28 BERTRAM EXPRESS CONVERSION

[Mbiggerstaff]

It has been really cold here in Greenville, NC. We have not been able to get the shop temp up enough to do any additional fiberglass work. Instead have removed old wood and glass from under gunnels, ground to good base, and cut new wood. Ready for installation. The old wood was embedded in something underneath to fill voids and provide strength. Suggestions please. I am sure that something can be mixed with epoxy to make a suitable compound if a specific product is not available for this purpose.

[DAYTRIP]

I would suggest epoxy mixed with wood flour. Cheap and very strong. 50 lbs of it on mine so far! That stuff they used is like cabosil. Hard and brittle. A chisel breaks it up pretty well. Beats grinding.

[TRC886]

It has been really cold here in Greenville, NC.

And going to get colder. Forecast for Thursday is 22 degrees...Thursday night, five degrees

[tech_support]

I would suggest epoxy mixed with wood flour. Cheap and very strong. 50 lbs of it on mine so far! That stuff they used is like cabosil. Hard and brittle. A chisel breaks it up pretty well. Beats grinding.

The putty they (and all the other manufacturers) used back then was a polyester with silica and maybe some other fillers, its very brittle and if its too thick it breaks loose with any flexing. A lot of older boats have this putty bonding the deck/liner to the stringers and hull, it pops loose pretty easy.

Epoxy is best choice but there are also Methacrylates now that will "melt" the two pieces together.

[Mbiggerstaff]

Wood Flour it is. Picked up 50 lbs today. Weekend looks promising for epoxy.

[Mbiggerstaff]

[Mbiggerstaff]

[Mbiggerstaff]

[Mbiggerstaff]

Here are some pix of progress. New wood under gunnels and bottom. One more sanding on bottom and then a layer of glass over the aft half to cover all the patches, just for security.

[TRC886]

Looking good Holler if you need an extra hand 'glassing. (Or even if you don't )