Repair on balsa core rot in deck

[colemj]

Originally Posted by s/v Jedi

@all: I just ground every crack topsides and found two that went down into the core. It now looks more like something fell, bounced back up and fell again just next to it. Must have been pretty heavy.

Have another think at that - could it have been pressure damage from below?

Say, from a subwoofer perhaps?

Mark

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by colemj

Have another think at that - could it have been pressure damage from below?

Say, from a subwoofer perhaps?

Mark

Edit: you're in Provedencia now?

[colemj]

Regarding gelcoat over epoxy: I have done many extensive epoxy repairs finishing with gelcoat and never had a problem with it.

If you need to match a small section of non-skid, tape off a square of good non-skid a larger size than the repair needed as a template, wax that square, cover with a thick coat of RTV silicon being sure to smooth out any trapped bubbles and let set up. When you pull off the silicon it will be the negative of the deck pattern.

Cover the repair with slightly thickened, color matched gelcoat and gently press the silicon template into it being sure to align the overlapping part with the patterns on the adjacent non-skid (this is why you made the template larger than the repair). Put a light flat weight on the template piece and let the gelcoat cure. When you remove it, at most you might have to clean up the feathered edges a bit with a pick or sandpaper.

Yes, we are in Providencia now.

Mark

[cpa]

Very nice Jedi! Thanks for the thread.

[s/v Jedi]

Just for fun: I switched over to another brand of syringes for working with epoxy and injected some resin into the two voids I talked about above. This was only very little resin so there was plenty left in the syringe that I let cure. Today, when I pulled the plunger out, the cured epoxy came out with it. It's amazing how hard and tough it is without any filler added. Normally, for casting, I add high density filler but that doesn't look as pretty as this