Snap, crackle and pop; is this worth fixing?

[Dustin Mustangs]

So I am pretty sure this damage started with a few failed nose stabs last week, at the time unbeknown to me. I pancaked two backie attempts tonight and that's when things became obvious. If fixed, this area is going to need to be considerable stronger then it was before. Is this possible? Worth the time and effort??

I feel like my damn dog just ran away or something...

uch:

 

[Dustin Mustangs]

Kinda hard to tell, but in the pic that shows the mc numbers the crack runs all the way up under the #9. The backside pics really show the damage the best. All of the lighter off-white areas are de-laminated and have corresponding cracks in the gelcoat on the other side.

 

[LBE]

I reinforced my B1 like my SJ, top to bottom, complete engine compartment.

As far as the hood, maybe find a clean one (pretty cheap) and reinforce it. If you can't find one, just fix that one.

 

[Dustin Mustangs]

So all of that is fixable in your opinion? I am mostly worried about the hull and all the areas on the inside that have de-laminated (or whatever you call it). I guess all that material will have to be removed before I add more layers?? I'm definitely a newb when it comes to fiberglass work but I guess now is as good a time as any to learn.

 

[Fro Diesel]

well, everyone is a noob at some point. never too soon to learn. EVERYTHING is fixable, question is if it is worth your time or not. I would say that since i haven't even gotten out to the lake this year to ride with you that you SHOULD fix it and do it soon, my RN should be done middle of next week. I am certain that you can fix all that.

what kind of epoxy resin did you use before that made it peel?

 

[MADMAT]

You are in a good spot filled with riders to help ya.

Get a grinder and order up some stuff from USComposites and work on her this winter.

Messy but ya gotta do it.

 

[Dustin Mustangs]

well, everyone is a noob at some point. never too soon to learn. EVERYTHING is fixable, question is if it is worth your time or not. I would say that since i haven't even gotten out to the lake this year to ride with you that you SHOULD fix it and do it soon, my RN should be done middle of next week. I am certain that you can fix all that.

what kind of epoxy resin did you use before that made it peel?

I didn't put anything on it so I don't know why it is peeling like that but it definitely happened just recently. Maybe one of the past owners did something, not sure. I have really been trying to push things this season and my ski seems to be paying the price for it. :dead1:

Luckily, one of the other guys I normally ride with has an extra blaster he said he'd let me use for the time being although I'll obviously have to tone things down a bit. Worst case scenario I could just use the wife's seadoo which really is surprisingly fun in the waves too. Regardless, deff let me know if you are going to be out at port sheldon.

You are in a good spot filled with riders to help ya.

Get a grinder and order up some stuff from USComposites and work on her this winter.

Messy but ya gotta do it.

Yeah, I originally thought this hull was junked for sure but the more I look into fiberglass repair the more it seems fixable. This will be a messy winter project fo sho.

I really couldn't find much in the way of threads on fiberglass repair so I may document this project and turn it into one, we'll see.

 

[aramis]

Definitely fixable in my opinion. I'm not a composites expert, but have done my fair share of 'glassing. Here's how I'd tackle it (based on what I can tell from the pics), but I do mostly wave jumping and stupid hood tricks, no backies or stabs...

- remove any and all loose / delaminated stuff
- drill out the ends of the cracks so they can't spread further
- grind down the edges of the cracks on a taper from each side, so if looking down the crack it would look like 2 knife blades facing each other.
- clean the fresh bonding surface and surrounding area.
- in the "tapered well" you just made, slowly build up the layers to fill in back up to the original thickness. A narrow strip first layed on the crack, and slowly getting wider as you build up and end up overlapping out onto the original non-tapered surface with a layer or two. The tapered area you made before gives you a lot more fresh surface area to bond to.
- make sure to use the right materials...I think for that area you'd want to use epoxy resin (not polyester) and your choice of cloths.


I did something similar on my '93 SN...A 2" nick in the lower hull, halfway up and halfway back, decided to crack. It immediately ran up 5 inches or so to the bondline bend and then 22" forward from there. I did as described above (on the outside) and then reinforced with one more layer on the inside. After 3 years of wave jumping in Lake Ontario it's still holding great.

