Need help selecting epoxy

[crankit]

Could anyone recommend some fiberglassing products for the following work to be done on our Caribbean Crusader. There seems to be a lot on the net to choose from and it's a little hard to know which brands and products work best.

*2 Main stringers need to be replaced
*Roughly 2 sheets of ply deck need replacing
*A small handsized area of wood rot in the transom must be filled with something when the rotted wood is scraped out

I was considering using a penetrating epoxy for the transom mixed with some sawdust to fill in the area left after scarping out the rotted wood in the transom. I'm hoping that there's is some kind of product that can penetrate surrounding wood and act like a kind of anti-fungal agent.
I'm also looking for some decent Flow Coat.
The stringers should be just cloth and epoxy but not sure of brands and there seems to be a lot of different weaves and what not of cloth:-?.

Just a side note. What a soul destroying bitch it is when you discover your pride and joy has wood rot in it. Most of it seems to be caused by the old through hull liquid filled transducer that was in the boat through the 1980s. The boat has been in the family since 1979 and gets alot of use.

[nigelr]

I have used Norglass Norseal to seal timber. Can be overcoated with epoxy, polyurethane or paint. Excellent product IMHO.
Norglass.com.au - then into products.
Cheers.

[myusernam]

I'd stick with polyester and only use epoxy as a glue

[fandtm666]

if you intend to re-Finnish with flow coat - gel coat then you can not
use epoxy you would have to use polyester

[Goochi]

Can't help with the transom hole. I have read about anti fungal treatments but have never used them. I'd be trying to cut the rotten area out - can you get a circular saw into the area and set the depth so you only cut to the depth of the timber. You can then glass a new piece of timber in. I'd do all the repairs with vinyl ester resin not polyester resin. It's a little more expensive but a lot better product. For matting just use 400gsm standard weave cloth. FGI sell good stuff just not sure if they have had a name change recently.

[Jarrah Jack]

The fungal spors that cause the rot can go a long way into the surrounding timber. Car anti freeze can kill them. I had a small amount of rot in a screw hole. I drilled a few holes into the surrounding timber and injected the anti freeze. After a few days to let the timber dry I filled with epoxy. I can't say how well it worked as you can never tell without pulling the transom apart.

Epoxy on its own will seal the timber well, I use it all the time as a glue. I'd do it in two stages, first without saw dust and next with the dust as filler.

[crankit]

So from what I gather, use epoxy to glue the ply sheets together for the stringers and use polyester to fiberglass in the new stringers and floorboards.
As for the transom I'd rather not have to go cutting as I don't wanto see it on the outside skin and the inside skin is very hard to get to so I'll try and scrape out as much of the rotted wood as possible and blow in some antifreeze, let dry then poor in some epoxy.

Anyone recommended anymore brands or a good place to order on the net?

[Horse]

For the transom I would treat it with Everdure then fill with epoxy mixed with glue fibre rather than sawdust

[Nathan Tuskes]

IMO you transom will just rot out in a short amount of time again after you try and do a bodgie fix. If your going to the trouble of redoing and are going to need to respray it to touch it up, do the whole thing in one hit properly, and it will stay in your family for years to come

[Nathan Tuskes]

FGI (fibre glass international) has now gone through a full name change and is now called "nuplex composites", same range as before nothings changed

[chris69]

Id use double bias 45x45 stiched 450gram and once you have treated your rot then wet it up with epoxy and wave a heat gun on it 2to3 seconds on a low setting over it and it will get more viscis and penertrate deeper and 5to1 epoxy and you will have no problems with flow coat adhering to the epoxy as mentioned above.

[cormorant]

Do it properly and do it once. There are no effective short cuts if it is in a bad way. There will be many differing opinions ( some above I don't agree with) on methods and stuff you use and it would be worth your while if you are keeping the boat to get someone to do it for you. It is a hell of a mongrel job and guys who do it regularly make it look easy with a good finish.

Have a search at some of the other rebuilds and see what you are getting yourself in for.

You need to determin how bad it is and what risk it is to your style of boating.

Lots of reading and learning before starting .

[crankit]

Thanks everyone for the help here.
I've just downloaded the free 90 page PDF from WestSystem on "Fibreglass Boat Repair and Maintenance. It is a good read.

Luckily I have time on my hands and I won't start any work till about Easter.
In the book they mentioned using the same core material for stringers as original since using something stronger or weaker can create "hard spots". I'm guessing the core of the Caribbean Crusader is Balsa?