Vintage Inboard Cruisers to Centre Console Conversion

[gazza2006au]

Matt that price was by the meter ordering 8 meters cloth was usd$120 (8×1m) express shipping on a roll not folded was usd$80 there are a fee or two tho import duty or taxes and western union money transfer

[gazza2006au]

Yeah Scottar i'm not sure if to use the ply i have (cost me $80) make it from honey comb or from foam any of these options will work just what i already have is the ply and it weighs between 12 and 20kg a sheet took 3 sheets with some off cuts left over

The honey comb sheet weighs 1kg the foam weighs the same

Thing with the carbon is the carbon laminate is 2 times stronger than fibreglass or it is half the weight

200g carbon cloth per square meter weighs 400grams wetted out

The equivilent is

400grams fibreglass per square meter weighs 800grams wetted out

When your talking 8 meters of cloth

Carbon laminate will be 3.2kg

Fibreglass laminate will be 6.4kg

Add the glue mix to the equasion, plywood will be 30-50kg

I am thinking go all out foam hard top with carbon fibre laminate what u think? That weight adds up pretty quickly

[scottar]

Yeah Scottar i'm not sure if to use the ply i have (cost me $80) make it from honey comb or from foam any of these options will work just what i already have is the ply and it weighs between 12 and 20kg a sheet took 3 sheets with some off cuts left over

The honey comb sheet weighs 1kg the foam weighs the same

Thing with the carbon is the carbon laminate is 2 times stronger than fibreglass or it is half the weight

200g carbon cloth per square meter weighs 400grams wetted out

The equivilent is

400grams fibreglass per square meter weighs 800grams wetted out

When your talking 8 meters of cloth

Carbon laminate will be 3.2kg

Fibreglass laminate will be 6.4kg

Add the glue mix to the equasion, plywood will be 30-50kg

I am thinking go all out foam hard top with carbon fibre laminate what u think? That weight adds up pretty quickly

Not worth it - you aren't building an ultralite racing craft. The extra 3.2kg's isn't going to make a difference but it sure will cost more.

[gazza2006au]

Yeah it will cost a bit of money i would need to buy it using afterpay

Cloth from China $280, cloth locally $408

Honey comb board 3 sheets $216

Fumed silica $100

Do u need to used carbon powder for carbon fibre cloth?

Edit: i can make the cabin using carbon fibre, honey comb, epoxy for a shit ton of money and have a cabin that weighs 15kg

Or i can go dirt cheap make the cabin using fibreglass, talc, epoxy, plywood will come in around 50-60kg

[shortthenlong]

Yeah it will cost a bit of money i would need to buy it using afterpay

Cloth from China $280, cloth locally $408

Honey comb board 3 sheets $216

Fumed silica $100

Do u need to used carbon powder for carbon fibre cloth?

Edit: i can make the cabin using carbon fibre, honey comb, epoxy for a shit ton of money and have a cabin that weighs 15kg

Or i can go dirt cheap make the cabin using fibreglass, talc, epoxy, plywood will come in around 50-60kg

You need to redo your numbers. Going on the costs for carbon from China you listed above, with today's exchange rate (it won't be getting much better for awhile) the cloth and freight is going to set you back $287 AUD plus fees and charges.

As Scott has said the weight advantage isn't great (3.2kgs can be saved by leaving a bottle of soft drink at home and making all the crew visit the shitter before departing) and maximum strength won't be gained without vacuum

Matt

[scottar]

So why not foam, glass and epoxy for 20kg Gazza......... Even if you do go the plywood route, that sort of weight isn't ridiculously heavy. All up my hard top would have added about 80kg over what was already there. Heavier windows, about 15kg at deck level with teh coaming adaptor, 35kg in glass and foam and heavier stainless. When you think of how much weight you pulled out when you cut the existing cabin off - if your hard top weighs a total of 60kg, how much are you actually adding over what was already there?

