Fiber glass supplies

[sammysnapper]

Ok looks like the floor of my boat may be alittle soft, after talking to a few glassers and being told nothing is going to happen for a little while because they are all falt out i am gunna have a crack at it myself. Most of the people have told me it aint that hard, what i am wondering is the best place to get supplies, would prefer to get it all from one place.

[aussie123]

Replacing a soft floor in a glass boat is not as simple as it sounds or as cheap as you may think.

Generally a floor goes soft from water being left in the lower hull and more often than not the stringers are usually gone as well.

There is also a good chance that the transom may also be gone if it is an older boat.

Often these small jobs once you cut some floor out to have a look end up being near a full rebuild.

[Malcolm]

Sometimes it is just the floor.

Even if the stringers are a bit suss it's not that hard.

I wouldn't do a transom myself.

I get the name of the place we used Hemant and there is also another at Springwood called Volkes Glass or something

[Malcolm]

Aa Fiberglass Hemant

[mick fillet]

owwwe yuk sounds like you just open up pandoras box. i would consult a profesional fibre glasser than trying to attempt the work your self

[Keen-as-fisho]

Shame my old man isn't in brissy atm he would be right into this project (Used to work for Haines back in the day and did a lot of Glass work for a Truck panel fabricating mob) and still loves getting into a bit of glass work. The mob we have dealt with a lot is in Rocklea on Shoebury st near the dead end from memory.

[e-fish-n-sea]

i used to get everything from fibre glass industry's i think they are down Archer field area.If your floors are soft normally the stringers are too if you remove them make sure the boat is off the trailer or you might distort the hull then it will ride like a porpoise!!!Grinding old glass isnt fun either if your not sure on what you are doing i would suggest taking it somewere and getting it done

[Bi_polar]

Arnold Fibreglass repairs at Hemmant is a very reputable place and they do a great job at a great price.

Google their reviews.

[sammysnapper]

Thanks for all the advice, i have cut a section out of the floor and it appears to be isolated to a small portion of floor under wear the offside seat sits. It appears as if someone may have forgotten to seal under this part of the floor as the rest seems to be steming from this area. All the stringers are still sealed and appear solid when tapped with a hammer, however i have been recommended a bloke and he will be comming for a look on the weekend and has offered to show me how to do it as he does the repairs.

Thanks again for all the advice.

[benno573]

mate, this is never a fun thing...

the old man and I spent about 4-5 months fixing what we thought was "just" a crack in the hull in our boat, turned out the maunfacturer had never heard of timber preserver so all the floors, stringers and alike had to be redone as well... cost us about $1200 in materials alone, not to mention the man hours to go with. make sure if you are using timber soak the sh!t out of it with preserver (make sure it is compatible with your resin though).

If you are grinding fibreglass cover everything up. it is the messiest job i have ever come across, we were still finding dust in the boat 3-4 months after it was finished and hosed out. make sure you wear overalls, mask, balaclava, gloves, a franger, the works. give yourself a good rub with talc powder beforehand and after will help a little with the itch.

what we did - the whole hull had a good layer of chop strand and three layers of double bias matting laid on it - probably overkill but at least it is done now. we used some meranti and marine ply for the stringers and 16mm marine ply for the floors with two layers of double bias on top of that. the whole lot got a good coat of flocoat prior to being sealed off. i found the hardest thing cutting the dam carpet to the right shape!

after the rebuild, the boat now feels a lot more solid than it used to and rides better than it did previously. it is noticably a little heavier than before but that is a small price to pay for it being all stuck together properly!

re supplies, we used acme fibreglass at eagle farm coz they were the cheapest - turns out a little too cheap as they went down the tube about 3 months after we finished! aa was about 30-50% dearer than acme. we found a pretty good place down at helensvale that is reasonably priced as i needed some resin to patch up a couple of holes created by a deckie smashing a metal slug into the boat... :evil:

hope yours is far less serious than mine was mate...

[madmullet]

Arnold Fibreglass repairs at Hemmant is a very reputable place and they do a great job at a great price.

Google their reviews.

Arnold all the way

He rebuilt my boat. I got oversized stingers and transom put in

He is a little more expensive than other places but the workmanship is out of the world

Fast edie got his boat rebuilt with him also

No matter how hard or big, Arnold is the man

[tugger]

I recomend Arnold as well he did another of my mates boat and it was done to perfection

[fishingnut]

Did work experience at Arnold's many years ago hes a great bloke with a quality shop