TOPIC: How did you clean the dirt out of spider cracks?

The first step in restoring my boat is to clean out the dirt and grime from seams and spider cracks (25 years worth in my boat's case). What do you do before you patch, add new fiberglass, sand, or grind on these seams and cracks?

Seabuddy, in viewing your picture, I would start out with a dust pan and literally clean all of the leaves, gunk etc out of the inside of the boat. If the remainder is dry, then I would move on to the shop vacuum. It looks as though you have a fair amount of tree sap on the deck. At that point, I opt for the pressure washer. I like to spray on Westleys Bleche White in a light coating and let sit on the area for 5 minutes before spraying. After the presuure washer, I usually take a bucket of very hot soapy water and a mitt and then go over the entire boat with that. Then rinse thoroughly and reassess at that point. If the hull has severe bottom growth or staining from being stored in the water, I use toilet bowl cleaner at the car wash. (be sure to wear a respirator, goggles, old portective clothing and gloves when doing so) I put the toilet bowl cleaner in a bucket and then use a large handle brush to apply to the hull. It may bubble a bit. I usually let it sit for 5 minutes and then wash off with the pressure washer and move on to the next area.
For your Spider cracks, the pressure washer will be about your only hope for cleaning. It will also drive hot water into them and cause further damage, but that is beside the point, as you will want to grind them out with a Dremel tool or die ginder to start he repair process if you are restoring the hull. I ususally like to blow the boat off with compressed air as well.

I agree with the pressure washer, an electric one is enough, not enough to clean concrete unless you got all day, but fine for car and boat washing. And less hassle than a gas powered one.

For the chemicals I use a degreaser like the common "Purple Power". You will need to wait long time, many days or weeks, depending on the weather, for the water to evaporate out of all the pores it got forced into. But I don't see an alternative to the pressure washer that will move out most of the crap.

Avoid the mistake of the guy that had one of my hulls that I am thinking about scrapping cause its going to be a pain to fix all the cracks and pops in the gel. He used body filler, which is polyester based. Use only epoxy based fillers. You can buy them ready to go or mix them yourself.

I am talking about filling the flaws to a smooth surface and painting not repairing the gelcoat. In this case the gel is a mess, to much effort make the gelcoat nice.

Oh boy - I think spider cracks are the least of your worries at this point!

Bruce Gerard wrote:

Oh boy - I think spider cracks are the least of your worries at this point!

X2 You're a long way away from worrying about cracks and crazing . At this point think demolition and assessing structural repairs .

Seabuddy, all of the above comments are a good indicator for you. What I failed to mention is that I prefer to get the boat as clean as you can possible get. This allows you to assess what you are up against. Just from the one picture that you posted, I would assume the worst. 50 year old hull, obviously spent a good portion of that time outside without cover would at least to me indicate major sturctural issues. Floor, stringers and transom will most likely need replacement. Then you would want to address the asthetics, (Stress cracks, holes etc).
Read through the research section on this site as it will guide you through all of this and give you a better understanding as to what is all involved. It will aslo test your resolve and help you decide if it is a project that you will want to tackle. It is an amazing learning process that is not for everyone, but it is very rewarding. It will test your critical thinking skills on virtually every step of the way. You CAN do it!
Every project that I have tackled has been an interesting travel, I have questioned many times why I would have been tried to do such a thing, but you need to stop and enjoy those small "victories" on the way to your completion.
I like the fact that when you are finished, you have the satisfaction of seeing it, using it and enjoying the fruits of your labor. Another great thing is that their are many ways to do things and many on this site that are more than willing to help guide you through all of it.
How was the Miami Boat Show? I would have loved to spend a few days down there!

Seabuddy, I honestly mean no offense,but I'd look for a better boat to start with before I got too involved with this one.

Starting out with another boat has always been a back ground thought. Thanks, fellas, for all the other specific cleaning steps.

