Po' boys prepreg

[Roger Long]

I'm sure this has been thought of before so I won't claim any credit but it worked so spectacularly well that it's worth mentioning. I look back at a lifetime of nightmarish struggles with fiberglass layups working head down and ending up with sticky fibers everywhere, my clothes, my hair, and can't believe I didn't think of this before. I'm still wearing the same clothes I worked on the boat all day in and I don't itch a bit. Almost no clean up.

http://www.rogerlongboats.com/09SounderRemoval.htm#prepreg

 

[sailingdog]

Pretty cool...

 

[Ross]

Very nicely done. When working overhead if air gets into the layers it is quite apt to pull away from the hard surface, usually when you have both hands busy with something else.

 

[Grizz]

Not that this negates Roger's system and it certainly required two pair of hands, as Ross alluded to, but this Rube Goldberg Candidate that helped fill the exterior portion of the thru-hull used thin pink Styrofoam®, 3/8" plywood and the principles of the wedge to create uniform pressure on the hull contour.

Release fabric between the layers of fiberglass and the Stryrofoam® made it easy to peel and gave the surface some texture for the fairing compound to bond to.

Even an inquiring eye couldn't find evidence of the previous thru-hull once the surface was painted with VC-17 (& I looked, hard).

The Po' Boy Technique is now filed in the "Good Ideas" forder. Thanks.

 

[CaptainJB]

Looks good

This sure looks good to me, however, I would still be covered with the epoxy

Some of us just can't work with that stuff

As a matter of fact if I just walk past a tube of 5200 it gets on me

Good luck with your project

 

[Salty]

Nice work Roger! I cant' wait to see the final product.

 

[jibes138]

Great job Roger

I have used the saran wrap extensively on fiberglass and epoxy work and it works great. What I really like is it prevents epoxy from running out of the joint on vertical surface as it can be stretched tight and taped in place as you noted. When the curing is done it peels off and leaves a perfectly smooth surface, you hardly need to sany it. Only problem is getting the saran wrap perfectly smooth with no wrinkles, so sometimes a little sanding is required. I never tried the roller idea with the saran wrap on top but that is a wonderful suggestion. To further improve that idea, capture the excess, throw it in the freezer and use it to epoxy over the screw heads on your new sailing dinghy project. At 100 bucks a gallon I don't like to waste epoxy.