On Nov 6, 5:30*am, Geoff Schultz wrote:
Wayne.B wrote :





On Wed, 05 Nov 2008 17:00:02 -0600, Geoff Schultz
wrote:

It's fairly obvious that the coring is soaked. *How do I go about
drying this out before sealing the leak and replacing porthole?

It's a tough repair which has been discussed on "rec.boats.building"
from time to time in the past. * You might be able to find some of the
old threads by searching Goole Groups.

Basically the core is damaged beyond repair where it has gotten wet.
As others have said there are three basic methods:

1. *Remove the top skin, replace/relaminate the core, replace the top
skin.

2. *Remove the bottom skin, repeat as above.

3. *Drill a series of holes, dry with heat and/or a vacuum pump, fill
holes with thickened epoxy, perform cosmetic fix on drill holes.

Method 2 requires working from below which is difficult but may be
easier cosmetically if the repair can be covered by the head liner.

Method 3 is relatively quick and easy but long term integreity is
suspect and the holes can be difficult to cover. *The extent of core
damage can be determined by examining the drilling residue.

Method 1 is scary but probably yields the best long term out come.
Some people have reported success making a thin cut around the
perimeter of the repair using something like a Fein Multimaster to
make the cut; lifting off the outer skin intact; and then replacing it
at the end, leaving only the cut line to be patched up cosmetically.
One difficulty is predetermining the extent of the core damage.

Everyone, thanks for the input. *Unfortunately I realized early on that
this was going to be a miserable job.

The good news is that it appears that the wet core is limited to an area
of about 1 sq ft. *I'm going to drill some more exploritory holes this
weekend.

I placed a photo of the area on my web site. *Note that it shows the
boat with the headliner removed, but that's a separate question. *The
photo is athttp://www.geoffschultz.org/temp/20081031_155154.jpg

I'm thinking of going with method 2 due to small size of the effected
area and accessability.

-- Geoffwww.GeoffSchultz.org- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I would use method 1 its not all that hard to do and if you come at it
from the cabin you can put a layer of glass on the bottom of the deck
sheathing. sides it fixes it right and you wont have to worry about it
later.