The Best Fiberglass Boat Repair & Painting in Fort Lauderdale
We Do Fiberglass Boat Repairs The Right Way… Anyone That Tells You They Can Skip These Steps Is Either Fooling You, Doesn’t Know How To Do Fiberglass Repairs, Or Both
- Using a 5” or 7” grinder, depending on the size and depth of the area, grind out all delamination, cracks, voids, blisters, spalls or detached plies of fiberglass laminates.
- Bevel and feather all edges of such ground out areas with a 3 to 1 taper width to depth ratio, these areas are relative to the depth of the ground out areas and the surrounding intact areas of the exposed fiberglass laminate.
- After grinding and beveling are completed, wipe the area with clean acetone a couple of times before laminating. Then measure and cut your fiberglass material, i.e. ¾ or 1 ½ ounce CSM, 1708 or 1808 stitched Biaxel either 0/90 degree or 0/45 degree or a heavier 24-ounce cloth like Rovimat which is a woven roving material combined with a binder layer of 1 ½ ounce CSM on the back.
- Using measured and catalyzed Vinylester or Epoxy resin, lay patches of the desired specs of laminates to fit the dimensions and shape of the ground out and prepped areas. Add enough numbers of ply groups of fiberglass to fill in just beyond flush with the surrounding intact fiberglass surface.
- Each successive fiberglass ply group is cut 2” larger than the last ply group all around to provide a tapered laminate step back for structural purposes.
- Add 1 final layer of 1 ½ ounce (CSM) or chopped strand matt overall to provide a sanding fair surface. (Note: do not attempt to laminate more than 3 ply groups together at the same time in order to avoid excessive exotherm, which should not exceed 122 degrees Fahrenheit or 50 degrees Celsius). The finished laminate must exhibit no unwetted strands of fiberglass, jackstraws, white laminate, air bubbles, loose projectiles, fibers, jagged edges, or resin pool drips on the surface.
- After the entire surface has been properly sanded, polish out the area or areas with a marine soluble compound like Aqua Buff 2000 or Profile 500, followed by an Imperial finishing Compound and/or glaze. (Note: after that process has been completed, you can also apply a marine grade UV wax over the surface for extra protection. This should be done on paint or gel coated surfaces every 6 months on the hull and every 4 months on the topsides). After the desired product has been applied by either spray or brush application, sand down surfaces with a fine 320 or 400 grit sandpaper for primers and even finer for Gel coat final sanding process. After all, laminations have been completed, and fair and bring surface profile to approximately match the edges and apply polyester or epoxy syntactic foam putty over the area, then longboard and sand until the area is uniform and fair.
(Note: do not apply fillers more than a ¼ inch in depth, except overfilled voids which are no more than 2 or 3 inches in dimension). - Wipe down area, prep and mask off to spray on 2 part epoxy primer or color match polyester catalyzed gel coat with either a liquid wax solution additive or a Duratec Product to prevent post curing tackiness.
