fiberglass repair

Posted By: Jim J - '93 MAC S - St Cloud Mn
Date: 4/11/09 9:00a.m.

Report: outside forum guidelines

In Response To: Fiber glass repair on Mac 22 (KRUSE'N, Mac 22)

A thought for after you get the patch in - I've always been told that when drilling holes in gelcoat or in surface epoxy, a good practice to eliminate stress cracks, is to finish the hole off using a countersink bit only on the gelcoat or epoxy. Picture attaching a fitting of some sort to a piece of glass and what would happen if you over-tightened the bolt. (I'm not sure about the validity of that for epoxy and have never tested it. Although, I do use a countersink when I drill into epoxy. "Only in the gelcoat" is especially important if the glass is cored, because if the counter sink goes into the core any leakage around the bolt/bedding compound or whatever, the V shape of the countersink can become a reservoir for water which will eventually rot the core. Just tried to find info on the web re: this. Some info at these sites: http://njsaltwaterfisherman.com/forums/index.php?topic=10980.msg107364;topicseen http://www.boatus.com/trailerclub/upkeep/fiberglass.asp