my 82' Vector rebuild

[dagodiver]

I've used adtech 14 for years with zero issues.


Dago

[XstreamVking]

I mixed correctly. Called adtech asked wtf, they just blew me off. I guess it may have been a bad batch or something. Never used it before my V-King rebuild and paint, or since. Still have the remainder of the cans, if any one wants it.

[canuckr]

Well I hope I don't have issues. Your experience doesn't make me feel confident....
I guess I will have to wait and see what happens....

[canuckr]

Well I hope I don't have issues. Your experience doesn't make me feel confident....
I guess I will have to wait and see what happens....

[XstreamVking]

If Dago says he has had 14 yrs. good luck with it, I would without any doubt believe him and trust his experience with it.. All company's can have a bad run of products. That may be what happened to me. Follow the instructions carefully and it should be ok. I only used it the one time....

[dagodiver]

Adtech #14 product is what I've had good luck with.
Not sure how long I've been using it. At least 10 years.
I've used other products if theres also.
XStream has done way more glass work then me and most.
So he knows. I hope he just got a bad run of it.
Dago.

[XstreamVking]

Dago, you and I'm sure lots of others here know what is good and what is not. That is why I asked for others to add their experience. One thing that may have caused my problem was using awlgrip epoxy primer over the adtech filler. It is some of the most solvent laden stuff ever. I dug into some of the blisters and the filler had gone soft and lifted. It was as hard as rock when I applied and sanded it.

[canuckr]

Went to glass the inside of the deck, it was 35C out, not a great day to be inside the boat, and I wasn't having a good day either. It resulted in some of my worst glass lay up yet, so I will get to grind a bunch of it out and try again...... yayyy.

I also started looking at what its going to take to get the boat squared up and straight. One side of the boat is pretty flat and square, the other side... not as much. I am not entirely sure how to go about building up some of the low sections, I am worried that if I used straight filler it might chip and crack out. Would I be better off to build it up with a bit of CSM first then use the Adtech to finish it off? Build it up with some cabosil and milled fibers then use the adtech to finish it off? Use some filler, then a layer of light cloth and finish it off with adtech? Thoughts? Opinions?







Do I need to grind the gel all the way off in these areas? Or is 60 or 80 grit enough for it adhere properly?

From my initial few minutes looking at it and measuring the pad is ok, then the strakes right against the pad are pretty straight and the same height, then the next strakes things start wander a bit, one side has a bunch of hook, the other side is almost flat, and there is about a 3mm difference in height. The next strake is even worse, for not being flat, and again a 4-5mm difference in height.

This is going to take a bit more thought and planning than I was hoping for.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

[canuckr]

Started working on the boat again after a few days at the cottage, working on a Vulture and the gong show that ensued with that.

I tore out the wood in the dash and laminated in a new piece as well as added a bit more glass to the inside of the deck in a few areas.

I then started to grind out some of the gouges and chips in the hull in preparation for beginning to fill and fair the bottom. There was one pretty good crack that I found running perpendicular to the strakes, it was a bout 2-3 inches long and ran through one of the strakes, I ground that down pretty far and began to fill it with CSM, I also ground out all the holes in the transom and started to fill those areas in with CSM as well.

I didn't grab too many pictures, as once again it began to rain so I covered everything up and called it quits for the afternoon.

I do have a couple pictures and some questions to go with them regarding where the rub rail used to mount.


A lot of the old rivet holes have cracks in the gelcoat similar to this. I plan on the filling all the holes and the voids between the deck and hull with cabosil/ milled fiber mix. Will it be necessary to grind the surface down and cover with some cloth or CSM? Or do you think sanding the gel off, fairing, and then re coating will be enough?



I am kind of leaning towards grinding the entire lip down enough to get a narrow strip of light cloth over the entire thing.....

[canuckr]

So got a little bit more filling and grinding done with some CSM today. Will hopefully start with filler tomorrow to finish off some of the areas then finish my plan of attack in regards to getting the bottom flat and square.

Here is 1 of the cracks that ran across the strake that I had to gouge out pretty good. This is after the second build up of CSM


Here is the second, I didn't grind this one as deeply, there were 2 or 3, 2" cracks in the gel that I felt were a little bit more than cosmetic .


And a larger area that had a bunch of spider cracks, at the rub rail there was a chunk of the deck and hull that came out with the rub rail. The boat has clearly taken a good hit in this area so I ground it down and put a couple layers of CSM over it. The portion that is going in to replace the missing part has a layer of 1708 in there with the CSM as well.


If anyone thinks I am going about this in a very wrong way, please let me know. This is my first boat rebuild, and I don't want to do it over again.

The transom on the boat is full of spider cracks, I am thinking about putting a light layer of cloth over the entire transom. Is there a preferred way to protect the HIN if I do this? Or cover it up and put it back in there later?

[XstreamVking]

I put several layers of tape over the vin's square and glassed 1 lay of 1.5 oz matt over the whole trans face. Before it got completely hard, I trimmed around the tape w/a blade and removed the glass covering the tape. Fair it out and paint, finally remove the tape and give the spot a THIN coat of paint to match the new color but not so much that it fills in the numbers. my 2 cts.....

[Hippie459MN]

Looking great so far! Love the rear deck too.

[canuckr]

So I have been putting more hours than I would like to admit in comparison to the lack of progress made trying to get the bottom flat.
Here are a few pictures. I built up a lot of the low spot with CSM, on the 1 side I put in some CSM then decided that I could use filler, after the first layer of filler I decided I needed to use more CSM, so I added another layer of CSM, which is what is causing the multiple different colors to show through. The right side (wile upside down) was very far out of whack in comparison to the other side, it was making taking measurement a bit of a PITA. I decided to flatten that side out then go from there. After getting it mostly flat I am pretty happy, the left side of the boat is much much flatter and straighter. There is not a lot of variation between the 2 sides as far as heights go in relation to the pad, once everything is flat I should see less than 1mm of variation from 1 side to the other. I am thinking that will be close enough for what I will be doing with the boat.

The right side, required a bunch of grinding and took a lot fo my time to figure out what exactly was going on compared to the other side.



Here is the left side after starting on the filler tonight, I added the CSM yesterday after work.



Here is what I did with all of the old rivet holes.


Then today I grabbed a flap wheel on the grinder and knocked most of it back down, still need to a bit more clean up.




I am hoping I can get away without doing too much in this area seeing as it will be covered by the run rail any ways.

[canuckr]

Well it's been a while since I posted on here. I haven't had much of a chance to work on the vector this summer. I have been away for the last couple months with work.
Finally found a couple of days to get some work done on it.
The bottom is almost ready for gel, I'll be ordering that sometime this week.
Here are a few pictures.
I ran out of adtech so while I was waiting for that to show up I decided to do some work on the top side.

[canuckr]

Not a hole lot of interesting photos to post. Just more sanding and more filler dust. Been a slow summer due to work and other crap coming up. I have found a place to work on it over the winter so at least it doesn't have to sit stagnant once the snow hits the ground.
I'll take a few pictures next time I'm at the shop. Things are starting to look flat on the rear deck and transom. Dash is done as well.

My next question is for anybody that has gelled one of these boats.
How much gel coat did you use?