Cracked Fiberglass Shaft Log

[djm284]

So here's my update for the weekend, lessons learned so far for anyone trying this in the future, and some questions for Okie and the board...

Took about an hour to get the boat covered (kind of windy, so lots of fun). Definately over did it as not all that much dust has landed on the plastic. I'd say at least 95% stays in the bilge area, but gets ALL OVER the bilge. I had plastic covering down past the top of the transmission, but dust is caked all over the engine anyway, and some rug areas next to the front of the engine got hit pretty bad too. I guess in hindsight, this should have been obvious, but I pictured dust flying up and settling more instead of shooting the length of the bildge in each direction. Oh well.

Grinding went well overall. Turns out Okie had the OEM shaft log. The boat is designed beautifully in a lot of ways, but supra seems to have dropped the ball on this one spot. They did not use a shaft log big enough to cover the hole through the hull. Also, at the aft end of the cutout, the hull is extremely thin, but you can see in the picture that they don't put the woven glass over that part. This boat is a family boat bought new, with no major accidents or previous repairs in this area. So it seems to have been built this way for some reason, or whatever they put in that hole area doesnt stick.

In next post, you can see an approx 1" x 3" strip of epoxy (I think its epoxy) that the aft end of the log sits on. That piece seems to have been formed separately from whatever covers the hole. No pic, but looking at the cutout from under the boat before any grinding you could see the 1" piece which dips down a little, and the part covering the hole was flat and higher than the 1" strip.

Pictures:

I was able to pry off most of the glass on top of the log...

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Amazing what a little acetone and elbow greese can do! Next 2 pics show the area around the log cleaned up pre-grinding. If you look closely you can see the ouline of the fiberglass area as installed from factory...

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Went full hazmat mode like Okie. Wasn't taking any chances. Highly recomend the full face respirator if you don't have one. Very comfortable and no fogging. Also essentially seals twice. Well worth the hundred bucks...

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The Epoxy and fiber glass keeping the log in place were tinted same bluish grey color as the bilge paint. Here I get down to the hull at the aft end of the log. You can see from the little bits of blue paints that the hull fiberglass didnt cover this area...

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[djm284]

Pics of the 1" x 3" piece under the aft of the log.

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[djm284]

The bottom of the hull pics may be confusing. The bottom of the hull and the shaft are both painted for salt water. The piece with red where the paint chipped off is the shaft.

[djm284]

I finished almost all of the grinding today. 4.5" angle grinder with 40 grit flap disc made the job pretty easy. Used dremel for the hard to reach spots. Dremel battery died so just have a little touch up to do except for two hangups that I'll explain in another post. Pic of mostly done grinding is below. By the end of the day I did a little more than what is shown in the pic.

Okie, a few questions for you...

1. How did you make those cuts the length of the pvc, hacksaw?

2. When you did the thickened epoxy, did you end up going with the "peanut butter" consistency? (by the way, I'm using West Systems epoxy [105] with slow hardener [206]colloidal silica [406] as the thickener. Local boat store is West Marine and West Systems is what they stock, but suspect different brands should all work pretty much the same)

3. Did you end up fashioning some sort of molding for the bottom under the hole, or just smooth it our from underneath?

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[djm284]

...and here are my questions for everyone, including a few issues I ran into.

1) Should I leave the 1" x 3" piece in place? I'm thinking no, but welcome other opinions. It would make for less unsupported epoxy, but my new exoxy would have to be a thinner coat onthat end.

2) When grinding down I hit a few areas that had voids. Are these from air pockets? Below are some pictures of the biggest void, which is about 2" accross. How should I handle this? I'm thinking I should grind it out until I hit solid glass all around the edges and then fill it with thickened epoxy. You can see in the second pic that there is still some hollow area under the fiberglass.

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3) This is the biggest problem. I was grinding towards the forward end of the work area, and all off a sudden hit a wet spot in the fiberglass. I kept grinding around the area so find where it was coming from and water continued to seep out of the upper part (starboad side) of the ground out hole. Kept seeping out for at least an hour, and may still be leaking (had to stop and cover boat for the night). When I covered it up it was seeping maybe up to a teaspoon every minute or two.

I can't figure out where its coming from. Before starting the project, I sprayed a small amount of water (maybe 1-2 quarts over 2-3 minutes) over the shaft log to confirm the original leak. That water was minimal. Some may have hit around the bottom of and below the hole, not the top though. This was the only water the boat has been exposed to since July, except for some rain (not a lot) getting through the cover occasionally. Non of the glass or resin around the log, even where I made it leak yesterday was wet like this.

