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PostPosted: Sat Jun 13, 2015 1:56 pm 
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Joined: Sat Jun 13, 2015 1:09 pm
Posts: 1
First time visiting this forum! I have a couple Hobie 16 hulls that I'd like to repair. As you can see from the pictures, the hulls had some fiberglass work done to them (bottom job), but the epoxy that was used is cracking/peeling away from the fiberglass. I've knocked all around the repair, and there don't seem to be any soft spots. I don't have any real fiberglass experience, but I'm wondering if I could get away with sanding the whole section down, and re-coating it in epoxy, then gel coating the hulls. I also have two newer hulls, but one of them has a ~4ft crack down the bottom, so I figured repairing a previously done bottom job would be easier than doing a whole new one. Thanks in advance for any advice!

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PostPosted: Wed Jun 17, 2015 12:29 pm 
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Joined: Wed May 25, 2011 3:15 pm
Posts: 610
Location: Buffalo, NY
Seems like a very sloppy bottom job. Do you know for certain it was epoxy rather than polyester?

Looks to me like there was insufficient surface prep, causing the old repair to peel/flake off in areas. It further looks like they put new glass all over the place, not just where the hulls had worn down, and then didn't bother fairing it in and covering it in gel coat. It kinda looks like the just went right over the existing gelcoat without any prep whatsoever. Chances are that's going to continue to peel & be a complete mess. I think the proper way to fix it would unfortunately be to strip off the old repair everywhere that it's peeling or that you can see gelcoat underneath. Then sand it fair and, if necessary, add more glass (probably not necessary, if the old stuff is adhered well in that area), and cover in gelcoat.

Unfortunately, that's pretty much doing a full bottom job. The alternative would be just to try and fair it in a bit and cover it in gelcoat, or just leave it alone. If you do end up putting anything else on, I'd use polyester resin rather than epoxy, as that is what was originally there and won't cause problems with cracking or flexing, and you can put gelcoat over it (unlike epoxy).

Working with fiberglass is actually very easy to do, it's a matter of cutting pieces of fiberglass to fit, mixing the resin, wetting out the fiberglass cloth and applying it, and then covering it as it cures. Most of the work is in the prep - grinding out the cracked or damaged fiberglass, or fairing the repair when cured.

The following videos helped me tremendously in planning and executing my own fiberglass repairs:
quick overview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rz5WCfipaNw
longer how-to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9hfpOCnzEs (be sure to watch parts 2 & 3, and follow up with the gel coat videos)

Best of luck!

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Mike
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