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Boat Repair - Patching How-To Page

Example 1) Thickened Epoxy Repair

Example 2) Fairing the Chipped/Peeled/Damaged Spot

Example 3) Replacing rotten wood - sailboat bowsprit

Example 4) Submerged wood damage - marine railway

DIY fiberglass boat repair - wooden boat repair

Tips and Tricks for thick epoxy resin projects

Concrete repair too!

By Paul Oman - Progressive Epoxy Polymers

The Internet's (and perhaps America's) most diverse, unbiased, largest source for multi-vendor coating solutions involving epoxies, epoxy resins, and related products.

Example 1) Thickened Epoxy Repair

The Problem:

A 5 inch section of the wooden railing on my dinghy (made from quarter round trim wood) had rotted away and needed repair.

Materials Needed:

wood scraps; plastic bag (or wax paper); 2 clamps; thickened epoxy (either an epoxy with thickeners or a pre-thickened epoxy - epoxy used here was our Wet-Dry 700 kevlar ™ reinforced epoxy paste pigmented with a rust colored powder pigment for easy viewing).

Repair 'Trick'/notes:

Thickened epoxies are a pain to work with. They are sticky like taffy and they often droop and sag (like tar) with gravity. When using a putty knife (or your finger!), it drags the epoxy when you attempt to pull your putty knife away from the surface. The best you can do is an uneven repair with a lumpy surface and way too much epoxy to compensate for the epoxy that is dripping or sagging away from the repair site.

Covering the epoxy with thick plastic or wax paper and shaping/forming the epoxy through the plastic is an insider trick. No more epoxy sticking to your fingers/putty knife. Little or no epoxy sagging (use a lot less epoxy!), an epoxy surface as smooth as plastic!

The Repair:

I used a piece of wood wrapped in plastic (so the epoxy would not stick to it) under the overhanging lip of the railing and held it in place with the clamps. This provided the 'bottom surface' of the repair.

Next I filled a large portion of the missing railing void space with a small piece of wood (so as to use less epoxy, provide a wood 'core' etc. and just to make things easier to work with).

Then I filled the 'hole' in, around, over, and under the wood insert mentioned above with the thickened epoxy. I just pushed it around filling in all the spaces.

Next I draped plastic over the messy epoxy and smoothed it all out with my hand through the plastic.

I left until the epoxy got hard (cured).

When the epoxy was hard, I peeled off the plastic, clamps and wooden base. What was left is shown in the picture above. Notice how smooth and even the surface is. It is almost a perfect match to the existing surface.

Using a right angle grinder and then a sander I quickly (within about five minutes) removed excess epoxy and got down to a nicely faired surface. A bit of non epoxy exterior putty filled two small blemishes (voids) where there wasn't quite enough epoxy.

Now, its ready for painting!

Thicken our Basic No Blush Marine epoxy or use our kelvar (tm) re-inforced epoxy paste - Wet Dry 700 (tm)

Basic No Blush epoxy has its own web page - click here.

Buy Wet Dry 700 at our simple alternative site - www.epoxyusa.com
find Wet Dry 700 in our marine catalog

find Wet Dry 700 and Basic No Blush marine epoxy in our commercial/residential catalog

Example 2) Fairing the Chipped/Peeled/Damaged Spot

The Problem:

Peeling blisters of paint coating on old wooden sailboat

Materials Needed:

thinned epoxy or aluthane (tm).

exterior putty or epoxy putty

auto spot repair putty/glaze

coarse and fine or med sand paper


Repair 'Trick'/notes:

1) popped open delaminated blisters in paint

2) open up the blister, extend to well bonded areas, and sand down the edge of the blisters with grinder

3) seal the damaged area with either solvent thinned epoxy or 1 part Aluthane (aluthane used in this example)

4) exterior putty or epoxy putty over damaged area

5) "Guide Coat" of spray paint on the puttty. Used to show low spots when sanding

6) pic #5 after sanding. Nearly all the yellow spray paint guide coat has been sanded away. Any remaining yellow paint shows 'low spots' that need more filling.

7) Low spots, edges etc. filled with Auto Spot Putty which is smoother and denser than the initial putty used above

8) more 'guide coat' yellow on the spot putty prior to sanding

9) after sanding - all the guide coat yellow was removed during sanding of the spot putty. Area is now smooth and faired.

Example 3) Rotten Wood Epoxy Replacement - Sailboat Bowsprit

The Problem: Wood Rot

Rotten Wood Epoxy Replacement

Sailboat Bowsprit

Using the Wet Dry 700 ™ reinforced epoxy paste

1) - view of damaged area

2) all rot removed (important in this case to remove all the rotten wood)

3) - area to be filled - view 1

4) area to be filled - view 2

5) area/void filled with Wet Dry 700 (tm) epoxy

6) hard Wet Dry 700 (tm) epoxy with form removed

7) finished product - repair at other end of spar

Example 4) Marine Railway Underwater Repair (8/2011)

The Problem:

Worm/rot damage on the submerged section (13 feet down) of a 300 ton marine railway in New York. Railway is reported to be 100 years old.

The Repair:

over 20 gallons of Wet Dry 700 (tm) epoxy mixed with sand and/or small gravel stones applied by divers into the damaged removed voids in the wood.

VISIT OUR PAGE ON UNDERWATER EPOXIES WWW.EPOXYPRODUCTS.COM/UNDER4U.HTML

Buy Wet Dry 700 (tm) epoxy at our simple alternative site - www.epoxyusa.com
find Wet Dry 700 in our marine catalog

find Wet Dry 700 in our commercial/residential catalog

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Epoxy Bilge Painting Project Click Here.

Yet another rotten plywood boat repair: The Restoration of the famous Leaf blower Powered Dinghy

Index of Boat Repair Web Sites - Click Here

Tips and Tricks / Boat Repair reference guide / Notes 101 - Click Here

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Learn the basics of epoxy at our educational EPOXY 101 page - Click Here.

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