Burnt Hull

[donzi b.que]

I recently purchased a 35zf that has some fire damage [more by the overzealous firemen with 2 big holes ] mostly on the starboard side hull I have been checking the varoius options to repair. I am wondering if I should use polyester, or epoxy resin for the glasswork. Would the poly be strong enough to repair it, or is the epoxy the stronger of the 2. This is only the beginning of the adventure!

[clayman]

I think some pictures of that boat were floating around here for a while. I believe I saw it heading north from Florida on the x-way some time back. were they asking $3500? sounds like a nice project. I used West system epoxy on my boat restoration. But Pearson is the man to ask. For alot of repair, polyester or vinylester resin in proably the way to go, it is alot cheaper to.
James

[Scott Pearson]

I'm gonna catch hell from Chris on this one....

I dont like Epoxy resin. Polyester is all I use on everything. I use all Polyester resin without wax. Then the last coat with wax. Epoxy takes to long to dry I dont think its stronger at all. But there are some people who will argue the fact.

Epoxy never becomes Thermo set. Its always between being Thermo set and Thermo plastic. Polyester on the other hand becomes Thermo set after it cures. Epoxy's dont cure...they dry.

One good thing about epoxy's is they dont smell.

My 2 cents....

(NJ)Scott

[MOP]

The new resins are fine no need for epoxy, before you cut anything away try for templates. Once you start cutting a burnt boat you must cut till you get to translucent glass, get rid of all the cloudy looking stuff. You be surprised how much good looking stuff is heat damaged. If you can get an experianced eye on the damage do it. you can do alot of templates for missing areas using cheap thin formica and jigs to get darn decent compound shapes. We have just completed a 31 foot sail boat that was scorced by the boat next to it. Now that it is finished we did bit off a bit much but it came out great.

[oldLenny]

For what it is worth. I don't like Vinylesters...They give no clue as to the time they will go "off", and a controlled environment is way more of an issue. No colour changes in the resin etc. Stick with polyester. Also, vinylesters will introduce you to a whole new "smell"...my $.02...