paging Yeller

[smokediver]

Did Lenny ever figure out the problem with your deck ? Reason I ask is I recently bought a navy blue sunbrella cover for my 2001 22 classic . I now notice a small bubble under the top deck . I had been using a cheap silver walmart cover . I am wondering if the heat buildup caused this ?

[RickSE]

I think it's heat and I thought I remember Yeller coming to the same conclusion. I have a small bubble on my deck and it's right in the middle of my black stripe.

[smokediver]

I wonder if drilling a small hole from the inside would allow it too escape and if the gel would go back to shape ?

[gcarter]

I wouldn't count on the gel doing anything.
But,probably, you'll have to change the storage conditions.
Next, cut out the blister, let it dry out, and fill w/color coordinated
thickened patch paste gel from Minicraft.
Over fill to start with as it will shrink about 30%. After several
months, you can cut down the repair and eventually polish it.

[smokediver]

Grr. Sounds like I have some work to do

[yeller]

Lenny did cut into it. If I remember correctly, he felt it was caused due to moisture during the lamination process. I think he figured it may have been left outside in the rain between laminations, but that was only a guess. There was a liquid that came out of the blister when he opened it up. Can't remember if it was resin or more water based.

I'm about 70% sure that's what he said. Maybe he'll chime in.

Part of the deck is now in Inferno's boat. Not sure what section or how much. All I know is that he was afraid the red in his boat was going to slow him down too much and it needed a shot of yellow to offset it.

[smokediver]

Ok , thanks for the info !!

[RickSE]

Yeller, didn't your's start producing blisters right after you came to Arizona with the black cover?

[Lenny]

yep, moisture during the lay-up process. The water reacts with the resin, creates an acid that offgases under the layup which in turn creates the small bubbles of compressed gas in the gel...

Bad situation in Glen's deck, it was in a few places. Stan ground and had all his " yeller " deck pieces redone as part of the Frankenstein process.



For the folks here with Phd's ... http://nhml.com/hydrolysis-of-fiberglass/

[yeller]

Yeller, didn't your's start producing blisters right after you came to Arizona with the black cover?

That is when I first noticed it, but I didn't have the boat for very long before going to Arizona. There easily could have been some blistering prior to that, that I didn't notice.
Lenny's article does mention that heat increases the possibility of blistering, so the trip to Arizona certainly could have sped up the process. Later, the blistering got so bad that it actually split open the gel coat in one spot.