Seabuddy,

I don't know where you are located, but G3s are all over the place here in Calif. I frequently see relatively undamaged ones (needing restoration) for 500 bucks or less. Most experienced restorers will tell you that spending more on the front-end for a better candidate will pay off big time in the end. If the deck on your G3 is decent, you could always drop it on a open deck model - as open deck G3s seem to be more plentiful. Either way - almost any old unrestored boat of this age is going to need a transom, and probably stringers and new floor. With patience and fortitude, you will likely find a G3 for under 800.00 that can be put on the water & nursed along for many seasons. Looking at the boat in your photo, I would advise you to assess the condition of the bottom before going any farther. Look to see if there are sunken areas of the keel (called a hook) where the boat sat on a trailer roller or other object causing distortions. Straightening out a bunk hull is a ton of work, and difficult to do.

The nice thing about this boat is how straight the fiberglass is. The deck and hull have no lumps, hooks, or bumps.

Sometimes the worth of the boat is not in the shape but how much you love it. I know my boat is not worth what I have into it, but I took it on and I never give up on anything easy. I've used a gas pressure washer using the tip with the least pressure and most volume. Keep at a distance until you have the feel for it. I also use a scrub brush with stiff and then soft bristles and good old elbow grease.

Seabuddy,here's one you might could drop the deck of what you have on and save a LOT of work and get a merc and a very resalable(If you wanted to)extra heavy duty trailer. minneapolis.craigslist.org/hnp/boa/4337051088.html

Thanks

Hey Chris,

I am not sure that anyone really answered your question...

I will tell you what I did... Each and every spider crack was ground out with the edge of a 4" angle-grinder grinding wheel. Very tedious, but you can't just clean them and fill them... or your new surface will soon see the cracks come back. After the grinding was done, I used a fiberglass-filled fairing compound, then sanded the areas smooth, then spread a think layer of (non-glass filled) fairing compound and sanded the areas until the surface was perfectly smooth.

Here is a shot after the first pass of the grinding, so you can see what I mean:



Here is a shot after the fairing work was done, when the boat was ready to head to the paint shop to get the Awlgrip finish:

I think I had about 18,000 hours of sanding into it... I developed Popeye arms... even though it looked splotchy, it was perfectly smooth. I was addicted to sanding... after it came back from paint, I wet sanded the whole finish (w. 1500 grit then 2000 grit) and went back to the painter to have it buffed out. It was all worth the effort.

Dean

Well, it sounds like I will have 70,000 plus hours in deck work for my boat, comparing mine to yours.

What fiberglass filled fairing compound did you use?

seabuddy wrote:

What fiberglass filled fairing compound did you use?

When you buy your glass supplies, buy several different fillers: cabosil, chopped fibers(or cut up your scraps & cutoffs), milled fibers, micro-beads. Then when you a filler, you can mix up what ever thickness filler you need for whatever task is at hand.

Thanks.

I get my epoxy, fillers, tape, and cloth from these guys. raka.com

You will find many good filler and fillet, gluing and laminating recipes out on the interwebs as a starting point.

As a starter you will need thickener, silica. And filler, wood fiber, glass micro balloons, phenolic micro balloons. For strength: glass fiber of different lengths. The mix depends on what you are doing. West System has a nice book on the subject. But their stuff is pricey. Raka has a howto .pdf also.

Have fun,

Nice link, thanks. They are located just south of Vero Beach, FL

Epoxy fillers work great. I have used West System a lot. Their structural filler 404 is strong enough to make glue. Thicken the resin to whatever stiffness you need for the application. I've used it, with a dab of brown pigment, to bed target rifle receivers in wood stocks.
I have also had good results using vinyl ester resin with Cabosil, for thick filling, and West system microballoon filler for thinner fairing applications.
I've learned that polyester resin doesn't stick to wood fer beans, vinyl ester resin sticks to wood almost as good as epoxy does. YMMV.
Larry