recoring where the rod holders were poorly installed.
first cut the top layer off get rid of rotted balsa. thats where i stopped yesterday. next grind lower layer and reglass for instalation of new bala.
hopefully i will get to that this weekend, more pictures to follow.remember im just a guy in his driveway! thanks

 

[tunaorlater]

Have you considered using muliple layers of 1708 and making them solid? they will never rot again. Just a thought.

 

[Bill]

something ive always wondered.. how do you get the non skid texture? is there a special roller or something?

 

[Blitzen]

I would agree with Tuna, lay up a solid panel on a table to close to the thickness you need, then cut it to fit and glass that piece in your spot. Fair it and finish as you like. Will not rot again and be plenty strong.

 

[Tunascapes]

I also vote for solid. We remove all the core on our swivels and make them solid.

 

[Blitzen]

something ive always wondered.. how do you get the non skid texture? is there a special roller or something?

Many ways to do it but down and dirty is to add some cabosil to the gelcoat to thicken it up and roll out. Depending on the roller cover you choose will affect the texture of the finish.

 

[Bill]

Many ways to do it but down and dirty is to add some cabosil to the gelcoat to thicken it up and roll out. Depending on the roller cover you choose will affect the texture of the finish.

ya but do you see how his is done? like on most boats..how is that done?

 

[Blitzen]

Bill,
I do not see any non-skid pattern, but do see the pattern from the glass. Hard to see but it looks to me like it is just a rolled finish that has worn down.

 

[Blitzen]

If you can match up your pattern to one that this company offers they can help you out.
http://www.gibcoflexmold.com/docs/process.pdf

 

[tunaorlater]

If there is a pattern it is in the mold. Other wise there is a few ways to roll on nonskid. Thats how 90% 0f DE's are done.

 

[harborguy]

the boats realy worn i will be doing a roll on nonskid,trying to mach the molded nonskid is realy hard to do, i have done this before and the smaller the repair the eaiser it is, also the boat was a drager so it only had two rod holders. so ill recore and want to add many more, when i install the new ones i will prepare the new holes proper so as the holder is in solid by removing the core and filling around the hole at least an inch in. thanks for the input keep it coming, cant learn anything with out the help of sites like this.

 

[captainlarry84]

I do it a little different. Once the rod holder is out I place an allen key into a drill. I start by walk a small allen key around the rod holder hole & then to larger allen keys until I get to good core.

Once I have good core I tape and close the bottom of the rod hold. Next I simply pack Hull & deck puddy into the void. It dries like iron. Once it has set up I run the hole saw thru to clean the edges & re-install.

With both the upper & lower layer of glass in place there are no cosmic repairs to worry about.

Hull & Deck Puddy is an amazing product. If not that then the West System is just a s good.

 

[tunaorlater]

I do it the same way larry does but I use this in the drill. Do the top first so as you work your way down you still have material to run the roller on. Its alot more controlled then the allen key.

 

[jawz]

gotta be real carefull with balsa - great stuff - strong as hell - but,get it wet - turns to saw dust...

me,i do things a little different,when it comes to working with balsa coring...

i just overbore the hole - with a hole saw-overbore the mounting bolt holes too - small piece of lexan - little wax on it - tape it in place under the gunnel...wet everything with west system first - then mix that west with 403 adhesive additive - fill the holes...let it kick,redrill the correct size...

replacing that coring,you have there...me,i would cut back a little further,till you get really dry balsa - then,cut a piece of marine grade ply to use as a core,in that area...laminate it in place with the same west system,clamp it,let it kick...then,build that area in matting,till it matches the surrounding area...after it's matted and faired,drill the rod holder hole - use west system epoxy to seal the end grain of the ply - job over...

you're gonna refinish the gunnel's,right ? - no sweat now,just run the grinder down everything,get the gel off,roll it out in interprotect barrier coat - let that kick,quick scratch sand/clean up - roll it all out in awlgrip,sprinkle it with grip tex,roll it again,then one last roll...job over ! sit back,admire the nice repair you just did !

 

[harborguy]

made more headway sunday, got to work for a few hours. preped the holes with glass and almost ready to set in the new core. i like using balsa as a core, i find it easy to remove whenever i have to put holes in the boat, to then fill in with solid glass. the important thing is to protect the core. it seems that thay never did on this boat.

 

[harborguy]

hope that not to many pictures

 

[benenglish76]

Random oriented non skid can also be sprayed. Grip-Tex from the Awl-Grip guys

 

[benenglish76]

I see jawz already brought grip tex up. my bad

 

[harborguy]

got back it. installed core with core bond ,glass it in prep and prime.

 

[petrel]

Re-coring washboards

It looks like your rot was not too extensive. The balsa core washboards on my BHM were so bad that we cut out all the underlaying glass (much thinner than that on the top side) and then we stuck in some foam core fiberglass underneath to replace it. After an extensive grinding session, we wiped it down, mixed up some mud (West System w/ copious amounts of aerosil) and troweled that on the ground-down underside of the top layer of glass. We were fortunate enough to have a lot of scrap cored glass from various projects laying around, so it cut down on what we had to lay up, but it was like putting a damn puzzle together. We used jacks and clamps to snug it up into the mud. When we ran out of that, we laid up some Nida core, using West System 105, I think two layers of 18 oz cloth to each side of the Nida Core scrim board. Of course we also had to fill in all the holes from the top w/ custom fiberglass plugs we cut. When all the new core was in we put in some new combing boards and wrapped the whole mess w/ a layer of cloth, again using epoxy. Once that was sanded and faired, we painted it and non-skidded it. For the non skid, we taped out an attractive pattern, rolled on some paint and then shook sandblasting sand onto the paint. Then you come back the next day, peel of the tape and brush off/vacuum the loose sand and paint over it again. You can get a really good result w/ Awl Grip or Alex Seal if you roll it w/ the small foam rollers. You don't even need to tip it once you get the hang of it. It's pretty sweet if you are not equipped to spray it. I have seen hulls painted this way turn out remarkably good, but you have to use the small rollers- like 4 to 6 inches. It's not something that I would want to do on a regular basis, but for anyone reading this thread who has some really shot washboards, it's an idea. Needless to say what we ended up with it is pretty stout. I wish I had taken some photos of the process, but this picture will give you an idea of what we had to deal with. When I get a chance I'll snap a shot of the completed washboard. Three decades of abuse took a lot of man hours to make new again. There are probably better ways to do it, but that's what we did. Anyhow, it turned out well.