61 Bowman foredeck repair

[mark_61]

Anyone ever restored this type of deck? How did you handle it? Most of the gelcoat is in okay shape but there's a lot of flaking in this area and I don't want to mess up the moulded-in design. Most of the bad spots can be ground back to fairly sound material. Someone on another forum suggested making a mould to reform the grooves. I'm thinking it may be quiker to get artistic and just handform each spot as I go.Any thoughts on methods and materials would be great. I would like to paint it the original cherry red and redo the stripes. Should look pretty cool if I can do a good repair.
Thanks for lookin'! Mark

[ternkeim]

Well if you are in a hurry I guess one could form as they go.

Some ?'s for you...

Do you have access from underneath? That's a biggie because it will determine how many ways you can do the repair.

If you can repair from the underside: have you considered this...grind or cut out the bad areas, use 1 of the good existing grooves to make a pattern, then make a mold and temporarily fasten it to the top of the deck. Fill from the bottom with new glass and when fully cured remove the mold and blend the edges to match. after which you would have to use a gel coat repair (I would sand the entire deck and refresh the entire thing) to match.

From the top side the process might be somewhat more difficult as you would not be able to place a mold and then glass it. You would probably have to fill and shape as you go. BUT...I would still refresh the entire gel coat on the deck.

Another plus to the underside repair...you could reinforce as needed without it showing.

Hope this gives you an idea or two.
Terry B.

[Marty Loken (Norseboater)]

Deck Seams

Mark -

It's hard to tell from the photos, but if your boat's deck seams are like those on a wooden runabout, each seam would be caulked with Sikaflex. (The difference is that, in the photos, it appears that your seams stand proud above the deck level, whereas the seams in a wood deck are roughly 1/4" deep and almost 1/4" wide, filled to just below deck level with Sikaflex or another similar caulking compound.) The seams are either left in white caulk, or the seams are carefully taped off and painted white, typically using signpainters' paint.

Not sure this helps in any way...

- Marty

[ternkeim]

Marty,

It looked to me that they were proud of the deck...hence my reasoning for method of repair.

But you may be right. I'm quite sure you've got a day or two more at restoration than I have.

Terry

[mark_61]

I guess it is hard to tell from the photo but the deck is molded to mimic that of a wooden runabout as Marty suggested. The grooves are recessed into the deck about 1/8" and are about 3/16" wide. The gelcoat has flaked off the top edges of the grooves . My thought was to grind the bad spots back to solid material then roughly rebuild the edges of the grooves using thickened epoxy or ? Then fine tune with files and fine sanding. Then sand the entire deck as Terry suggested. Not sure yet how I'm going to paint the bottom of the grooves white. Pinstriping maybe? Thanks for the suggestions guys I hope this clears up what's hard to see in the photos.
BTW the darker material in the flaky spots is some kind of putty from someones previous attempt at the same repair but with no grinding or prep work. Didn't hold up very well.

[Tim McCrain]

Mark,
I haven't repaired gelcoat in this situation before, but I've had the same situation with old painted wooden mouldings that were damaged and needed to be restored, seems like the same approach would work well here. Of course, this approach assumes that you'll be painting the deck instead of trying to restore the original gelcoat. Since you're planning on painting, you might try this method.

I've found it helpful to always try to work from an established existing plane into the damaged area. For instance, if this were wood, I would use a strip of something smooth and hard (piece of masonite, plex, etc) that would fit tightly into the groove to use as a temporary form. After sanding all the damaged areas to remove any loose material and get down to a "fresh" surface, rough enough to give the filler a good grip, coat the temporary form with a release agent and push it into the groove. Then, apply the filler to the damaged areas, filling them completely and using the temporary form as a "side dam". After the filler sets the form is removed and you're left with a square edged groove. Sand the filler down flush with the original horizontal deck surface using a sanding block, and sand the wall of the groove with a suitable thin sanding tool. The idea is to re-establish the two flat surfaces before approaching the rounded edge. Now you just have to shape the rounded groove edge with a suitable sanding block or file using the undamaged edge contour as a guide. You can also find pre-shaped rubber sanding forms to match the radius of the groove edge at a woodworking store. This approach is much easier than trying to "free form" the rounded edge from scratch.

