How do you fix fiberglass over marine fiberglass?
Question by JFH: How do you fix fiberglass over marine fiberglass?
I have a wooden sail boat that was damaged in a storm. The rub-rails or gunwales were smashed and the upper part of the hull was smashed. It is not structurally unsound, it needs to be refinished. What kind of ill should I use?
Best answer:
Answer by jtexas
It’s not brain surgery, but there’s a lot of steps involved, all of which must be done well and in order, if you want an acceptable result.
There’s an active “Boat Restoration and Building” forum over at http://forums.iboats.com where you can find all the step-by-step help with pictures you’ll ever need.
Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!
If I understand your question, you want to use fiberglass to repair a wood sailboat that has been damaged. This is a mistake that has been made too often. For fiberglass to be the best material, it needs to be molded in to a monolithic structure, that derives it’s strength from the molding process. Otherwise it’s to heavy to gain the benefits of weight to strength that makes it the material of choice in small boats. If the boat is worthy of repair repair it with wood. Good Luck!