Fiberglass repair help wanted

[meatwad85]

I was redoing the turf in the foot tray on my ski when i noticed this crack. I'm not sure how i should fix it, I've worked with fiberglass before but not with repairs. what is the best way i should go about fixing this? A bit of the area above the top edge of the crack is bulged a little bit to the point where you can press on it and it gives, should I leave it that way? Also It was mentioned i should drill the ends of the crack to stop them from spreading, is that right? Any help would be appreciated.

 

[makejetskiinggreatagain]

I would say since its getting covered with turf anyway you might as well cut it out and lay some new glass. While you are at it, add another layer to the whole tray floor so it doesnt do this again. You also might want to check the foam underneath and make sure its not holding 40lbs of water.

 

[meatwad85]

cut around the crack and fill in the big hole that will be left? can i get a mini tutorial how you would do it?

 

[Vumad]

This would be a good time to cut out the whole tray, defoam and add foot holds.

Situations vary, so here's some if, then, else to work from.

If you want to do a minimal amount of work, drill holes at the ends of the cracks to stop the cracking. Be careful to not cut into the pump tunnel.

If it is only a fairly superficial crack, you can glass over it.

If it is a very deep crack then it would be a good idea to grind out all of the damaged material.

If you cut the crack out and it's super thin, pack it with epoxy mixed with microspheres. If it's less than about 1/4" pack it with epoxy mixed with milled fiber. If it's a substantially wide or larger area, you need to use actual glass.

Layup glass to cover the crack. It's high impact, so I would cover a substantial area. I would use biax. 1 layer of 1208 may be sufficient for a small cut area but you should probably do 2, maybe even 3 if you are abusive. Finish with a layer of conform cloth to get a nice finish. Vacuum bagging it can save weight, in which case I would definitely do 3 layers. You can bag it cheap with storage bags and a shop vac.

Do not sand into the fiber. Cover with epoxy mixed with microspheres and sand smooth.

I would run at least 9mm hydro turf underpad. It would both be comfy and reduce stress on the repair.

 

[makejetskiinggreatagain]

What he said

On a side note, if the foam is wet you should defoam and replace with the pink foam from Home Depot that everyone uses. Add drain plugs so you never have to do it again. A friend of mine pulled nearly 40 pounds of wet foam out and replaced it with about 2 lbs worth of dry foam. There are lots of defoaming threads on here if you need help.

If you are going to go through that it would also be a good time to do footholds if you haven't already.

If you are going to do all of that you might as well start a build thread where you can ask a bunch of questions because you are bound to have them. Plus updating your build thread gives you motivation to do it

 

[Vumad]

I forgot to mention that you absolutely must sand off all the stock gelcoat and other crap before you put down that 1208. Never glass to gelcoat.

 

[meatwad85]

The crack goes all the way through. I know i need to sand a taper to the area I'm applying new mat to, how can i do that where the crack is close to the edge? I checked out some defoaming threads and one mentioned kawi ski foam does not absorb water, mine is a 92 550sx, is this true? cause i really don't want to slice this thing up to get all the foam out. I dont think id ever put foot holds on being its just a 550. also what kind of epoxy should i use?

 

[tomski]

I forgot to mention that you absolutely must sand off all the stock gelcoat and other crap before you put down that 1208. Never glass to gelcoat.

That is paint and SMC not gelcoat.

 

[makejetskiinggreatagain]

The crack goes all the way through. I know i need to sand a taper to the area I'm applying new mat to, how can i do that where the crack is close to the edge? I checked out some defoaming threads and one mentioned kawi ski foam does not absorb water, mine is a 92 550sx, is this true? cause i really don't want to slice this thing up to get all the foam out. I dont think id ever put foot holds on being its just a 550. also what kind of epoxy should i use?

Ya I probably wouldn't do holds on a 550 either. I would cut out that whole section with a Drexel and a cutoff wheel. Just be careful that you don't cut through the pump tunnel. then I would probably use filler mixed with glass to fill that area and lay glass over top of it. Then you might as well lay one whole sheet over the whole tray floor so this doesn't ever happen again.

If it were me I would poke a hole through the foam all the way to the bottom just to make sure there is no water down there. Even if the foam doesn't soak up the water you still don't want that thing to be filled with unneeded weight. If the foam truly doesn't absorb water and if you find a lot of water in there you could just throw some cheap hull drains in the back and drain it all out.