I've restored damaged wood profiles with bondo and similar fillers this way and it's always worked great. The key is to always work from an established surface, and think of it as "extending" the contour into the damaged area, rather than "sculpting" new contours to replace missing ones.

I don't think bondo would be the filler of choice here, but I'm sure someone else will have a recommendation for a suitable filler that would apply in much the same way. In my experience the best results are obtained with a filler that is as close as possible in hardness / density to the original surface, if the filler is a lot harder than the material being filled it increases the risk of oversanding the surrounding original contour and losing its shape while shaping the filler.

Hope this makes sense and helps.

Tim

[Tim_Mattson]

Some more ideas

Mark,
Tim got most of my thoughts but I also thought of the sail baffle(wrong word....) trick where you can use a teflon or plastic baffle used to stiffen sails.It can be taped to a surface or waxed and pressed into it as the material gels up.
I`ve seen my buddy mix up a thickened batch of epoxy(fairing compound) and reform molded grooves in Big Yachts with this method.You could lay out strips of laminate and then squeegie a batch of epoxy mixture lengthwise and then shape by hand with a soft sanding pad and patience.
I`d tape one edge of a thin pc of laminate so half is hanging off,then press the tape onto the edge you are working.Repeat from the other side of the seam with a 2nd pc.It`d be hard to get multiple seams at once unless you just douple tape all and go for it.You could wipe the mess with acetone before fully hardened and deal with the seam after it hardens up.
Teak Deck Systems could also work if you had had a groove in the glass,it just is pressed into each seam with a putty knife,then it swells up if you got it right.

I`d Paint it......just prep well and try taping it with quality tape after swabbing repeatedly.Pull it while the paint is still not quite dry but far enough that it does leave a mess.
My 61`Citation had the same pattern and I used Scotchbrite and 320 wetsand to get it smooth,then painted nice crisp edges to draw the eyes away from the imperfect lines.
I have a 14`foredeck outback I saved for a rainy day,but it`s Blu.
Tim M

[mark_61]

Thanks Tim & Tim . Sounds like I'm on the right track and forming the edges of the groove is a good idea .I'll try to find something that matches the width of the groove (a sail batten might just work and I have an extra).
Am leaning toward using epoxy filler mostly because of the extra holding power although am a little concerned about getting it to sand evenly. The deck originally had a nonskid finish so maybe nonskid paint would help cover any imperfections. I'll try a couple of spots and see how it all goes. Thanks to all for your time and ideas! Mark

[Tim_Mattson]

Bowdeck stuff

Mark,
I bet you could tape out the lines with 1/8`` wide fineline tape and then roll out epoxy right over it.Pull the tape as it gels and it should be like forming grooves.
Make a sanding longboard or buy one and use stick-on paper by 3M.Sand in an "X" pattern,45` from whichever angle you start.
Epoxy rolls out smooth with Candystripe rolers,I cut them in half or smaller and get 2-3 per roller.
Sail "Battens" came to me the other nite......drove me nuts trying to remember the lingo.
TimM

[Nomad55]

To paint the area I would 1st paint the recessed faux wood inserts then tape them and the surrounding areas leaving the raised lines exposed to be painted. If at all possible I would spray the raised white lines to avoid puddling of paint at the bottom and lessen the chance of pulling paint when you pull the tape. I hope that makes sense. Very cute boat

[mark_61]

Thanks Tim . I'll give it a try and let you know how it works. Should work okay if I pull the tape at just the right time. BTW, been sailing for a couple of years now and still call 'em "those thingys that go in the sail" about half the time.


Nomad - Painting tips are much appreciated. Got lots of repairs, filling and sanding before I get to that point . Started on it this week! Nice to finally make some progress. This is my first powerboat and I'm really looking forward to getting it on the water. Thanks Mark

[bham-rick]

crazing cracks

Here are a couple pictures of before and after. You just have to be real carefull and just go through the Gel Coat ! I replied to your private message.

[mark_61]

here are a couple pictures of before and after. You just have to be real carefull and just go through the gel coat ! I replied to your private message.

thanks for that!