New floor, what glass?

Bio Mech

Hello All

I am going to tear out the carpet on my speedboat (1996 fletcher 16 foot Arrow Bravo) and put a new floor in. I am going to use the west system epoxy but I was wondering what cloth I should be using. I was going to order from fiberglassdirect.co.uk. Do I need woven cloth or would CSM be ok?

Any advice appreciated.

fergal.b

Bio Mech wrote: »

Hello All

I am going to tear out the carpet on my speedboat (1996 fletcher 16 foot Arrow Bravo) and put a new floor in. I am going to use the west system epoxy but I was wondering what cloth I should be using. I was going to order from fiberglassdirect.co.uk. Do I need woven cloth or would CSM be ok?

Any advice appreciated.

Go with the cloth it's much easier to work with and will give a better finish, it will take about 3 coats of resin to fill the weave and it's best to do them in the one day with about 3 hour gaps between each coat.




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Bio Mech

fergal.b wrote: »

Go with the cloth it's much easier to work with and will give a better finish, it will take about 3 coats of resin to fill the weave and it's best to do them in the one day with about 3 hour gaps between each coat.

Thank you sir. I will go with the cloth so. Luckily I have an office in the UK so I can get everything shipped there and collect with an empty suitcase. It should be interesting. I will put up a few pics once I get it all done. I am going to do the tear out now and get the floor cut to shape over the winter. I will do the glassing in the spring. I am hoping for some luck that the stringers are glassed into the hull but I can do those too if needed.

Carpet in a small open boat is such a bad idea. Moisture trap that holds condensation in the winter even under cover. I am going to just go with grip paint this time I think. I will have to recover the rear seat too. Luckily the two main seats are nearly all GRP rather then wood and the foam seems clean.

fergal.b

I got my cloth from these http://www.shorebreaksurfboards.com/
West system also do a pigment that you can add to the epoxy if you wanted a white deck I haven't used it but it might be worth looking into http://www.westsystem.com/ss/adding-pigments-to-epoxy/
I have also heard of people sprinkling white sand over the last coat of epoxy to make it non slip.


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Bio Mech

Thanks Fergal that link looks great. I had considered the pigment but felt I wanted something grippy and the International brand grip paint has always served us well on our fishing boat.

I have not much experience in glassing so I wouldn't be confident with the pigment. I think I will look to sand down the last coat and paint on the grip paint. I will need to paint all areas like the footwells and around the throttle where I remove the carpet so will need to do some painting anyway.

The floor was so gone in places I didn't need to even do the screwdriver test. The finger test was enough.

Time for a full overhaul, we just did the trailer bearings and the impellor is due so I will have plenty to do. I want to add a bimini top and a few other bits too.

JamesM

These should have everything you need http://www.glassfibre.ie/
Jim.

breghall

Are you doing a portion of the floor or all of it? It could be fairly tricky to get to the front of the bow without removing the top half. You should also have a look at the transom to make sure it too isn't water damaged. There also is flotation foam built in, this should be checked when the floor is off, to make sure it isn't saturated with water which can add a fair amount of weight to the boat.

copper12

Make sure you take into account the air temperature and humidity
As Fergal all in one day is best
Use plastic drink cups for mixing about 200 for a fiver
I used his system and had plenty of time to work with the cloth
The only problem I had was a little rain last piece
It left a white blemish that took a couple of days to get rid of

Bio Mech

breghall wrote: »

Are you doing a portion of the floor or all of it? It could be fairly tricky to get to the front of the bow without removing the top half. You should also have a look at the transom to make sure it too isn't water damaged. There also is flotation foam built in, this should be checked when the floor is off, to make sure it isn't saturated with water which can add a fair amount of weight to the boat.

Thanks, I am going to just do it all. The transom is fine luckily it was well sealed unlike the floor. It looks like the carpet holding moisture seems to have been the main issue. Any wood that wasn't carpet covered is fine. There doesn't seem to be any foam in this one thankfully. If there is any I will take it all out, saturated or not. Cant abide that stuff.

Bio Mech

copper12 wrote: »

Make sure you take into account the air temperature and humidity
As Fergal all in one day is best
Use plastic drink cups for mixing about 200 for a fiver
I used his system and had plenty of time to work with the cloth
The only problem I had was a little rain last piece
It left a white blemish that took a couple of days to get rid of

Thanks. It will fit in the garage so we will be able to get it under cover at least.