New Fiberglass Bottom
Hull being peeled, October of 2004
January 2005
Spring is Just around the corner and I will soon be scheduling
the application of a new 1/4 inch biaxial fiberglass bottom using
vinylester System 3 Epoxy resin applied to the peeled Morgan hull. The sailboat has been
out of the water and has had the bottom peeled off for more than 6 months now
and hopefully the hull is bone dry. So stay tuned for the complete documentation
of the new bottom application on this page coming in April.
August 2006
Two Years Later we finally applied the new bottom.
The application of the new bottom has been a very long process. We have had delays due to my work schedule, Gary Mack's (fiberglass boat technician) work schedule and delays due to weather but just last week we finally completed the new fiberglass bottom using Silver Tip System 3 epoxy laminate, 1 layer of 1708 fiberglass and a layer of finishing cloth over the 1708. The process breaks down into many stages which I will list:
The boat has been sitting with a pealed bottom for two years and has had plenty of time to dry out. I started the process by first grinding the bottom smooth using 60 grit paper on my 6 inch orbital sander. I then applied System Three, www.systemthree.com General Purpose Epoxy Resin with a roller to fill in any fiberglass weave, within a 24 hour period before the GP epoxy completely cured I applied Quick Fair fairing compound over the entire bottom. Once the application was completely dried (4 hours) I re-sanded the entire bottom smooth. This entire process gives you a smooth even bottom to apply the fiberglass to.
General Purpose System Three Epoxy rolled onto the bottom before fairing.
Boat bottom after fairing and sanding, most of the sanding on the bottom was done with 60 and 80 grit paper.
A word about system three; Gary Mack is the boat tech who helped me with my bottom job. Gary highly recommends this product and exclusively works with it. The company has put allot of R&D into their products, but decide for yourself and go to their website and read their literature. www.systemthree.com
Gary gave me a roll of 1708 fiberglass (17 oz of non woven mat fiberglass stitched to 8 oz matt at a 45 degree angle) and a roll of finishing cloth that was placed over the 1708. I pre cut sections and stacked them in a box in order of final application.
The day before the fiberglass application was to begin I washed and scrubbed the bottom with clear water to remove any surface dust from the sanding I had previously done. On the morning of the application I arrived at the boat yard early, 5:30AM and was about to apply another coat of GP system three epoxy when I noticed condensation running down the bottom of the boat from the deck. I delayed the fiberglass application until later in the morning and then applied the epoxy tie coat. By then Gary and his son Dan arrived, we covered the top of the work area with a tarp for shade and set up two work tables.
I preloaded the Suburban the night before with all of the supplies and fiberglass. Work area preparation.
My son Scott at work, we all wore Tyvek suits, goggles and rubber gloves.
There where 4 of us, Gary and Dan who where the experts, my son Scott who mixed epoxy and clean out the mixing pots, application tools and surface areas and me the go-for guy. Applying fiberglass to the bottom of a boat is not brain surgery but as with anything certain procedures and rules apply and you learn this by doing it with experts. I would never consider doing this job by myself, and after completing the work on my Morgan I would still contract someone who has done the work on a regular basis to help me with any future projects. It's hard work, you have to work fast and be neat and organized. Gary was the lead man and would call out the quantities of epoxy to be mixed. Scott was mixing 36 ounce containers of epoxy most of the time. Gary would always call out the quantity by mix ratios so 36 ounces of mixed epoxy would be called as 12/24 or 12 ounces of hardener mixed with 24 ounces of resin We used slow hardener and Scott had to mix the epoxy for at least one minute using a paint stick, scraping the sides and bottom of the mixing pot. We where using Silver Tip laminating resin for the fiberglass application which easily fills in or wets out the weave of the fiberglass cloth because of its medium-low viscosity qualities. We used a total of 6 gallons of Silver tip resin and three gallons of hardener for the entire bottom application.
The process went as follows, the precut cloth was laid out on the table, Scott mixed the resin, we poured it into a plastic tray liner and rolled it onto the cloth until it was completely wetted out on both sides paying particular attention to the edges.
Once the cloth was wetted out we rolled it onto a plastic PVC
pipe so that when we unrolled it onto the boat bottom it was mat side out
sorry we laid out the cloth mat side down. It
took all four of us to apply the cloth to the bottom, two persons to hold the
cloth onto the boat bottom, one to roll it out and one person to hand out tools and
then clean them. Once the cloth was on the boat it had to be trimmed, Dan and
Gary used large sheers and a roller knife to trim up the cloth and minimize the
seams. We had very little waist using this method, I think we only lost about 12
ounces of epoxy that kicked in a pot but that was it, the rest of the epoxy went
on the boat.
Laying out the cloth on the table, Gary used contact paper backing that he got from a local graphics house. It provided a clean work surface that the epoxy would not stick to
Rolling on the epoxy.
Un-rolling the cloth onto the boat bottom.
Before the resin kicked on the boat which was about when we got half way down the side with cloth, we went back and applied the finishing cloth. The resin was still wet which helped the finishing cloth to stick to the 1708 cloth. The finishing cloth was applied directly over the 1708 and then rolled out with epoxy on a epoxy paint roller wetting out the cloth and then trimming it. Dan then used a small spreader to squeegee the surface and push the epoxy into the cloth. After we laid out the rest of the 1708 on one side of the boat and completed it with the finishing cloth.