 

[ger87410]

No!!!

It's not worth fixing at all!!

Take the hull and ship it to me and I'll make sure it doesn't bother you again. You don't even have to take the engine and stuff out. Just go ahead and leave it in. :sneaky:

 

[WFO Speedracer]

Definitely fixable in my opinion. I'm not a composites expert, but have done my fair share of 'glassing. Here's how I'd tackle it (based on what I can tell from the pics), but I do mostly wave jumping and stupid hood tricks, no backies or stabs...

- remove any and all loose / delaminated stuff
- drill out the ends of the cracks so they can't spread further
- grind down the edges of the cracks on a taper from each side, so if looking down the crack it would look like 2 knife blades facing each other.
- clean the fresh bonding surface and surrounding area.
- in the "tapered well" you just made, slowly build up the layers to fill in back up to the original thickness. A narrow strip first layed on the crack, and slowly getting wider as you build up and end up overlapping out onto the original non-tapered surface with a layer or two. The tapered area you made before gives you a lot more fresh surface area to bond to.
- make sure to use the right materials...I think for that area you'd want to use epoxy resin (not polyester) and your choice of cloths.


I did something similar on my '93 SN...A 2" nick in the lower hull, halfway up and halfway back, decided to crack. It immediately ran up 5 inches or so to the bondline bend and then 22" forward from there. I did as described above (on the outside) and then reinforced with one more layer on the inside. After 3 years of wave jumping in Lake Ontario it's still holding great.

Basically what he said but I want to add a few things here,try to determine which glass is still good ,inside or outside,grind away the garbage then fill it back in.This depends on how its delaminated which I cannot tell from the pics.Obviously you need to strengthen the hull,so lets assume the inside glass is good for sake of argument ,go ahead and lay up some carbon fiber or kevlar to reinforce the area,a pretty decent thickness by the looks of the hull there,then from the outside you will grind down to the good remaining glass fibers,then you fill it back in with cloth and epoxy resin.That way you end up with all of the remaing fibersglass bonded correctly with no delamination,I have rebuilt countless pieces on Seadoos using this method.

 

[Dustin Mustangs]

Good stuff here fellas, thanks.

Some of the delamination goes right into the bondline on the upper half of the hull. You can see it pretty good on the fourth pic above. This area is bad enough that the gelcoat is cracked on the outside along the entire length of the delamination. I am not sure I am going to be able to grind out all of the bad glass here due to the bottom half of the hull and the bondline itself getting in the way. Would it be ok to leave some bad glass here? I imagine my reinforcements (and bondline filling) will benefit this area the most so it would seem to me like I could get away with leaving a little here, no?

Incidentally, I found a pic that showed this area early this spring, before I got crazy with the thing. It looks to me like the damage was already there and I just made it worse, way worse.

 

[LBE]

what kind of epoxy resin did you use before that made it peel?

None. The FX1 and B1 are true fiberglass hulls. The RN and SN are a compression molded plastic epoxy blend. Those are normal delaminations for that type of hull. Grind it thin and build it up thick.

All the others have good info on how to go about it.


Fiberglass is itchy and messy, but is extremely easy (and fun, imo) to work with. You can really customize and shape it many different ways.

Some pics of the nose of my B1 when I stuffed in to the sand, stoopid nose stabs! I fixed this in a day.

 

[tom21]

you should fix it- what makes you think a mint b1 won't crack the same with more abuse? its gonna need it no matter what, its just better to do it before it happens. but that is a dead issue now isn't it?

keep us posted

 

[stanton]

i wanna see these b1 backflips!

 

[Dustin Mustangs]

So do I! There was a chance my buddy got both of the pancakes on his helmet cam but, as is usually the case with the thing, it wasn't working right for either.:grumble:

 

[Dustin Mustangs]

More questions about this repair...

If i need to remove so much material that my two 'knife edges' have a sizable gap between them, how do I get the fiberglass to properly bridge it?

How much wider then the gap should my first layer be??

How wide should the beveled edges of the 'knife edge' be on each side of the repair???

Ball parks will work here, I'm just trying to get an idea of how it's normal done.