Any thoughts as to how this could happen and what I should do? Hoping I dont need to grinding up my whole bilge? You can see from the pics that I'm almost up against the sidewall of the bildge.


Started around the middle. Whole area wet...

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Thanks!

[Ptownkid]

Oh god...this brings back memories from last summer...

I found voids and that grey filler all over the place when working on my saltare. I wouldn't worry too much about locating voids, but fill the ones you have found. As for your water, I had the same issue, and it was coming from the stringers. Maybe the same situation you're having, maybe not. The unfortunate part here is that you have no idea how long it will take to stop seeping, and until then, you can't do anything.

Hopefully someone else has more info for you, but atm you need to dry that baby out.

[djm284]

Thanks Ptown. Anything I can actively do to dry out the stringers, or now that I've opened up a hole, do I just wait for whatever can to seep out? I'll have to look around to see how water could have gotten in there in the first place. Is it possible that the water has been sitting in there since July (last time in the water) or did it likely come from the top side (e.g., rain)? What did you find/do about the water in your stringers?

[lively]

oh boy i think we got a live one here !! ... if your floor has not been out .. then the foam is proly still wet and your stringers as well ... voids like that are from either cracked
gel coat on the bottom side allowing blisters (pockets of water) , when i was grinding i would run into these all over the place ... you dealing with 20+ yr old boats and 20+ yr
gel coat ... it does not flex what so ever , it just cracks and keeps going ... if you dont want to open a can of worms then i would dry it out with a heat gun / blow dryer/
propane heater / something that is going to dry it out completely and then do your glass work and do at least 4 layers starting with the same size as the void and layer out a
1'' to 1 1/2'' to make the correct thickness ..

as far as testing the stringers and sub floor for water ... drill some 3/8'' holes through the stringer and see if water come out ... if no water then refill with CSM and poly to fill the hole

but dont fiberglass without cleaning surface thoroughly w/ acetone and dried out ... good luck to you

[djm284]

Thanks lively.

I'm going to try to get the holes drilled tonight or tomorrow to let everything hopefully drain out by Saturday so I can get the shaft log and glass done this weekend. I'll also do the mounting bolt test I've been reading about in other threads to make sure they dont spin. To be honest, what I'm reading in the other threads has me very worried. I had a bad cover for about a year, and also left the bilge plug in at one point when I went on vacation. Cover collapsed in windy rain storm and bilge filled pretty high with water for a couple weeks. Never fathomed that a boat would be designed in a way that would retain water. Only myself to blame, just wish I read these posts a couple years ago. Oh well, better late than too late


A few questions about your post...

When drilling the holes, I'm thinking drill low, maybe 1 inch up from the bottom edge of the srtinger, and drill maybe every 2-3 feet. Does that sound about right?

Is there a good rule of thumb to figure out where the cross members are so they can be avoided (e.g., are there specific visual points where the crossmembers typically are)?

I have West Systems epoxy and colloidal silica on hand. Can I use that in place of the CSM and poly to fill the drilled out holes?

Are you saying I should glass over the drilled holes after filled, or just the voids on the bottom of the bildge?

I'm new to fiberglassing. When filling the voids on the bottom of the bilge (the ones pictured in previous post), I'm assuming the second layer of fiberglass, which will be bigger than the hole, will dip into the hole a bit. Is that correct, or do i want to level it out flush with epoxy before laying the second layer?

[lively]

I would only drill a hole I'n the rear transom area about 2 foot or so off the transom wall and about 3" above the floor into the
Side of the stringer , if you have supertrapps exhaust tips I would remove center nut and investigate the seal ring and look for
Possible entry , more hole u drill the more u weaken the stringer and more filling you have to do ..
When I did mine I also took a pick and dug into the hole and removed the the wood to feel for wetness ...

Little did I know I opened the main valve for the nasty ass water ! Lol

When you fill the holes back up if the wood is dry then mix up some strands of CSM (chopped strand mat)
And silica to thicken like a peanut butter consistency ,, I use more silica , and then take a sandwich bag and fill it with your filler
Cut corner off and squeeze into hole and fair it out smooth .. Don't be frightened of stringers going bad ...

I'm 26 and have never played with wood to this extent ..
.. It is a great thing to concur and alot of beer !!