[gazza2006au]

Yeah one option was to go foam or honey comb panels, fumed silica i am being told its very light, fibreglass cloth, epoxy resin

The plywood is a bit of a porker not in small piceses but it all adds up

[gazza2006au]

Just doing a daily search on youtube for series updates of people rebuilding there boats looking for tip, tricks and advice

And came across this, my transom skin is about as thick as that in the test

[EdBerg]

The things wrong that I see with this video of them patching that hole is whilst it looks great on a video, the reality and practical aspects are different.

For a start, to get a hole like that you most likely would have hit something underwater, which means you would still have a leak on the hulls bottom. Foam sandwich is good but not indestructible. If there wasn't a direct hole through the glass it would still leak through the damaged fibres. You would then have to get to somewhere to get it out of the water to repair it however long it would take to get there, meanwhile the water pressure would probably force the delamination bigger, unless of course you are able to chug along at 5 knots to get there, you would then need to dry that area and have the tools and power handy to sand that area before you could add the glass patch, that is if you had all the GRP materials and tools available just for that purpose, you would also need to have access to the damaged hole from the inside as most likely it would be under a sealed part of the floor, which would require different tools.

At the end the guy said that it was a temporary fix till it could be fixed properly, I don't know about you lot, but I have yet to meet anyone who when they go fishing:

A) Carries around spare resin and cloth when they go fishing,
B) Have tools to sand, grind and roll GRP resin (although with battery powered tools that is a possibility) but would you carry those around with you when you go fishing? Unless your some sort of tradie and carry all your tools with you in the back of your pickup.
C) Don't know about anyone here but if I was out on the water fishing or boating and hit something that hard to rupture the hull, I would not go back to port to do that repair and continue on as if nothing happened, I would most like just call it a day and get home to fix that problem.
D) If you were traveling at speed and hit something hard enough to put a hole in the bottom it would not be just a small hole like that, it would be a long hole or gash, but as a demo for a video it looks impressive.

He also said that you could be back on the water in an hour or so. Really! also not allowing for time to get back to port, on a trailer, get the resins etc., sand down and clean that area, cut a hole to get inside to the damaged area. Laminate it, wait for the resin to cure (important) and then see if you would still like to go out again! I seriously doubt it.!! Maybe in the factory but not in real life.

This is just my 2 cents worth!

[CT]

3.2kgs can be saved by making all the crew visit the shitter before departing

Especially after the extra hot deli salami pizza!

Gaz, piss off the carbon fibre idea. As a general rule of thumb, if no-one is commercially building boats in Aus using something you're considering, then its probably not worth doing. Carbon and Kevlar are a pain in the ass for a backyarder as previously noted. Do you really want to be shelling out for the gear to do vacuum layups?

[Noelm]

Watching videos is nothing like actually doing it, lots of people watch YouTube and think they can do everything from catch beach worms to building a helicopter! Gazza, I think you are way over thinking the whole concept, ply will be fine once it's glassed, how you will get a good finish will be a trick though

[gazza2006au]

Video was mostly for the 11kg impact from 8 meters as that sold laminate of biaxil cloth looks to be around 7-8mm thick that is what is on my transom so i was supprised to see how strong it was

Do u think the ply will come out nicely with fairing than paint? Or am i totally dreaming?

[CT]

You can sand anything flat, it just depends how much effort you want to put in.

If you just want to go fishing, glass over ply, paint with a roller and launch. If you want it to look like a street machine then break out the sandpaper and start sweating.

[gazza2006au]

Yeah i am thinking 2 layers of 400g double bias on the inside and 2 on the outside the plywood would still be slightly flexible so i think the only way to sand it will be with the orbital i don't mind this as its easy work depending on how easy the fairing mix is to sand i may sand the inside but i think it may just get a paint and be done

[gazza2006au]

Further more how the cops kept asking about my mercury motor on facebook and gumtree wanting serial numbers two detectives show up at my house 1 hour ago seen them on the cctv i have done ppsr checks on my boat and engine when i had the engine listed on classifieds i even uploaded the.picture of engine serial number they just dont give up im not happy one bit