86' supra sunsport rebuild

[lively]

Salt - I plan to use the PL adhesive to bed the stringers ,

If you dont mind can you give my a lay out of what you used far as what kind (#) resin , and what would be a good type of fiberglass to use

I mean if i need to use epoxy i will , just have no clue what to get , like :us composites: has this 404 tooling poly and then has some 5 gal 435 standard layup resin for 121.00 , I like the price of poly but is that going to hold up well with the cloth i have or should i get something different ?

Would it be better to get some 1708 biax ? thanks for all the help

AND what is CSM ?

[Salty87]

i'm 90% sure i used 435 when i bought from uscomposites.

everything gets csm (chopped strand mat) first before cloth or roven. so, you'll need alot. when i bought the 5 gal buckets locally, they had a little 'kit' that included hardener and enough csm for the 5 gal to wet out. i haven't used the biax. from the little i know, it has csm built in? if so, would prob be easier and quicker.

pretty sure i used 6 oz cloth for the top and bottom of the floor. that's what i'm sending you (someday, lol). it might be 10 oz.
i think i used 18 oz woven.

biax says csm is buit-in...
DBM 1708 Biaxial
+/- 45degree
Contains double bias(17oz) stitched at 45degrees
along with one layer of 3/4oz mat.
Thickness: 0.044"

[lively]

ok then ill get the 435 poly ... its got great prices ! ha ha

I think ill get some 1708 for the stringers and ribs and then lay my CSM for the deck .. what kind of wood would you recommend for the deck ? im using douglas fir for the stringers but i was thinking of pre laminating the deck pieces before i install and then using that PL stuff to bond and finish laminating to the sides and main stringers ...

How long did it take you to install the stringers ?

man im so stoked about this build ! lol and thanks to you and all the others help ill have this thing back together in no time !

[Salty87]

i used 1/2" marine plywood for the deck. pre-laminated the bottom and running a fat bead of PL is exactly how i layed the deck. followed with screws into the stringers...slather sealant on the threads. then glass it over.

stringers can go slow or fast depending on how close you get with your initial cuts. trimming and grinding to fit for fine-tuning takes time. also takes a bunch of climbing in the boat with the stringer, check the fit, climb back out with stringer and take a little off with saw or grinder...repeat. depends how anal you are too.

this is really a project where you can go super quick if you're clever. you can take forever if you want too. if you're smart about rigging supports that hold the stringer in place while you bed it and then glass you can go faster than if you are relying on the accurate fit to hold the stringer in place.

[lively]

where did you get the sealant for the screws ? and what about drain holes where did you put those at ?
on the bed side of the stringers .. will those be angle cuts or are they all level plains ?

Thanks for the help salt .. i think i have got a pretty good idea what i gotta do now ...

[Salty87]

PL for the screws. i think i used some 5200 that was leftover too.

for the drain holes i put some in the main stringers just forward of the engine. you can barely see them in some of the shots in my thread. i also put some behind the engine under the exhaust pipes where they angle down. for the outter stringers, i put some at the transom...none in the middle. bow rise will drive any water trapped outside of the outter stringers to the transom.

the outter stringers sit mostly flat. the main stringers have an angled edge that can be tough as the v of the hull gets more steep up front.

[lively]

well my puter connection at work is not letting me see the pics so ill have to look when i get home ,

i was reading on the foam you installed with trash bags , did you like the outcome of that . and did you foam everything ?

did you cut out the bubble of glass upper front bow under cooler ? if so how did you form new glass to make tha same shape ?

[Okie Boarder]

A couple items to note to catch up, as well.

I also glassed the deck pieces on the under side prior to installation.

The main stringers are definitely tricky up front. Compound angles, basically.

You might try deciding whether you're going to do foam or not early on. There are some schools of thought about foam vs. no foam relating to drain / limber holes. Many good points can be made regarding not using drain holes when using foam.

Up front under the cooler, I removed all that was there and I installed a flat piece in the vee to level it and have a slight downhill slope back to the bilge pump. I also put a ~2' square hatch in the floor to access that area between the engine and the cooler. That left the area under the cooler very wide open and allowed me to hide a ballast bag up there. There is enough room for ~500# of weight up there. Something to consider, for sure.

[Salty87]

the foam worked out very well. outside temp makes a huge difference in the expansion rate. other than figuring that out, it was easy. i'm not sure how effective my foam job is and i hope to never find out. i foamed all compartments.

under the cooler in a saltare is different than a sunsport. our air intake hoses route under the floor below the cooler. a real design mess. i modified it so that any water that might get into the air intake will find a way to the bilge pump.

[lively]

salt- on the foam making the blocks like you did , does that allow them to float inside the cavity to let water run underneath it and out the limber holes ?

OB- I like the ballast idea ! how much weight you put in your boat ? cause i have like 4 flotec pumps 360 gph that im going to fix up in there for ballast ,