Cannibal
Tasty Human
- Location
- Summit Lake, WA
Well, finally found a square nose yesterday and went ahead and picked it up. It's in good mechanical shape with 180 psi in the cylinders and some mods. I think I made a good purchase. The one thing that bothers me, is that it was in the Columbia river almost exclusively and the bottom is in rough shape from beaching. So, I want to fix it. The flat down the center of the hull has NO gel left on it at all, as does the ribs and corner edge. It does have some misc chips and gouges that I want to fix at the same time (nothing deep enough to glass). What's the best way to fix this?
I talked to a guy at a marine store and he recommended using a 2 part epoxy-like stuff called Marine-Tex (advertised as: Handles like puddy, dries like steel, sands like wood). A 14oz box was like $33, ouch. Is this stuff the best out there? Or could I get by with some Automotive Bondo? I'd be affraid the hull would flex and the bondo would just break right off. This would be used to fix the chips and gouges.
For the light scratches, he recommended painting on some new gelcoat and using that to smooth out the rest of the hull (to build and sand).
I also mentioned that some people use the appliance paint on the hull with good results and he showed me some marine paint ($33/qt, ouch again) called Brightside. It's actually a topside paint that is very tough (polyurethane paint). It rolls or brushes on and smoothes out to a gloss shine.
What do you think? Any other methods or suggestions?
Also, 2 ride plate holes are stripped, what's the best way to fix this? Do the screws thread into an insert, or just right into the fiberglass? If it's just right into the glass, I'll just epoxy them and drill and tap, or heli-coil.
All input appreciated,
Steve
I talked to a guy at a marine store and he recommended using a 2 part epoxy-like stuff called Marine-Tex (advertised as: Handles like puddy, dries like steel, sands like wood). A 14oz box was like $33, ouch. Is this stuff the best out there? Or could I get by with some Automotive Bondo? I'd be affraid the hull would flex and the bondo would just break right off. This would be used to fix the chips and gouges.
For the light scratches, he recommended painting on some new gelcoat and using that to smooth out the rest of the hull (to build and sand).
I also mentioned that some people use the appliance paint on the hull with good results and he showed me some marine paint ($33/qt, ouch again) called Brightside. It's actually a topside paint that is very tough (polyurethane paint). It rolls or brushes on and smoothes out to a gloss shine.
What do you think? Any other methods or suggestions?
Also, 2 ride plate holes are stripped, what's the best way to fix this? Do the screws thread into an insert, or just right into the fiberglass? If it's just right into the glass, I'll just epoxy them and drill and tap, or heli-coil.
All input appreciated,
Steve
