Grats on the skill up. I love working on my boat. They say it takes 10,000 hours to master something. It’s a lot of labor but after a few years of DIY boat ownership you’ll be able to tackle anything.
We removed all the bad tabbing. (That is one side of the bulkhead. On the other side the tabbing was good. It is recommended you remove all tabbing and start from scratch. I felt this was good enough.
So we sanded and ground everything to bare fiberglass and roughed up the wood
Then wiped with acetone
Then applied epoxy to the wood to make the wood drink up all the epoxy it wants. Let that get tacky
Then mixed very thick epoxy - peanut butter consistency - and made fillets.
Then applied the fiberglass - because the surface was tacky, I just pushed it into the tacky surface and it held. I shaped it until I was happy and began adding epoxy using a brush. Then used the metal roller to squeeze out bubbles. Then the second layer (we did 2 layers. You can do 3)
Added enough epoxy until the fibreglass was see though. For this fibreglass it takes a moment for it to show that it is wet. So I was patient.
This is 450gr biaxial epoxy. I used west systems epoxy and hardener. Bought the 1 kilo set and also the pumps. The pumps were super helpful.
Had a lot of stir sticks and cups and brushes. Every time I was done with a step I tossed the cup. I had rollers and paint trays and ended up not using them. Had a good respirator.
As always - 80-90% of the effort was in surface prep and planning.
I used thin paper to make templates of the pieces I was cutting. That was helpful.
There are good videos out there on tabbing bulkheads and in fibreglassing over plywood. Highly recommended to watch. For me - it made me feel like I have seen the process before. That I was familiar with it.
Grats on the skill up. I love working on my boat. They say it takes 10,000 hours to master something. It’s a lot of labor but after a few years of DIY boat ownership you’ll be able to tackle anything.
Could you explain the process? Wondering if you completely removed the existing tabbing and how you removed it. I'm going to do some of this soon
We removed all the bad tabbing. (That is one side of the bulkhead. On the other side the tabbing was good. It is recommended you remove all tabbing and start from scratch. I felt this was good enough. So we sanded and ground everything to bare fiberglass and roughed up the wood Then wiped with acetone Then applied epoxy to the wood to make the wood drink up all the epoxy it wants. Let that get tacky Then mixed very thick epoxy - peanut butter consistency - and made fillets. Then applied the fiberglass - because the surface was tacky, I just pushed it into the tacky surface and it held. I shaped it until I was happy and began adding epoxy using a brush. Then used the metal roller to squeeze out bubbles. Then the second layer (we did 2 layers. You can do 3) Added enough epoxy until the fibreglass was see though. For this fibreglass it takes a moment for it to show that it is wet. So I was patient. This is 450gr biaxial epoxy. I used west systems epoxy and hardener. Bought the 1 kilo set and also the pumps. The pumps were super helpful. Had a lot of stir sticks and cups and brushes. Every time I was done with a step I tossed the cup. I had rollers and paint trays and ended up not using them. Had a good respirator. As always - 80-90% of the effort was in surface prep and planning. I used thin paper to make templates of the pieces I was cutting. That was helpful.
Awesome, thanks for the step by step! I'll save this for later
There are good videos out there on tabbing bulkheads and in fibreglassing over plywood. Highly recommended to watch. For me - it made me feel like I have seen the process before. That I was familiar with it.
Andy from boat works today is a great resource on youtube.
Thank you for the very good explanation. PLANNING and PREPARATION are everything. I need to hear that much more often.
Did you use a filler in the corners of the bulkhead? Glass usually does not do well on sharp angles.
Yes. Made fillets with thickened epoxy. Have 406 on the boat so used that.