1988 46 Post- I need to repair a soft spot on the port side of the forward hatch. Has anyone done repairs up there, if so what is the coring material and how thick is it? Thanks! I've done repairs to my last Post, but that was glass over 1/2 in plywood.
My 1987 43 has Balsa. i just re did my deck from middle of deck up to pulpit, went in stateroom took out under glass and balsa. i replaced it with cussa board and some foam board then re glassed from below. It was quite the job but it turned out well and very stable.
I did a small spot on the for deck of one of my 20' work boats. From the inside and a good shop vac. Still a mess but the vac with a bunch of small pvc tubes & visqueen did hold the coring up till the epoxies bonded. Then I glassed in the inside laminate with a lil thickener. From the inside it looked like crap, but I could jump all on the deck with no issues. I never ground the stalactites flush and glued the fuzz back up. It would of looked fine then, heck, it's a work boat.
That sounds interesting doing the project from the inside. What size cussa board did you use? Do you have any photos? Thanks
I have no photos of the work and am embarrassed of the final work a few years later. Deck still strong. Still ugly (as noted post #6) on the insides. If I remember, it was Divincell, scored, 1/2" core. Also, PVC. After a drench of wet, we used cavisil thickener. Got more on us than the coring, the pvc tubes were taped up ready for the task to hold the coring up, the plastic sheet was up, taped off and the shop vac was ready to draw it all in (up) This was not fancy vacuum bagging but that is where the idea to hold it in place came from. As I have mentioned, it was ugly but seemed to work. The next morning, it self held, sticky, we peeled off the plastic and pvc tubes, then layered a coat of cloth with more epoxy. A few days later, back to work, no issues yet. We may have been a bit thick on the core. A fat 3/8" may have worked better but you work with what you can barter/steel from your partners.