Rolling out the cloth and trimming. Completed lay-up.
One side complete.
Once we completed one side of the boat we stopped for the day and did the other side the following week. In the meantime I arrive the next morning and began grinding down the seams and edges with 60 grit paper. I then started applying the epoxy barrier coat. I used System Three General Purpose epoxy resin applying one coat and waiting for it to dry to the touch (about 4 hours) and then applying the next coat. I applied 5 coats in two days and then waited for the fifth coat to dry (within a 24 hour period) before applying a layer of Quick fair fairing compound over the entire side of the boat. I then came back the next day and sanded it smooth using 60 grit paper. System Three epoxy can be re-applied over itself within a 72 hour period according to the manufacture. But with the hot summer days here in Maryland we didn't want to take any chances so we compressed that time period down to 24 hours. As for now we have both sides complete and faired but I'm still sanding and fairing, more later. So far total GP epoxy used on the boat bottom has been 4 gallons of resin and 2 gallons of hardener.
Total person hours for the fiberglass cloth bottom application have been about 92 hours!
My wife Anne helping me mix and apply fairing compound.
September, 2006
Fairing and sanding!
I've been away for several weeks but I returned yesterday to continue sanding the fairing compound off the bottom. I used my orbital sander with a 6" pad and 60 & 80 grit paper keeping the pad flat on the surface as I sanded. So far I have about 9 hours of sanding in on this part of the bottom work. The bottom is almost complete!
I have completed most of the heavy duty sanding, ( an additional 8 more hours) I have to re-fair the line where the upper hull and boat bottom meet and sand again. I also need to place new laminated fiberglass patches over where the supports where resting during the initial bottom lamination.
Well I thought I had completed most of the sanding but upon a closer inspection I was unhappy with some of the uneven spots on the bottom hull so I purchased a 3M flexible long board (fairing board) which is 4.5 inches wide and 30 inches long and plenty of 80 grit paper.
May 2007
Faring the bottom? Depends on how far you want to go! I do want a smooth even shape to my hull bottom so I'm going a little further with my bottom fairing. The hardest part has been the jack stand patches and where the bottom hull meets the upper hull. I've gone over these areas at least a half dozen times and I'm getting close. I'm also long boarding sections which is another grueling backbreaking process! As I said the jack stand patches have been difficult probably because of my inexperience. After we finished covering the bottom last year and after I did the initial faring I had the jack stands moved so I could apply fiberglass patches to where the stands had been supporting the Morgan. These patches where not matching up with the rest of the boat, the contours where off and there where a lot of dimples in my work so what I finally did was sand down the mess I had made and remixed some system 3 fairing compound, applied a liberal amount all around each patch and shaped it using a 3 food rubber spreader which worked. I've been going over the bottom looking for small imperfection, fairing and sanding them. Most of the time these imperfections and unevenness can only be scene while washing off the dust created from sanding. As I rinse off the bottom with water those areas stand out and are noted for further faring. But I think I'm just about done with the bottom or at least I'm ready to declare victory and move on.
One of the finished patches and final fairing.
Some of the bottom sanding down by the prop area will have to be hand sanded.
Bottom painted with gray pigmented epoxy used to detect surface imperfections.
Well not quite victory yet, I applied 64 ounces of System 3 GP epoxy mixed with gray pigment to the bottom of the boat by roller. After rolling on several square feet I used a wide foam brush and using two fingers to brace the back of the foam I pushed the epoxy into any pores left from all of the fairing I did. It came out looking smooth but there are many nooks and crannies visible on the surface of the new bottom that I now see with the gray pigmented epoxy. So I will lightly sand down the bottom again and any dark gray areas left behind will be faired out and sanded. I will then apply another coat of epoxy the same as described above and see if the surface has improved . One thing I did see is a seamless smooth hull where the new bottom meets the upper hull at the water line.
The 64 ounces that I rolled on dried thick enough to finish the fairing of the bottom. I sanded the upper part with my 5" palm sander using 150 and 220 grit paper and the lower part using both the 5" palm sander and my 6" random orbital sander with 80 grit paper. It took about 6 hours but was well worth the effort. Flat sanding the surface was easy with the gray pigment added to the epoxy and used as a guide. The gray epoxy filled in all of the low areas and gave me a flat smooth surface that is ready for the final bottom paint hopefully if the bank account holds out this year I'll use Awlgrip AwlStar (ablative) bottom paint .
September 23, 2007 Bottom is finally done!
I ordered a gallon of Awlgrip Hull Guard and a Gallon of Awlgrip AwlStar Deep Blue bottom paint and set out to finish the bottom the weekend. I still had allot of work left on the bottom including 2 patches from where the boat was previous blocked that had to be laid up with fiberglass and epoxy faired and sanded. Once that was done I scrubbed the bottom of the boat with plenty of water. My wife Anne then volunteered to tape the bottom line around the boat. This wasn't an easy job seeing as most of the old demarcation line was gone but with patience and a tape measure she got it perfect. I gave her a couple of rolls of fine line 3M vinyl tape to do the masking with once she applied the fine line tape we then applied some 3 inch wide 3M paper masking tape over the top of the vinyl tape to ensure the application of the bottom paint didn't overlap or splash onto the Awlgrip hull paint.
The bottom took two gallons of Awlgrip AwlStar bottom paint.
